new earth economic principles and ethic: nature’s gift-economy
Purpose
Recognizing that the transition to a global gift-economy in harmony with nature’s rich resources need not be an agonizing one, NEU’s faculty and associated fellows in the discipline of Re-Sourced Economy are researching and developing strategies concerned with facilitating the delivery of alternative commerce mechanisms for trade & exchange. They are committed to availing those mechanisms in a considered fashion so as to avoid—or at least to bypass—the adverse effects of a much-feared, global financial collapse. Such mechanisms comprise and are envisioned to be developed through a collective exchange – the NewEarth Project’s projected economic initiative.
University volunteer faculty, fellows and staff are also variously engaged with other external initiatives throughout the world, which will be shared here through curricula to facilitate the planetary conversation on the financial future of humanity.
Maintaining Balance – Optimal Utilization of Stewarded Resources
Inspired by, and in homage to the abundant nature that surrounds us, we understand that economic systems must be sentient, scaled, and suitable. Value must be discerned within and by the exchanging parties, absent outside influences, and must be explicitly offered and received. Value cannot be imposed by fiat and can in no manner be an agent of indenture or suppression.
The flow of value within the system must be scaled to number of engaging participants and to the productivity of the same. Perpetual growth (an attribute of malignant disease) and illusory excess (an attribute of ego) are set aside in favor of exchanges by and between rationale actors sharing common and aligned value understandings rendered in explicit form.
Units of value are aligned with the nature of value in exchange. As often as possible, optimal utilization of stewarded resources is valued most highly when no surrogate of exchange (value temporarily stored as money) is required. In short, conscious actors engaging freely with each other are emancipated from the singular surrogacy of the previous monetary systems of indenture and exploitative malignant growth.
“Economic systems can be an outward manifestation of confidence and trust – the collective agreement between persons to store and transfer value. When these systems explicitly acknowledge the full range of costs (the accounting for all values of input) and benefits (the utility derived from interaction and consumption), they can serve as a constant reminder that we are participants within, not lords over, the abundance of our entire ecosystem. In our manifestation of the New Earth, we explicitly acknowledge the values derived from and expressed through commodities, customs & culture, knowledge, money, technology, and well-being. We commit to honor productive utility rather than the illusion of perpetual and unsustainable growth. We define wealth as the state in which maximum utility is accessible while preserving all future options for all future users without degradation or exhaustion.” – Dr. David E. Martin – NEU Fellow / Economics
Objectives
To consciously honor the manifold abundance of nature, in all physical and intangible realms, while recognizing opportunities that emerge when the flow of value exchange – currency in its literal, flowing sense – is sentient and expressly honors all participating members in an ecosystem, including the ecosystem, itself.
Create and implement unprecedented course curriculum to fulfill the purpose of Re-Sourced Economy within the NEU School of Socio-Economics & Ecology.
