ETHICAL ECONOMICS:

“FORECARING”

***

Nancy Myers

Indianapolis, IN

November 2004

QUILT BLOCKS OF THIS

PRESENTATION

• The precautionary principle, economics, and ethics

• Seven principles of life-enhancing economics

THE PRECAUTIONARY APPROACH

• Prevent harm

• Set goals

• Assess alternatives

• Shift burdens

• Practice democracy

PRECAUTIONARY VALUES

• Priority, benefit of doubt go to the health of people, creatures, and ecosystems

• Vorsorge: “forecaring” for future generations; “sustainability”

ECONOMICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

“The ‘environmental crisis has happened because the human household or economy is in conflict at almost every point with the household of nature.” --Wendell Berry

ECONOMICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

• An environmental problem is likely the result of economic activity

• Its solution usually implies economic cost

• Its continuation also implies costs, some economic and some not

ETHICS

• Take certain actions regardless of economic costs.

• Does it mean jobs vs. environment?

• Is there such a thing as ethical economics?

ETHICAL ECONOMICS

• Honors and enhances life

• Precautionary economics=“forecaring”

SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF LIFE-ENHANCING ECONOMICS

• Count all the costs

• Treasure your valuables

• Imagine the details

• Buy from your neighbors

• Liberate consumers

• Build for the future

• Form partnerships

1. Count all the costs

The purpose of economic analysis

is to demonstrate

net gain or loss to the commonwealth.

Easy Money, Hidden Costs: Precautionary Economic Analysis of Coalbed Methane Development in the

Powder River Basin

By Joshua Skov and Nancy Myers

www.sehn.org/pdf/cbm.pdf

July 2004

Precautionary economic analysis

• Value human health and environment.

• Take uncertainty into account.

• Describe full costs, risks, and harms.

• Describe distribution of costs and benefits.

• Examine alternatives.

Public benefits of CBM:some numbers

• Extraction for 20 years

• One year’s supply of natural gas

• Net gain of $5 billion to state economies

Public costs of CBM:some numbers

• Subsidies--$700 million-$1.7 billion over next 5 years

• “Lost water”--$2-10 billion over 20 years

Lost water: $84 - $400 per year for every man, woman and child in

Montana and Wyoming

Benefits Costs

• Immediate and near future

• Concentrated with energy companies, spilling over to public

• Natural gas--a valuable resource

• Will occur over several generations

• Significant public $$• Water--a valuable

resource

2. Treasure your valuables

Catheter country.

Owen County benefits from a technology triangle, says Mary Wheeler, executive director of the Owen County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Corp. "Our two major employers in the county,Boston Scientific with 850 and Cook Urological with 350 employees, are both medical-device manufacturers. We have another small medical-components manufacturer, Medical Polymers, employing 40. Says Wheeler, "We consider being part of the technology triangle a big asset to future growth.”--Indiana Business

What do you value?

• Community asset inventory: Kretzmann and McNight, Building Communities from the Inside Out (Evanston, IL: NU Press, 1993) (800) 397-2282

• Community Mapping Tutorial and Atlas http://www.maperuzin.com/learn_to_map/

3. Imagine the details

• Vaclav Havel, “Beyond the Shock of Freedom,” Summer Meditations, 1992

• Corbett and Velasquez, “The Ahwahnee Principles: Toward More Livable Communities,” Western City Magazine (September 1994). http://www.lgc.org/ahwahnee/principles.html

4. Buy from your neighbors

How much of the shopping dollar is retained or recirculated in the community?

• 6 cents of every dollar spent with a big box retailer

• 20 cents of every dollar spent with a chain store

• 60 cents of every dollar spent with a sole proprietorship

--Indiana Main Streets

Wendell Berry says

“There is significant charity in just prices.”

Wendell Berry says

“A viable community, like a viable farm, protects its own production capacities.”

Wendell Berry says

“Give everybody in the local community a direct, long-term interest in the prosperity, health, and beauty of their homeland.”

--“The Idea of a Local Economy,” Orion, November/December 2004

5. Liberate consumers

More Wendell Berry

“The idea of an economy based on several kinds of ruin may seem a contradiction in terms, but in fact such an economy is possible, as we see.”

More Wendell Berry

“Though one is shopping amid an astonishing variety of products, one is denied certain significant choices.”

6. Build for the future

The evolution of the RV

The evolution of the RV

7. Form partnerships

PRECAUTIONARY PATCHWORK

• University - community• Government - NGO• NGO - business• Religious - secular• Issue - issue• Region - region

SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF LIFE-ENHANCING ECONOMICS

• Count all the costs

• Treasure your valuables

• Imagine the details

• Buy from your neighbors

• Liberate consumers

• Build for the future

• Form partnerships