The Holy Grail of ECONOMIC GROWTH
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the global change-makers’ magazine - CHANGEMAKER PROFILE - Shani Graham: The Community Builder A Complex Predicament: PART 2 - THE ECONOMIC PREDICAMENT The Economics of Human Need VOICES OF A GENERATION TPP: A Threat to Democracy, Society & Environment Economy Plan B: Building an Efficient, Resilient, Solidarity Economy The Holy Grail of ECONOMIC GROWTH Follow the Money: Unravelling the Banking System ISSUE #2 ECONOMIZE ALL CONTENT IS Dear reader, CONTENTS CREDITS Welcome to the second issue of SHIFT magazine! FEATURES And thank you for helping us to reclaim the discourse and shift the 55 Growthbusting: Editorial team public conversation to the topics that matter most: our converging The Holy Grail of Economic Growth Sean Crawley 4 The Economics of Human Need economic and ecological crises, and peaking resources. Inspiring Dave Gardner dons the mantle of heresy, and challenges Kari McGregor Human needs are at the base of every economic activity and empowering people to work toward sustainability, resilience the economic growth bias of the mainstream media, Graphic design we undertake. But what are those needs, and how can heaping sacrilege on its holy grail. and community is the most important work we feel we can do, and we assess how well we’re meeting them? Ben Matei we are immensely grateful for all those who join us on this journey. David Zwolski 31 Follow the Money: Unravelling the REGULARS Cover artwork Our all-volunteer team has worked countless hours – transcending Banking System Creative Director - Ben Matei the treadmill, and multiple time-zones – to put together this second How does our mysterious banking system actually work? Spoiler alert: it’s a heck of a lot more interesting than The Critically Endangered Model - Chris O’keeffe 7 issue of SHIFT magazine on a non-profit shoestring budget. We’ve you’ve been led to believe! Species File: Photographer - Alex Cahill investigated, interviewed, visioned, scribbled, edited, designed, Special Thanks to CHRIS HUZZARD STUDIOS A Complex Predicament: The Orange-Bellied Parrot and printed our way to communicating food for thought, and 33 Contributing artists How our Energy, Economic Sean Crawley investigates what is driving the loss of inspiration to practical action. All this to play our part in a much- Australia’s Orange-Bellied Parrot, and what can be done Cuba Gallery - www.flickr.com/photos/cubagallery and Ecological Systems are needed shift: a shift in attitude, action, and the trajectory our to pull this remarkable species back from the brink. kathleen ma - http://www.flickr.com/photos/62570290@N02 Connected civilization is on. Feedback Loops, the Jevons Paradox, 9 Changemaker Profile: and the Three End Games: Each issue of SHIFT presents its own theme relevant to our paradigm- Shani Graham: The Community Builder Part 2 - The Economic Predicament shifting emergency, and this second issue casts the spotlight on our Kari McGregor met with Shani Graham to find out In the second of this three-part series, Dave Pollard gets to what it takes to build a thriving, resilient community economic system, its flaws and failings, and initiatives that have grips with the complexity of our economic crisis. with ordinary folks, in an ordinary place, and without NEXT ISSUE RELEASE sprung up to address them. Change-makers from diverse disciplines a lot of resources. and backgrounds have collaborated over this issue to deliver fresh Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement: a 39 13 Top 10: material intended to shift our conversations, our ideas, and our threat to democracy, society Ways of Meeting Your Needs – Without actions. There is much scope for inspiration within these pages, and the environment 26th May Spending a Cent! despite the sobering realities told. Brian Feeney unpacks the Trans Pacific Partnership, exposing the agreement as a looming threat to The best bargain is a freebie, right? Here are ten democracy, society, and the environment. pathways to engagement in the gift economy. READ ONLINE, DOWNLOAD, Every issue of SHIFT aims to feature a couple of submissions from ORDER HARD COPY our readers, so if you fancy wordsmithing your way into print, pitch 41 Voice of a Generation us your idea and we’ll take it from there. Submission guidelines and 29 Spotlight: Miss Metanoia zooms in on how the millennial generation www.sustainabilitysc.org forms are on our website at www.sustainabilitysc.org. is impacted by our contracting economy, giving voice to The Bank of Real Solutions a generation often forgotten in the realm of politics. How great would it be to have a central hub that links Free from commercial advertising, SHIFT is fully supported by digital you up to resilience initiatives all around the country? The Bank of Real Solutions has done just that! and hard-copy purchases and subscriptions from our readers. This COLUMNS means you get to read only the stuff you want to read, in the format FOLLOW US AROUND DEPARTMENTS you want it in, and don’t have to leaf through pages and pages of 16 The Overthinker: consumer-paradigm junk. We are eternally grateful for your support, Money Talks: How the dollar dominates our your company in these interesting times, and your feedback that discourse, and why we need to ditch it @ShowcaseSustain /AllAboutTheSHIFT 1 From the SHIFT team goes toward constant improvement of SHIFT. Kari McGregor unpacks the baggage of our dollar- dominant political discourse, proposing the promotion Contributors We hope that you will find SHIFT an inspiring and empowering of an alternative bottom line. 3 read, and that you will find information worth sharing. Take care, Doing it Ourselves: Economize Cryptic Crossword and have a good read! 19 59 CONTACT US Economy Plan B: Building an Efficient, Love and solidarity, Resilient, Solidarity Economy 61 References Theo Kitchener sketches out a vision for an alternative [email protected] +61 7 5450 0892 economy that is smart, scalable, and, best of all, DIY. (Australia) 49 The Human Race: Birth, Work, School & Death This magazine has been Sean Crawley mulls over the pace of life in the Human printed on acid-free Race, and questions whether our time on the treadmill recycled paper. is really well spent. departments CONTRIBUTORS What is the economy for if not meeting human needs? Human needs are the basis of every economic The Economics activity we undertake. In order to reflect upon whether our economic system is effectively meeting Dave Gardner Kari McGregor our needs, we need to first of all understand what of our needs are, their relative level of importance, and Dave Gardner has worked as a professional A former teacher and escapee from the Human Need how to satisfy those needs. film director for 30 years, and directed the compromised Non-Profit Industrial Complex, documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Kari has lived and worked in the UK, Spain Growth. He is also founding contributor at and Thailand before settling in Australia. Kari Various models for understanding human needs Growth Bias Busted, the media watchdog divides her time between consulting for the have been developed, but none is more well-known project that sheds light on the pro-growth bias in non-profit world, and working for the grassroots than Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. However, our media. He writes, films and speaks regularly non-profit, Sustainability Showcase. She blogs a more recent model, Max-Neef’s Fundamental about our culture’s addiction to growth. Dave is as The Overthinker, freelancing a critical spin based in Colorado Springs, USA. on our planetary predicament. Kari is currently Human Needs, poses an exciting alternative for our based on the Sunshine Coast. emergent understanding of economic satisfiers. • Web: www.growthbusters.org • Twitter: @growthbusters • Web: www.theoverthinker.org • Facebook: GrowthBusters • Twitter: @ThinksItOver • Facebook: The Overthinker Miss Metanoia Brian Feeney Miss Metanoia, aka Anne Nguyen, is a Brian Feeney is a town planner, strategist, millennial-generation freelance writer, cultural researcher and writer. He donates much of his creative, and professional homebody. A digital time to project coordination for the Australia- Maslow’s Pyramid of Human Needs native, she critiques culture through the lens of a based non-profit organization, Quest 2025, generation raised on selfies and status updates, a transdisciplinary sustainability advocacy Commonly represented as a pyramid of needs, Abraham Maslow’s whilst attempting to navigate an economic and organization for which he is secretary. His hierarchy proposes a linear progression through physiological political terrain unrecognizable to previous interests are transformation, cultural evolution, needs, safety, love and belonging, and esteem to self-actualization. ecological sustainability, social justice and generations of thinkers. Miss Metanoia is based The most basic of needs lay the base of the pyramid, with each of in Sydney, Australia. nature writing. He lives on the Gold Coast, Australia. the subsequent levels only taking priority when the previous level of • Web: www.miss-metanoia.blogspot.com.au Physiological needs: need has been met. For Maslow there was a strict order to meeting • Twitter: @stalksnu • Web: www.quest2025.net the various human needs. These are the basic requirements for survival, without which the body will not function. Therefore, Theo Kitchener Dave Pollard these needs must be met before any others. Metabolic requirements such as food and water, Theo Kitchener has a background in activism Dave Pollard retired from paid work in 2010 Esteem: and community building, and more recently after 35 years as an advisor to small enterprises. and protective requirements such as clothing and has been working to raise awareness around He is a long-time student of our culture and its shelter, form the base of Maslow’s hierarchy. The need to feel respected – both by oneself, collapse and transition possibilities through systems, of history and of how the world really and by others – is a manifestation of the desire the Melbourne-based volunteer group, Doing work.