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symbioidljI found this statement on a page with an interview with Hazel Henderson(an social oriented economist, if the quick overview serves as proper indication):
" Value intellectual, social and environmental capitals as quality-of-life indicators left out of the price system. Create a truer scorecard-an alternative to GNP-for government and business to maintain accountability."
Now, I started to think "how the hell can you value intellectual capital? Or social capital? Especially as indicators? I think she may mean as negative impact, whereas now, any cost is ADDED to the GNP(so, for example, toxic waste cleanup from a chemical plant, is actually considered "beneficial" to the economy, but the social/environmental effects are detrimental)
But removing that sort of meaning, and looking at the plain understanding, the idea shows the difference between the more eastern-oriented approach such a thinking would mean, and the Cartesian dualism of the current system)...
Ray, you listening? I think I'm gonna contradict myself here.
At first thought, it appeared to me that currently, the system is Cartesian in the sense that it quantifies only tangibles(ie: product/capital), and what she's proposing(to quantify these other social factors) is dealing with qualia. This is a more holistic/monistic approach to dealing with economics.
The schizophrenic split in the western mode of thought with it's dualism extends into the dominant economic paradigm.
But then I realized: Capitalism does attempt to quantify an intangible. Labor. Labor is an ephemeral thing that floats away into the aether of the past. It is not a thing of substance.
But at least labor, from a pure physics standpoint, is easy to quantify: Energy.
All of history is the continual process of human ingenuity(or disingenuity at times) to gather energy, process it, gather material product, transform it into some functioning thing.
The human mind, then, is different from animals in this sense, it imagines and creates new purpose(teleological grounding)... And it must continually create new purpose, and in order to fulfill that purpose, something must be made and sold.
And this is the predicament we find ourselves in... We cannot just sit the fuck still.
Umm, whatever, just incoherent ramblings from the other-ship...
" Value intellectual, social and environmental capitals as quality-of-life indicators left out of the price system. Create a truer scorecard-an alternative to GNP-for government and business to maintain accountability."
Now, I started to think "how the hell can you value intellectual capital? Or social capital? Especially as indicators? I think she may mean as negative impact, whereas now, any cost is ADDED to the GNP(so, for example, toxic waste cleanup from a chemical plant, is actually considered "beneficial" to the economy, but the social/environmental effects are detrimental)
But removing that sort of meaning, and looking at the plain understanding, the idea shows the difference between the more eastern-oriented approach such a thinking would mean, and the Cartesian dualism of the current system)...
Ray, you listening? I think I'm gonna contradict myself here.
At first thought, it appeared to me that currently, the system is Cartesian in the sense that it quantifies only tangibles(ie: product/capital), and what she's proposing(to quantify these other social factors) is dealing with qualia. This is a more holistic/monistic approach to dealing with economics.
The schizophrenic split in the western mode of thought with it's dualism extends into the dominant economic paradigm.
But then I realized: Capitalism does attempt to quantify an intangible. Labor. Labor is an ephemeral thing that floats away into the aether of the past. It is not a thing of substance.
But at least labor, from a pure physics standpoint, is easy to quantify: Energy.
All of history is the continual process of human ingenuity(or disingenuity at times) to gather energy, process it, gather material product, transform it into some functioning thing.
The human mind, then, is different from animals in this sense, it imagines and creates new purpose(teleological grounding)... And it must continually create new purpose, and in order to fulfill that purpose, something must be made and sold.
And this is the predicament we find ourselves in... We cannot just sit the fuck still.
Umm, whatever, just incoherent ramblings from the other-ship...
