A Financial "Religion" - "Economism" Dominates the Earth at Great Price

The Church of Economism and Its Discontents

"The economy, in other words, really is
​the world’s greatest faith-based organization."
Two centuries of explosive economic growth have radically altered our material and ideological worlds. With human activity now the major driver of geological change, the industrial era has come to be called the Anthropocene. This inquiry instead adopts the term Econocene, underscoring its ideological foundation: economism. The concept of economism, the reduction of all social relations to market logic, often appears in critiques of political movements and neoliberal economics. Our concern here is with economism as a widely held system of faith. This modern “religion” is essential for the maintenance of the global market economy, for justifying personal decisions, and for explaining and rationalizing the cosmos we have created...
Economism, by rationalizing market outcomes,
becomes the new “opium of the people,”
playing the role Marx once attributed to religion
in keeping people from rising up against the system

Richard Norgaard, "The Church of Economism and Its Discontents," Great Transition Initiative (December 2015), http://www.greattransition.org/publication/the-church-of-economism-and-its-discontents. - See more at: http://www.greattransition.org/publication/the-church-of-economism-and-its-discontents#sthash.8PVAReS0.dpuf

New Economic Notions

Using Social Doctrines Expressed by Pope Francis in His Encyclical Hold the Potential to Regenerate the Earth
and Build a More Just Society

"Solidarity is the notion that we’re connected with our neighbors: down the street and throughout the world"
Subsidiarity is equally important. It’s the idea that problems should be solved at the smallest and most intimate level possible. For example, the federal government shouldn’t be solving problems states can solve, states shouldn’t be solving problems that communities can solve, and so on. This is another aspect of charity. Charity isn’t a faceless international bureaucracy doling out tax dollars. It’s a soul exhibiting love. This also means that, or most of us, our moral obligations to tend for our family are higher than our moral obligation to care for our neighborhood, or community, or city, or state, or country, or planet. We have some degree of moral duty and responsibility towards each of these, but it is generally to be understood as concentric circles.

Solidarity 

Solidarity is unity (as of a group or class) which produces or is based on unities of interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies.[1][2] It refers to the ties in a society that bind people together as one. The term is generally employed in sociology and the other social sciences as well as in philosophy or in Catholic social teaching.[3]
What forms the basis of solidarity varies between societies. In simple societies it may be mainly based on kinship and shared values. In more complex societies there are various theories as to what contributes to a sense of social solidarity.[1] Solidarity is also one of six principles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union[4] and December 20 of each year is International Human Solidarity Day recognized as an international observance.

According to Émile Durkheim, the types of social solidarity correlate with types of society. Durkheim introduced the terms "mechanical" and "organic solidarity" as part of his theory of the development of societies in The Division of Labour in Society (1893). In a society exhibiting mechanical solidarity, its cohesion and integration comes from the homogeneity of individuals—people feel connected through similar work, educational and religious training, and lifestyle. Mechanical solidarity normally operates in "traditional" and small scale societies.[5] In simpler societies (e.g., tribal), solidarity is usually based on kinship ties of familial networks. Organic solidarity comes from the interdependence that arises from specialization of work and the complementarities between people—a development which occurs in "modern" and "industrial" societies.[5]

  • Definition: it is social cohesion based upon the dependence individuals have on each other in more advanced societies.
Although individuals perform different tasks and often have different values and interest, the order and very solidarity of society depends on their reliance on each other to perform their specified tasks. Organic here is referring to the interdependence of the component parts. Thus social solidarity is maintained in more complex societies through the interdependence of its component parts (e.g., farmers produce the food to feed the factory workers who produce the tractors that allow the farmer to produce the food).

Distributism 

Distributism (also known as distributionism[1] or distributivism[2]) is an economic ideology that developed in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century based upon the principles of Catholic social teaching, especially the teachings of Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Rerum novarum and Pope Pius XI in Quadragesimo anno.[3]

In the early 21st century, some observers have speculated about Pope Francis's exact position on distributism[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] because of his denouncement of unfettered capitalism as tyranny in his 84-page apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium:

Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills... A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules. To all this we can add widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which has taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits.

According to distributists, property ownership is a fundamental right,[11] and the means of production should be spread as widely as possible, rather than being centralized under the control of the state (state socialism), a few individuals (plutocracy), or corporations (corporatocracy). Distributism, therefore, advocates a society marked by widespread property ownership.[12] Co-operative economist Race Mathews argues that such a system is key to bringing about a just social order.[13]

Distributism has often been described in opposition to both socialism and capitalism,[14][15] which distributists see as equally flawed and exploitive.[16] Thomas Storck argues: "both socialism and capitalism are products of the European Enlightenmentand are thus modernizing and anti-traditional forces. Further, some distributists argue that socialism is the logical conclusion of capitalism as capitalism's concentrated powers eventually capture the state, resulting in a form of socialism.[17][18] In contrast, distributism seeks to subordinate economic activity to human life as a whole, to our spiritual life, our intellectual life, our family life".[19]

Some have seen it more as an aspiration, which has been successfully realised in the short term by commitment to the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity (these being built into financially independent local cooperatives and small family businesses), though proponents also cite such periods as the Middle Ages as examples of the historical long-term viability of distributism.[20] Particularly influential in the development of distributist theory were Catholic authors G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc,[16] the Chesterbelloc, two of distributism's earliest and strongest proponents.[21][22]

Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity is a principle of social organization that originated in the Roman Catholic church, and was developed following the First Vatican Council. It has been associated by some with the idea of decentralisation. In its most basic formulation, it holds that social problems should be dealt with at the most immediate (or local) level consistent with their solution. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary (that is, a supporting, rather than a subordinate) function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level. The concept is applicable in the fields of government, political science, neuropsychology, cybernetics, management and in military command (Mission Command). In political theory, the principle of subsidiarity is sometimes viewed as an aspect of the concept of federalism, although the two have no necessary connection. The principle of subsidiarity plays an important role in the political rhetoric of the European Union concerning the relationship between the EU governing bodies and the member states.

Flaws in Our Current System

Market Fundamentalism

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Rugged Individualism 

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 Corporate Collectivism 

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21st Century Models

The Cooperative Economy

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Restoring the Commons

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