We are the architects of this thing we call the economy. Though it mirrors natural forces, abundance and scarcity, supply and demand, desirability and perceived worth, human psychological processes and tendencies, etc - it is a man-made system that we have total control over to tweak and amend what is not working.

It is not working to destroy the Earth. That is a bad business plan. Why? It won't last for very long, and it is the source of extreme suffering and psychological stress all over the world.

So let's get back to the basics (pull out your copy of Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs from High School psych class). We need: Food, Water and Shelter. Scratch that, we need *real* food that has not been genetically mutilated or sprayed with poisons, pure water that flows freely across the land, and shelter that protects us from the elements and gives us creative space to express who we are and feel safe from the demands of the world. Those are human rights. If it is possible a person might go without them as a result of the economic game, these needs should not be part of the economic game.

I propose that as human rights, basic non-toxic food, water and shelter be guaranteed to each person on Earth. Basic doesn't require a mansion. A mansion (provided it meets strict environmental laws) is fine for part of the economic game. A small room or small home for a family, built of sustainable materials like cob or hemp, is basic. A garden and the knowledge for how to use it is basic. A hydroponics building to feed each neighborhood in the city in a closed-loop energy system provides for basic needs. If you have a restaurant, that is part of the money game, and you can support local organic farmers with your money, enrich the community with your artisan creations, and be rewarded for it financially. We need to separate what is at play in the Economic Game, and what we are not willing to play around with.

I am also not willing to mess around with education or public transportation. If you are economically disempowered because getting to work is not possible from where you live, public transit has failed us. When I lived in Germany in the tiniest most obscure little town, the train from Berlin *still* came within 20 minutes walking distance of it. We need a sophisticated, massive electric transit system that is fueled by solar and wind and available to everyone.

As far as education goes, no person should have more difficult access to knowledge because they were born in a different class, because their parents were either oppressed or made poor choices. Higher Education is valued in countries throughout the world as essential to a peaceful, functioning society, and in some places students are even *paid* to attend. It is an investment in our communities and in our economy. This has been the proven case time and time again (as soldiers returning from WW2 given free higher education showed us back in the 1940s, for example).

And now to the laws. I love laws. I am not an anarchist. It should be against the law to engage in any industry that harms or destroys the natural processes of the planet's ability to sustain life, or that destroys human health or animal welfare. Period. "To each their own" does not work when your actions effect others. Not everyone is mature enough to be personally accountable, as we see in "counter-culture" skirmishes and failed Utopian commune attempts time and time again. Some level of conflict will always arise, and what makes us cultured rather than savage, what makes us evolved, is that we no longer take "an eye for an eye" but have proclaimed instead that one is "innocent until proven guilty" and charged by a court of law. This keeps people from taking the law into their own hands. I am not saying it's perfect. I am not saying human error doesn't still come in to play. But it is a buffer against the majority of human error, and a powerful protection for all people against personal and collective harm. Unjust laws can and should be changed. But lawlessness is hell, and anyone who believes otherwise, especially on a planet of 7 billion people and counting, is either naive or has a death-wish. Poisoning the ecosystem we all share should be equally as heinous and illegal as poisoning your neighbor. I mean this in terms of clothing, in terms of "food," in terms of building materials, in terms of packaging, etc etc. If it's not sustainable, biodegradable, ethical - it should not exist.

Lastly, if it is not ethically produced by paying workers a just wage (i.e. no 2,000% higher salary for the CEO), it should not exist, either. With basic shelter and food guaranteed beyond the economic game, there will not be as much pressure to have a high paying job. But if you'd like a sustainably built piano or are a sustainable fashionista, money would be useful for those extraneous desires. Then the economic game becomes engaging, people are still motivated to be creative instead of slack off, we don't kill the planet and everything that's a part of it (us) - it's a win-win-win.

The old way of doing things is not working, most of us are aware of that now. It's time to take the matter into our own hands, weed out the corruption, and build a green economy that works for everyone.
"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." - Arundhati Roy
 
I have been reading about all of the children of the people killed in the twin towers, and how they are relieved to see that the man who plotted the death of their parents is dead. I can't help but wonder if the children in the middle east, whose parents were killed by American soldiers, feel the same need for revenge. Or perhaps how the middle eastern children whose parents were killed in the 90's by American forces must have felt when 9/11 happened at all. Did they rejoice then as well? Our grief is two sides of the same coin... 

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.