K: ahhhhhhh, it is not so simple…
it becomes a question of competing values, competing goods as one might say…
the developer who builds condo’s wants to built lots and lots and lots of condo’s
because that is how he makes his money…
so for him, the value of money/profits, outweigh the need for balance
in the system or any other possible public good…
it becomes a question of whose values are given priority…
the developer or me? and it is clear from the massive building
going on in this country that the value that has priority is
pursuit of money/profit over having nature or having any balance with
nature… the equation becomes money first and everything else second,
a very distant second…that drive for profit, to build the condo’s that
destroy bears habitat or destroys a beautiful meadow… and by destroying
that bears habitat or the beautiful meadow, we unbalance the entire system…
every action must be balanced by an equal and opposite reaction…
that is the rule of physics… every action has an equal and opposite reaction…
and failure to protect our forest and our meadows leads us to an equal and
opposite action… now one may protest that that equation,
every action has an equal and opposite reaction… is a physics equation…
but it can be applied to other matters beside physics… just as equations
can be applied to a great many things…
so we have competing goods, the drive to profits and the equal drive to protect
the system we live in for the greater good of everyone…not just an private
drive to profit but an equal drive to protect EVERYONE…which is system
thinking… what action/actions promotes and protects the system?
building one set of condo’s on the hillside won’t destroy the balance or destroy
the system… but miles after miles after miles of condo’s do unbalance the system…
and those building create an equation that threaten all of us…
so, how can we decide or figure out, what is the balance or what is the equation
we use to decide if and when do we build condo’s?
let us follow the argument a bit and then perhaps we can see…
if we don’t build condo’s, then people have no where to go and that builds
up resentment and possible inequality in the system which might threaten it…
just like the French Revolution was driven by those who had nothing and had
nothing to lose when they began that revolution…
the real problem is not about building condo’s or where to build them…
the real problem lies in the fact that there are too many people…
our very numbers challenges the entire equation between the ability
to feed and clothe and shelter the number of people we have and the number
of people we have…
in other words, we can easily feed and clothe and shelter a million people…
we can easily feed and clothes and shelter a billion people…
but at 7 billion people and rising, we challenge the resources we need
to be able to take care of those 7 billion people…
it is an equation… the amount of resources the earth has and the
number of people we have…does the earth have enough resources to
take of all of us AND take care of all those creatures that exist on earth?
to allow massive amount of resources to be in the hands of a small amount of people
instead of in the hands of the people means that if we have food enough to 10 billion
people but a small number of people own 7 billion amount of food, the reality
is, that everyone is fighting over 3 billion amount of food… this is very, very
badly said, but it points to a truth…if we allow income inequality to dominate
the political system, we set the stage for an revolution, just like the French revolution…
so in this private vice of acquiring goods we set the stage for two separate
issues… first of all, this drive for money/profit creates an unbalance
income inequality which threatens us and secondly, we are using up
resources to build stuff that exists only to make money… resources
are not unlimited…we cannot accumulate resources thinking that
those resources are unlimited and we can continue this forever…
the equation is simple, we have a finite amount of resources
and we have to stretch those resources to accommodate everyone
and all creatures great and small…and the forest and the meadows…
unfettered capitalism is unsustainable which passes beyond the simple
remark that saving nature is common sense… it becomes an issue
of competing goods and an understanding that resources are limited…
several factors come into play here, beyond just common sense…
Kropotkin