Living the American dream in a world of finite resources is starting to be a problem. As the US and the world population grows we are increasingly confronted with the limits to expansion. There is only so much beach-front property, there is a limit to the amount of carbon we can produce and there are limits to water and oil and food. What to do?
The American dream was about infinite expansion. Everybody could get rich and everybody could get richer. We were and are encouraged to aspire to this dream even if sometimes we didn't achieve it. This is the pursuit of happiness an exercise which is probably in itself a producer of happiness and as such more important than achieving the ultimate goal.
The pursuit of the American dream which was characterized by: dream, build, earn, spend, chugged along happily for many years. It is the driving force behind the American economy. The more we dream, the more we create, the more we earn, the more we spend, but it is the spending that has become the problem.
Well, maybe not the spending, but consumption which is what happens after we spend. A finite world means finite consumption and thus finite spending. Did we bet on the wrong horse? Is the economic downturn directly related to our way of living?
To some extent yes, the American economy assumes that spending will always increase, but in a finite world there is only so much to buy and if spending or especially consumption is to increase, prices have to go up. And this is exactly what is happening. Unfortunately this trend means that achieving the American dream becomes harder and that there is an increasing gap between those who do it and those who don't. In order to achieve the American dream you can no longer take small steps, you need to jump.
In a finite world of finite resources you can't have everything you want. Everything is owned by someone and in order to get it we need to take it from them. Before the world was finite we could simply produce more. Now that the world is finite we have to fight others to get what we want.
Our weapon in this fight is money. Property is divided through money, food is divided through money. Money is the ultimate weapon in the war for resources, but as more resources fall into fewer hands and everything becomes scarcer prices go up and some resources now common become the privilege of the new elite.
What needs to be one is to cap and trade the American dream. We should still be able to use our skills, creativity and hard work to get ahead, but there should be limits. We need to ration our resources. Not through the flawed process of money, but by giving each of us a right to the very basics of existence: property, food, water, fuel.
I'm not saying out the window with money. Not at all. We still need to be able to aspire to something more. Having the right to a certain amount of property doesn't mean we can assert that right. But we might want to sell our rights to someone who can and use the money to improve our own situation.
I hope I have been clear so far, but if not let me use an example to explain what I'm proposing. Let's say there is a country with ten inhabitants and ten hectares of land. Now under the old system a rich man might have been able to buy up 90% of the land leaving only 10% for the rest of them. Now in my system this would not be possible. Each inhabitant would only have the right to own 10 % of the land unless they bought more rights. Now if the rich man wanted 90% of the land he would first have to buy 9% of the housing rights from each of the other inhabitants. As a result there is more downward spending which is good for the economy.
In a way putting upper limits on what people can own adds a new layer to the economy that benefits the economy in two ways:
- First of all it adds a lot of value to the economy simply by enacting a law. People who had no property rights now suddenly have them and as a result can attract capital by making deals with those living above their limit.
- And secondly because of this downward spending there will be more income equality. This is likely to lower expenditures on social services, healthcare and crime fighting.
It also means that everybody entering the world immediately has assets no matter what family they are born into.
I would like to see a bill in Congress to establish a Cap and Trade system for property, water, fuel and food just as it already exists for Carbon.
Ultimately if such a system as I propose where to be enacted I would hope that we reach a point where everybody lives well within their means until we reach a point where limitless expansion is again possible.
That seems to me a dream worth dreaming.
