[GPSCC-chat] UK GP leader interview

[Spencer Graves]

       I don't agree with her first statement, "It was a mistake to make 
growth an economic objective", but I accept her subsequent comments:  
"Growth is a side issue. The end goal is about prosperity in terms of 
greater wellbeing, in terms of greater equality, in terms of having a 
cleaner environment, in terms of having more security for your kids in 
the future."


       In my judgment, the primary constraints on economic growth in 
poorer countries (which she mentioned) is US support for state terror 
internationally, which has increased dramatically under the rubric of 
the war on terror:  If the US stops supporting the agents of state 
terror internationally and works to make the world safe for peaceful 
assembly, the poor people of the world will be better able to control 
the corruption in their governments that keeps them poor.  (See Chomsky, 
2006, Failed States, Owl Books, p. 149 and elsewhere where he cites 
Thomas Carothers, "who identifies his stand as neo-Reagonite", who found 
a "puzzling consistency -- commonly called "inconsistency" that the US 
opposed democracy except when it also supported US international 
business interests;  Carothers, 2004, Critical Mission, Carnegie 
Endowment for International Peace.)


       I think we can make economic growth a priority in the US in part 
by internalizing externalities into the price the consumer sees:  If the 
consumer has to pay substantially more for products made by more 
polluting technologies, products made by greener technologies will be 
more price competitive.  Doing this would use the market mechanism work 
to improve the environment (Wikipedia, "Free-market environmentalism").  
One example would be adding the cost of the war in Iraq to the price of 
gasoline at the pump.


       Spencer


On 9/10/2011 9:13 AM, Gerry Gras wrote:
>
> FYI,
>
> From the UK:
>
> "Caroline Lucas: 'The odds of serious Green influence are extremely 
> high'"
>
> "Andrew Sparrow speaks to the Green party leader about economic 
> growth, proportional representation and Greenham Common"
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/09/caroline-lucas-interview-andrew-sparrow 
>
>
> Gerry
>
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>


-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
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