{"id":19554,"date":"2012-06-11T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=19554"},"modified":"2012-06-06T14:05:21","modified_gmt":"2012-06-06T13:05:21","slug":"the-colors-of-the-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/06\/the-colors-of-the-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Colors of the Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Until recently, the idea of \u201cgreen economy\u201d was seen as an environmentalist fantasy without theoretical basis. With the rapid acceleration of the environmental crisis, the \u201cgreen economy\u201d gained legitimacy, although traditional economists still do not consider it because, by seeking sustainable alternatives for the process of production, it does not respect the fundamentals of present theory. Economists are still not comfortable with using different prices in the short-term market and with restricting the use of certain natural resources. Nevertheless, 21st<\/sup>-century economics cannot continue shackled, as was 20th<\/sup>-century economics, to the idea that the structure of momentary prices is capable of orienting the future. We know that the so-called externalities\u2014the external impacts on the economy and on immediacy\u2014need to be considered.<\/p>\n

John Maynard Keynes said that in the long run we are all dead. The distant future, therefore, was not important. In his time, however, the environmental problem did not exist and economics had no long-term influence. From now on, consideration of environmental sustainability will be a necessary condition in any solid economy. The ecological crisis is heating up in such a way and so rapidly that a simple change in the prices, justifying the preference for renewable resources, is no longer sufficient to confront the problems ahead. Nevertheless, even before its acceptance, the green economy was already old at birth because ecological balance is not enough.<\/p>\n

Replacing fossil fuels with renewable resources can generate a boomerang effect: accommodation to the crisis. Moreover, each car\u2019s \u201cgreen economy\u201d is not sufficient if at the macro level the number of cars is expanding so much that the forests will be replaced by sugar cane plantations to fuel all the automobile fleet.<\/p>\n

Nor is it sufficient for the economy to replace fossil fuel with renewable resources if the profile of the demand continues skewered towards the higher-income minority. The economy that energizes growth by producing expensive goods for the minority, concentrating income, can be green, but this is not the economy the future needs. It is not worth saving the Planet with the \u201cgreen economy\u201d if it is saved only for the few. The economy of the future needs to be green\u2014in the use of natural resources\u2014and red in the destination of its products. We need an economy that meets social needs such as eradicating poverty, diminishing inequality and increasing employment. An economy with ethical values, capable of understanding that, in education and in health care, inequality is immoral. In short, a red economy.<\/p>\n

Economics needs to define the concept of wealth. A \u201cwhite economy\u201d geared towards increasing well-being and not towards destruction. While it may be important for defense, arms production should not be considered as a positive result of the economy. The value of the GDP must discount the production of goods of destruction and security services and also the time lost by people in their daily coming and going from one place to another.<\/p>\n

The economy must also be yellow, symbolized by the products of science and high technology. Competition for cost reduction, in general through unemployment, cannot be an indicator in the economy of the future. Competitiveness should instead focus upon the capacity for inventing new products to raise people\u2018s well-being. It must be based, therefore, upon brains and not upon hands and arms.<\/p>\n

Finally, the economy has to be blue and consider well-being more important than production. The abolition of illiteracy cannot be measured merely through the increased income of the newly literate. The GDP based upon automobiles that cause traffic jams, even with electric cars or those that flow thanks to viaducts constructed instead of schools, hospitals and water and sewage systems, cannot be considered as an indicator of the economy of the future. More important is an economy that frees the workers\u2019 time and increases the public goods and immaterial cultural goods. The \u201cblue economy\u201d must seek to eliminate the hindrances to the pursuit of happiness. This may include opting for a GDP dis-growth as a form of increasing well-being.<\/p>\n

The \u201cgreen economy\u201d has begun to be accepted, but this is not the correct metaphor. At least five colors are necessary to define the economy of the future: the green of environmental sustainability; the red of social justice; the white of an economy productive for peace; the yellow of the creation of high-tech goods; and the blue of an economy committed more to well-being than to production and income.<\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n

Cristovam Buarque (CBUARQUE@senado.gov.br<\/a>) is a professor at the University of Bras\u00edlia and a Brazilian senator.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Translated by Linda Jerome (LinJerome@cs.com<\/a>). <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until recently, the idea of \u201cgreen economy\u201d was seen as an environmentalist fantasy without theoretical basis. With the rapid acceleration of the environmental crisis, the \u201cgreen economy\u201d gained legitimacy, although traditional economists still do not consider it because, by seeking sustainable alternatives for the process of production, it does not respect the fundamentals of present theory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}