expansion from a theory developed in brazil: balancing people, planet, and goods

i realized yesterday that i didn’t write out everything i had to say about my scale of economy thoughts from my lunch with fernando so here’s a little more.

on the part about economies failing if they are out of scale, i think the three pieces that need to be in balance are the planet, people, and goods. the planet and people i think are obvious, but when i think about goods i mean those things that people need other than themselves to live healthy, meaningful lives.

these things can be out of balance in any number of ways. for example, if goods are prioritized over well-being of the planet and people (i.e. modernity), we destroy the planet and likely ourselves in the process. i think this will result in another out of balance system, one in which the planet is prioritized over people and goods. although that’s good for the planet (and other life forms on it), it’s not good for people. of course, if it’s our fault we pushed things to that place, that’s what it should be, but hopefully we can prevent that. etc etc.

conversely, they can be in balance in only really a few formulations. i think we still have yet, in modern life, to figure out how to appropriately balance the planet’s human carrying capacity, with the how of getting our materials needs met, while also holding that the well-being of people is a complex, moving, evolving target. i know i have some theories about how people need to relate to land and goods, but who am i to speak on that stuff?

anyway…