By Gavin Anderson and Howard Richards
Edited by Dignity Press
Nov72020
Feb262020
Un Concepto de Economía Solidaria: Organización Ilimitada
By Howard Richards
Presentación: el abordaje hacia una economía solidaria
En un sistema de laissez-faire el nivel de empleo depende en gran medida de lo que se llama el estado de la confianza. Si se deteriora la confianza, cae la inversión privada. Sigue una caída de la producción y del empleo (este resultado se genera directamente y también a través del efecto secundario del impacto de la caída de los ingresos sobre el consumo y sobre la inversión). Esto da a los capitalistas un poderoso control indirecto sobre las políticas públicas; hay que evitar cuidadosamente todo lo que pueda sacudir su confianza porque causaría una crisis económica. Pero una vez que el gobierno aprenda el truco de incrementar el empleo por sus propias compras, este poderoso mecanismo de control pierde su eficacia. Por eso los déficits presupuestarios necesarios para llevar a cabo la intervención del gobierno se representan como peligrosísimos. La función social de la doctrina de “disciplina fiscal” es asegurar que el nivel de empleo dependa del estado de confianza (Kalecki, 1943: 322-331)
Mi recomendación es pensar la economía solidaria como la matriz cultural -o, dicho de otra manera, como la ideología o la filosofía- de una economía cuya meta es atender a las necesidades de cada quien en armonía con la naturaleza, desplegando una pluralidad ilimitada de medios para lograr su meta. La economía debe servir a las personas, no las personas a la economía, y debe ser el “bienvenido a todos”. realizado en la práctica. La economía solidaria no debe ser el sector de la pobreza, viviendo de las migas que restan cuando el sector privado ya ha agotado sus mercados, ya no encuentra más inversiones rentables y, por lo tanto, no genera más empleo; y, tampoco, cuando el sector público ha agotado el poder recaudador del fisco y ya carece de medios para ampliar la red de protección social. No tan sólo los pobres, sino todos los seres humanos debemos ser solidarios y con mayor razón los empresarios, los políticos, y los que viven de las rentas de sus patrimonios sin trabajar.
Sep72019
Moral (and ethical) realism
ABSTRACT
This article advocates a naturalist and realist ethics of solidarity. Specifically, it argues that human needs should be met; and that they should be met in harmony with the environment. Realism should include respect for existing cultures and the morals presently being practiced – with reasonable exceptions. Dignity must come in a form understood and appreciated by the person whose dignity is being respected. It is also argued that naturalist ethics are needed to combat liberal ethics, not least because the latter supports today’s inflexible and dysfunctional institutions. In arguing for these positions, reference is made to the naturalist realist ethics of Georges Canguilhem, C.H. Waddington, John Dewey
and David Sloan Wilson, all of whom embed the social order in the natural order. read more
Jun142019
The Swedish Model as Programmed for Failure
By Howard Richards
Chapter Seven [1]
Chapter Overview
- Introduction
- Social Structure Revisited
- The Swedish Model
- Bounded Social Democracy
- Achieving Growth as a Constraint
- Some Swedish Model Achievements
- The Government as Employer of Last Resort
- The Decline of the Swedish Model
- Assar Lindbeck’s Critique of the Swedish Welfare State
- Conclusions: Some Challenges for Unbounded Organization in the Light of the Decline of the Swedish Model
- Green New Deals
- Introducing a Community Approach in the Swedish Model Context
- Toward Making Growth (i.e. Finance) and Globalisation Governable
- More on Governability in the Financial Services Sector
[1] Our thanks to Dean Björn Åstrand of Karlstad University in Sweden for his helpful comments
See PDF/Download
Jun142019
Excerpt From
Andersson, Gavin (2018) Unbounded Governance: a study of Popular Development Organization Scholars’ Press: Beau Bassin
Chapter 6: Organization in the civil domain
See PDF/ Download
Aug212018
Markets on the Margins: Mine Workers, Job Creation and Enterprise Development
By Kate Philip (2018)
This book provides an eyewitness account of South Africa’s unsuccessful efforts to end mass unemployment and mass poverty. But it is more than an eyewitness account. It is a participant observer account. The author is a scholar-activist who has been deeply involved in thinking through the economic rationale, designing and implementing key programmes and projects. She is equally at home in the Union Buildings in Pretoria, and in remote country villages.
May292018
Building Community in the Crash of 2001
Juan Regache: In October of 2001 Argentina was in crisis. I had to close my business. There were no customers. I had fixed costs I could not avoid –wages, taxes, rent, utilities.
Howard Richards: October of 2001 was two months before the complete collapse of the economy on December 14, 2001, when bank accounts were frozen and nobody could access their savings or write checks. What kind of business did you have ?
Mar22018
On the intransitive objects of the social (or human) sciences
Howard Richards
Faculty of Management and Economics (FAE), University of Santiago (USACH), Santiago, Chile; bPhilosophy, Earlham College, Richmond, IN, USA read more
Feb142018
DESIGNING A MIRACLE TO SAVE SOUTH AFRICA
By Howard Richards
New times call for new ideas. In a desperate situation, like that of South Africa today, some people may be willing to consider the new ideas that are on offer, going on the lookout for measures that might work. Others may have their minds already made up; they might be already sure that they know what miracle, if it would only happen, would save South Africa. read more
Nov242017
THE GREATEST CHALLENGES FACING HUMANITY TODAY
The challenge- Human exploitation:
The greatest challenge facing humanity today, I would say, is exploitation of a group of people by other groups of people. It is I believe one of the most pressing problems today. Daily in the world we see people working hard, e.g. the domestic worker, the farm worker, the factory worker and so on. They leave home before we even get up from our beds, they walk and commute long distances to get to work because they do not have their own cars and in most cases they live far from their work places. Their work is hard and farm workers work in all weathers. Yet they earn a miniscule percentage of what we earn, and are treated as “second class citizens”. They are the working poor, they are not unemployed yet they have very little money to be able to live a comfortable life. Importantly they are not counted in the statistics of the poor. read more