Publisher's Synopsis
This book is for hopeful citizens, political activists, and all who are concerned about the future of our society. Social Ecology reflects the simple understanding that our habitat and society are products of human invention. The future is ours to invent. We live in a world blessed with plenty and work in an economy that requires scarcity to function. The maintenance of scarcity in the face of plenty demands enormous waste, which constitutes the largest part of our ecological footprint. We have the resources to meet all of humanity's needs in a ten-hour week; only money is scarce. (I am serious about that estimate and provide data and an analysis to support it.) That money exists only as data in the cloud, yet it drives all our political, economic, and social decisions. We have had civilization for 7000 years, capitalism for 400 years, and our present form of debt-money financial capitalism for only a century. Surely, we do not believe that the debt-money economy is the end game. Nothing in nature requires us to create an unsustainable society in the face of plenty. Hope is the projection of intention over a horizon of possibilities. This book is an expansion of that horizon of possibilities beyond what we can see now, looking toward sustainable economic organizations and a humane future. You may agree or disagree with what I am proposing. This book, nevertheless, will change how you understand our present challenges.
