Mindful Capital Club

MIndful Capital Club PDF Presentation

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Download Mindful Capital Club: An Introductory Presentation (Web Version)

The presentation is also available from CreateSpace.com  (an amazon.com company) and Amazon.com (see link below) as a booklet.

The response to the above presentation has been tepid at best.  I came across the following excerpt when reviewing an earlier post today (June 26) and thought that this might be an appropriate place to re-introduce it:

All successful societies periodically confront new problems that their old institutions cannot solve. If they are to remain successful, they have to reinvent themselves. Yet social systems are very resistant to change and have an enormous ability to tolerate, rather than solve, problems. The path of least resistance -- simply allowing problems to fester -- all too often ends up pulling down even the greatest of societies. The actions that must be taken to resolve any of society’s problems are seldom in doubt. The issue is always how a society with festering problems can force itself to act before there is a crisis that may take the system down with it.

--Lester C. Thurow, Building Wealth: The New Rules for Individuals, Companies, and Nations in a Knowledge-Based Economy, p. 50

Background Information

Several years ago, I became interested in sustainable development.  At the same time, I realized that the financial markets were extremely fragile.  None of our current institutions -- government, higher education, business, NGOs -- seemed to be able to re-direct our course.  Over time some of these institutions talked the talk of sustainable development, but did not walk the talk.  All of the established institutions who professed an interest in a more sustainable world seem to be nibbling at the edges of the change that is required.

The synopsis of this paper perhaps describes it best:

A high and sustainable quality of life is a central goal for humanity.  Our current socio-ecological regime and its set of interconnected worldviews, institutions, and technologies all support the goal of unlimited growth of material production and consumption as a proxy for quality of life.  However, abundant evidence shows that, beyond a certain threshold, further material growth no longer significantly contributes to improvement in quality of life.  Not only does further material growth not meet humanity's central goal, there is mounting evidence that it creates significant roadblocks to sustainability through increasing resource constraints (i.e., peak oil, water limitations) and sink constraints (i.e., climate disruption).  Overcoming these roadblocks and creating a sustainable and desirable future will require an integrated, systems level redesign of our socio-ecological regime focused explicitly and directly on the goal of sustainable quality of life rather than the proxy of unliimited material growth.  This transition, like all cultural transitions, will occur through an evolutionary process, but one that we, to a certain extent, can control and direct.  We suggest an integrated set of worldviews, institutions, and technologies to stimulate and seed this evolutionary redesign of the current socio-ecological regime to achieve global sustainability.

The goal of anyone concerned about the future should be "an integrated, systems level redesign of our socio-ecological regime."  I am unaware of system-level design currently being implemented -- or even discussed.  Most of us have a vested interest in pieces of the current system.

One of the keys to designing a better system is recognizing the flaws in the current monetary system.  The most succinct information that I have found on these flaws is the Crash Course.  While you may like certain aspects of the new institution that has evolved on this site, you will not appreciate the full value of it until you understand the flaws in our monetary system.

At some point in the next few months or years, the current system will fail completely as it was operated as if there was unlimited growth.  One element of the current system is the hierarchy system.  The dominant hierarchical system has resulted in the construction of vast amounts of office space that will not be feasible to operate in a more sustainable system.  It is likely that your retirement accounts have extensive exposure to office investments.  It is likely that society will eventually revert to one income per household -- particularly after real estate prices reach some sort of equilibrium with real wages.  What will this mean for your investments?

The current system is debt based while the system/society described here is equity based.  In my opinion, this shift away from credit to equity is the paradigm shift described by Donella Meadows in this piece.  The current system is based on possession while the system/society described here is based on access.  The current system directs us to more and more specialization while the system/society described here is based on general knowledge.  All of these shifts are related, but the credit to equity one may be the most important.

Any new system has to have a foundation and I believe that the best foundation is a society based on lifelong learning -- a society of universities.  Universities that educate participants in a general knowledge of where we have been and where we can go as a society.  Universities that focus on moving participants towards self-actualization rather than training us to take tests and be less-than-critical little citizens.  All of the current institutions can re-tool themselves and convert to a more sustainable model.  But conversion means that the old bureaucracies and hierarchies must be left behind.

The Future

The illusion is that we have created the most sophisticated society in the history of man.  The reality is that the division of knowledge into feudal fiefdoms of expertise has made general understanding and coordinated action not simply impossible but despised and distrusted.

--John Ralston Saul (Voltaire's Bastards)

Can we break out of these fiefdoms?  Are you locked in a fiefdom?  Do you have a title and responsibilities that prevent you from being fully human?

Although it has evolved and will evolve in the future, the concept for breaking out is simple:

• Capital from members/patrons is used to build pedestrian-only campuses around the world and as working capital.  It should be noted that this environment can be utilized as a place to retire; a second home; a primary residence; a destination resort; a university; a retreat...  Integral Living.
• Living quarters will be approximately 500 s.f. with separate gourmet kitchens and dining areas dispersed throughout each campus.
• Those who build and operate the campuses are independent contractors with rolling quarter-long contracts.  These contractors live on-site.
• The entire campus will be a classroom at all times as we should all continue to learn as we live.
• On-site gardens and orchards will provide fresh fruit and produce to the extent possible. 
• Reservations will be based on seniority.  Those who reserve and occupy specific living quarters will have options to reserve those living quarters in the future.
• Members/patrons will draw down their membership accounts as they utilize/occupy the properties.  They can deposit additional membership funds at any time.  So long as funds to cover a stay have been on deposit for at least a year in advance of the commencement of any reservation period, members can reserve one or more living quarters.
• If there is a sufficient amount of cash in the working capital account, members can opt to withdraw all or some of the funds in their membership account.
• Please note that this can serve as a comprehensive alternative to the current carbon offset schemes.

Simple.

Comments

[Matt]

This we know of the future:

-energy will be expensive
-labor will be cheap.

The result can be feudal -- a few ultra-wealthy individuals and/or corporations.

Alternatively, the result can be a vibrant network of "convivial" communities.

Subscribe to a Society of Universities.

[Matt]

We spend an inordinate amount of time on profit. By focusing on flow, we can turn our attention to being creative in a more positive way. We should only "invest" in something that we can live with ourselves. For those with discerning tastes, almost all construction of the last 40 years or so is not of a quality that is acceptable. What are we going to do with trillions of pounds of sheetrock?

We need universities -- that all can contribute to -- that are truly whole and local. Contrast this with the dominant universities of today that really only focus on training students to fit into the expanding consumer-oriented economy. This may not be their stated mission but it is certainly reality.

The foundation of our society should be learning. In more enlightened times, universities provided this learning and it can do it again.

[sofa]

(1) The concept seems rife for class warfare - capital class vs scholar/labor class.

(2) Is the concept sustainable without a sustainable scholar class? Or is killing off the scholar genes an intended outcome?

(3) And with no generational wealth transfer for scholars, only those with NO investment in the future (dependents; spouse, kids) would labor for the capital class there. What sort of 'scholars' are so disconnected from life that they don't have dependents or will exclude them for the 'privilege' of laboring there? And why would anybody want to learn from such losers?

Summary:

Inevitable warfare between classes.

Scholars without dependents -> more stupid each generation.

Scholars without dependents -> not the sort of scholars anyone wants to learn from anyway.

... ... ?

[Matt Holbert]

sofa-

Thanks for your comments. They are quite thoughtful -- especially when compared with your comments on other Typepad accounts.

First of all, it should be noted that the "capitalists" that I have in mind are individuals who have been and are currently bearing the brunt of our existing insidious class warfare -- the transfer of wealth from those who actually produce to those who manipulate. (Have you seen the latest on the Goldman Sachs bonuses?) We are currently trending towards a feudal society.

Secondly, please note that I'm not hung up on the term "scholars." It could just as easily be associates, partners, or some other term. Heck, we could call them CEO's. The lifestyle would be very similar to that of a CEO when he or she is working and traveling -- high quality shelter and food. The key is the implicit "vow" of non-accumulation and not contributing to overpopulation while in residence -- a recognition that the combination of accumulation/consumption and overpopulation threatens the health of the system that we rely on for all life.

Perhaps E. F. Schumacher sums it up best in "A Guide For The Perplexed":

"To enhance our Level of Being, we have to adopt a life-style conducive to such enhancement, which means one that will grant our lower nature no more attention and care than it requires and will leave us ample free time and attention to pursue our higher development."