A survival guide for local economies
In a global economic structure.
Real Life Economics and the search for the establishment of a new Real
Economy out of the ashes of an old, dying and dysfunctional system.
Real Economy is the result of several years of looking at two economic
extremes. The global economics of Gatt, Nafta, EU, WTO, World Bank and the
global Central Banking system. The general workings of stock markets and
their proliferation with emerging economies. The pondering of the true
nature of money and wealth and the true costs of things. The true price of
consumerism backed by credit on the environment, social and political
systems of the world. This constituted one area of macro thought and
research.
The second focus involves a more micro concern for the economies of small communities in this age of globalization. It is said that the vast majority of jobs and economic growth come from our nation's (and world's) small businesses. Yet in the economic structures we have created they are the first to suffer from the shifting economic tides created from the top and out of the control of those affected the most.
The solution to the next evolution of the world will be driven by the resurrection of the global economic infrastructure. The Internet has brought us the tool to propagate the information and knowledge to do this. But there is one underlying problem... finding and implementing ethical leadership at every level of development.
To this end three separate projects are in the process of being established and then interconnected to create a whole vision.
- REALECONOMY.NET - To bring forth the ideas and tools to create a new and
better economic infrastructure to rebuild the nation and the world on a new paradigm.
- REALGOVERNMENT.ORG - It is now painfully obvious to everyone how easy
it was to dispose of economic safeguards and oversight by our government
until all collapses -- we then rework what was disposed of to repair the
damage after the fact. It is a cycle we have repeated over and over in history. It is an incredible failure of our leadership
systems and why a new form (and/or a repair of the old form) of governance
must emerge at this time. Which gets us to the final and most important
element in the process...
- DIOGENESAWARD.ORG - The whole world down to the smallest organization is
suffering the consequences of the lack of ethical people in leadership
positions. The greatest need and the rarest element in the world of
business and government today is leadership with a strong sense of ethics.
Leaders are needed who are not only willing to talk of it but to put it into practice and
create a culture of ethics in all they do. Lack of such leaders is the weakest link in what
needs to be accomplished.
There is an almost two decade documented story of attempting to implement new economic opportunities (economic engines), better government techniques and new communications infrastructures into one small community. Based on statistics from the success of other like projects and proliferation of government waste it could easily account for fifty to over 100 million dollars of annual savings from waste and income to this community and surrounding region. The determining factor was lack of ethical leadership to implement the windows of innovation, entrepreneurialism and creativity that were presented over time.
To this end a solution is proposed by the creation of an Internet project called the Diogenes Award. It will seek out and give global credit to those in leadership of both government and business for their ethical conduct and actions. For whatever innovations and tools created by Real Government and Real Economy they will be but moot points without the ethical leadership to bring them into practice in the world and help those in our communities who will help bring us out of the current collapse.
Amoung other things, this project will attempt to set an ethical standard for all communities. Whither business, government or social communities. Too reference for the benifit of those they serve including: customers, shareholders, stakeholders and the people of this nation and the world.
Thus will be the foundation for a new, Real Economy.
Starting in the collapse of the stock market in 2008, world change accelerated and we are living through the greatest shift in global wealth and power in the history of this planet. How we survive this will be the difference between the old paradigms that brought us to this place in time and the new Real Economy we will create.
For those who study cyclics, we have turned a long and important time line where global influences (money & power) will shift from the West to the East. How this plays out will determine the direction of this planet for a very long time to come.
In 1992 a project launched to use the Internet to help enhance the social, economic and government elements of one small community as a prototype for a nation (one of the first community web sites in the nation). It had several advantages:
- It was geographically isolated.
- It had some very intelligent people.
- It had a resident congressman, State Legislator and State Senator.
- It was rural but connected to a major metropolitan area (Seattle)
- It was transitioning from a partially locally based economy (blue collar) to a commuter based economy (white collar)
- It was well on it's way to becoming a retirement community for wealthy people.
In essence this community made a good petri dish for the future evolution of the Nation using the communications provided by the Internet (whose value is now well proven).
When presented with a great opportunity to not only evolve as a community, socially and economically but as a model for a nation... after 20 years the project is currently mothballed. It failed in part to achieve it's goal of expediting the social and economic development of the community. It is a tremendous success in the acquisition of the knowledge over two decades of time of what works and what doesn't in this venue and why.
"It is this knowledge of community connectivity that can change the world. The internet has given us the technological tools, but it is the knowledge of how to use the technology effectively that is the hole grail." - David Henry.
Kitsap EDC meeting, 1998.
It is the value of this story that now has great significants at this current place in time. Because what happened in the last 20 years of this community is the story of what has killed this nation. Being an isolated community just makes it easier to view and define the problems and hopefully with this knowledge, create the solution for our collective future as a nation.
This community is Bainbridge Island, Washington and will include stories of outreach on the county, state and regional levels, even a European country.
The story continues soon