So - it was nice to see
"Eisenstein starts by pointing out how the existing economic system is based on a foundational paradigm of separation and that within this ideology lies an assumption of scarcity. Furthermore, within this assumption, greed makes sense. The cards are stacked so people who own things get more and more of the pie and people who have to rent things get less and less. It is systemic and it is unsustainable.
Another idea Eisenstein puts forth is the systematic commodification of the commons, turning things we used to get for free into products we must now pay for. God-given things like natural resources, ideas, creativity, community, mutual support and even DNA are being converted to private property. To quote the author, “Things we never dreamed of paying for, we must pay for today.” How does this happen? “For something to become an object of commerce, it must be made scarce first,” he writes. The system is converting things that were once free to private property, contributing to the gap between the haves and have-nots – so those who have get more and the have nots get even less. Aha! So greed can feed off the assumption that some things are scarce, and this assumption is allowed to perpetuate because the whole system is founded on separation as opposed to interconnectedness." (read more via the link above)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEZkQv25uEs
MTE!...
virtual scarcity - http://madman101.livejournal.com/tag/economics%20-%20virtual%20scarcity
money - http://madman101.livejournal.com/tag/economics%20-%20money%20series
decline of empire - http://radman101.livejournal.com/
I've got many untagged econ entries, and many about the commons, privatisation, etc., which should be tagged, or tagged better. See also



My fermenting chocolate is coming along very tastilly. I think this will be a drink on its own, or a nice addition to home-brewed beer. There is really no taste of alcohol (yet) except for a nice bitter bite, with a bit of sweet still there. What's been surprising has bee the uneventfulness of the process so far. Only now is there some separation occurring near the bottom of the bottle. Note that there is fermented milk, and other yeasts in this mix. I am going to expand it into a larger bottle, add more chocolate bars, and also add some lecithin and rice pasta water soon. [Later]: Boiled up more chocolate, cooled, added. Also mixed 10 lbs of corn flour w/ 10 lbs of corn meal, both organic, stored away. Woozy and exhausted. Nethers are acting up again. Yes - N-Guy is still there!