Book 119 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: The Life Economy!

Book – The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

Book Description: Former economic hit man John Perkins shares new details about the ways he and others cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Then he reveals how the deadly EHM cancer he helped create has spread far more widely and deeply than ever in the US and everywhere else—to become the dominant system of business, government, and society today. Finally, he gives an insider view of what we each can do to change it. As dark as the story gets, this reformed EHM also provides hope. Perkins offers specific actions each of us can take to transform what he calls a failing Death Economy into a Life Economy that provides sustainable abundance for all.

Reflection:

The Growth Monster. Our modern world is obsessed with the word “growth”.

We think that if you aren’t growing at some crazy fast rate than you must be dying. Because of this, we are seemingly in a perpetual state of panic that the growth engine will seize up and this whole house of cards will come tumbling down if we can’t maintain it and push even further. All the collective decisions we make as a modern society are made to feed this growth monster that we’ve created. The promise of infinite growth at every increasing rates is what keeps our system afloat, but we all know that this isn’t possible. We push on and continue to believe that this is the only way toward collective prosperity. We plunder more resources and take on more debt to keep this engine humming.

Debt and Fear, as the author says, are the keys to success in our modern world.

I can’t argue with this notion as I see this on a micro-level every single day in my corporate job. Salesforce is an amazing place to work, and they really truly care about their employees, values, and customers. I have a feeling that if you took the growth monster out of the equation, that we would spend the majority of our time focused on figuring out more ways to live and express our values and unlock the potential of all the amazing people that work under the Salesforce umbrella. Meaningful Work and Meaningful Relationships would be the main priority with profits looming far behind. However, no matter how much Salesforce would ideally like to focus on their people, at the end of the day, they will always be beholden to shareholders, wall street, and feeding the inevitable growth monster that looms over us all. It is the first line in driving all decisions and actions. If we fail to feed the monster, all the other great things we do will fall as well, and that is a shame.  

The growth monster is the lifeblood of the “Death Economy”, as the author calls it. The death economy is one based on fear, debt, and plundering all our resources to sustain the world we’ve built. I think that we all know that eventually this model will wear out its welcome and we will be forced to adjust. It is just a matter of time.

So what do we do? How can we change this?

The author’s solution is to do everything we can to turn the death economy into a life economy. To transform from one that is finite and unsustainable to one that is built around the ideas of replacement, rejuvenation, and connection.

I loved this reframing, idea, and philosophy. To me, the life economy is about building each other up versus tearing each other down. The life economy is about focusing on people and embracing the beauty and uniqueness of the human condition. The life economy is about seeing how all the living beings in this world are interconnected and understanding that we can’t do it alone. The life economy is about encouraging each of us to share our unique values and purpose with the world.

The life economy is an infinite game and one that I’m excited about playing every day. I look forward to spending the rest of my life focused on building up the world around me versus tearing it down.

Question: In what ways can you help support the life economy in your world?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins