Our Current Stimulous Packages

Thinking about the news lately, I wonder how the folk who put these packages together actually think about what they are proposing. What sort of stimulus package could we use to sort out the tons of material waste that is piling up around our cities. Perhaps we could put some of the unemployed car assembly line workers to work cutting up the piles of steel containers that are stacked in ports and industrial yards. Perhaps the steel could then be used for the sound barriers alongside the housing developments that seem to crop up alongside major arterial roadways. The containers could also be retrofitted into portable housing or high density shelters.

No that would make too much sense!

I guess the thing that keeps troubling me about about the whole Stimulus thing is that it is all about "Growth". The buzz that we need growth...Why do we need growth? The problem with growth that I see is that eventually things stop growing. How many things in nature continue to grow ad infinitum I am having trouble coming up with anything, it may be my lack of knowledge of the natural world, but intuitively there seems to be a flaw in the continual growth paradigm. What is wrong with not growing but steady state, with just having what one needs, food shelter, health, friends, family, community, replacing that which cannot be fixed any more, instead of throwing it away and buying new all the time. I wonder what will happen when the methods of keeping records and any data for that matter are mostly done with electronic storage devices, and the power fails, not just a short term failure but perhaps a longer one. I was at a store recently and the clerk was unable to sell me the item because the till(electronic) had crashed. We had to wait for a supervisor to reset the till.

This one is the tip of the iceberg as far as I can see. I have noticed that in some of the stores now there are the three or four self check out lanes. I can see where this is going.... self stacking of the aisles. Soon we will not need any clerks in the stores. which will of course eliminate a few more jobs...... I guess those folk will need a stimulus package to help them find new work. The whole house of cards that is "The Economy" seems to be missing all of the "nature" that is externalised ". Air is free so it cannot be worth anything can it? So if it is not worth anything does it matter if we get it dirty, mess it up a bit, that is the way it seems. I wonder what "Nature " is worth? What if nature were a proportion of each and every calculation of the economy and it was a real cost. What would all those stacked containers be worth in real terms. All of the fossil fuels that were used in the extraction of the ore that was used to make the steel, All of the costs of the water that was used to cool the equipment that used in that mining endeavour. All of the costs of the machinery that was used to mill and roll the raw steel into corrugated sheets that are welded together to for the sides, ends floor etc. All or the fuel that was used to move them to their original users. All of the fuel that was used to transport the containers half way around the world. And remember every internal combustion engine uses air in order for it to function. If we had to pay for the nature that we take so much for granted we would be buying a lot less, and likely only what we needed to live in harmony with all that "nature" Ah but I am only dreaming . it will be "business as usual" until it isn't.