A Short History of Economics

Marilyn Waring
Marilyn Waring is a lecturer, writer and development consultant. She is also a farmer and she says herself that it is this calling that has had the most profound influence on the way she understands the economy. Unfortunately, Waring's ideas have never seriously influenced the way our Canadian economic system works. However, Marilyn Waring has been a great inspiration to many people, especially women, who feel that the current economic system excludes much of life.

Waring says that when economy includes only activities which involve monetary transactions, much of women's productive and reproductive work is excluded. Bearing children, mothering, tending a garden, feeding one's family, milking a family cow, raising sheep for wool you use yourself, all of these are excluded as economic activities and do not find their way into any country's System of National Accounts. In other words, through a traditional understanding of the economy, much of the work of half of the population becomes invisible. (See Julie's story.)

According to Waring, mainstream economics has also not found a way of counting the resources on which valued production is based, namely the earth. For example, activities which involve monetary transactions count as production even when they involve the degradation of the earth's resources, such as strip-mining. A sunset has no value, nor a mountain, and trees only count when they have been chopped down and sold. At the same time, Waring criticizes traditional economics for not finding a way to value community well-being. By current thinking, war and disaster are 'good for the economy' because they create jobs such as arms production and clean-up.

Waring's video Who's Counting? is available at public libraries and universities across Canada as are her books, Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women are Worth and Three Masquerades: Politics, Work, and Human Rights.


www.unpac.ca/economy/historyecon.html

Windsor, ON | Ten Thousand Villages Canada

www.tenthousandvillages.ca/cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=pageStore5106&template=fullpage-en

Buying bottled water is wrong, says Suzuki

David Suzuki says plastic water bottles generate waste and potential health hazards because of their chemical composition. (CBC). "I think in Canada it's ...

www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2007/02/01/suzuki-water.html

Redistribution of Wealth

Three Models of Global Community.Debates about global justice tend to assume normative models of global community without justifying them explicitly. These models are divided between those that advocate a borderless world and those that emphasize the self-sufficiency of smaller political communities. In the first case, there are conceptions of a community of trade and a community of law. In the second case, there are ideas of a community of nation-states and of a community of autonomous communities. The nation-state model, however, is not easily justified and is one that has been criticized extensively elsewhere. The model of a community of trade underlies both advocates of market-oriented development and exponents of global schemes of redistribution of resources and incomes. I analyze the work of Charles Beitz, Peter Singer, and Thomas Pogge to show that the assumption that global interdependence is beneficial is poorly justified. The model of a community of law, as seen in the work of Henry Shue and others, is the basis for arguments against state sovereignty and in favor of international human rights regimes. I argue that this model suffers either from a problem of practicability or of hegemony. Finally, the model of a community of autonomous communities uses notions of patriotism and sovereignty to maintain that disengagement and independence are the best routes to global peace and justice.

www.springerlink.com/index/v54141034373hu04.pdf

Buy Nothing Day

Loosely organized event encouraging not shopping at all on the day after Thanksgiving, the "first day of the Christmas shopping season."

www.adbusters.org/bnd/

The Real News

The Real News is a non-profit news and documentary network focused on providing ... "The Real News" is the flagship show of IWT and Real News Network. ...

www.therealnews.com/

TransFair Canada: About Fair Trade

Behind the principles and goals of Fair Trade is a rigorous international system of monitoring, auditing and certification. The international Fair Trade ...

www.transfair.ca/en/fairtrade/

Hydrogen Future

A University of Windsor chemistry professor may be holding the keys to hydrogen-powered vehicles of the future. David Antonelli's breakthrough in hydrogen ...

http://cronus.uwindsor.ca/units/research/works/rtw.nsf/main/7605384EA702EE9885257317006CE99F?OpenDocument

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Welcome to the CCPA. Independent, non-profit research organization, to promote research on economic and social policy issues from a progressive point of view.

www.policyalternatives.ca/

GLIER Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research News

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Biology Professor Hugh MacIsaac is part of a group of researchers who are being supported by a $1.123 ...

web4.uwindsor.ca/.../main.nsf/c571b39ad1991eb98525694b005101c3/024e008f76a153998525695f0064d310?OpenDocument

Union of Concerned Scientists

The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent...

www.ucsusa.org/

GreenLink Border Solution

The GreenLink plan was presented at a special meeting of Council on Tuesday, ... View the Greenlink presentation by following either of the links below. ...

www.greenlinkwindsor.ca/

Rad and Sustainable Fashion

rad and sustainable fashion** for gals for guys for bebes -----using recycled ... aw thanks, hows things going with the clothing? Made in Windsor

www.myspace.com/amyjillsnook

Green Party of Canada

www.sierraclub.ca/.../ how-to-save-the-world.jpg
www.sierraclub.ca/ activist-publication/
How to be an Activist
Elizabeth May, a Sierra Club of Canada Executive Director for 17 years, developed her "How to be an Activist" pamphlet to teach others how to become active campaigners. The original How to be an Activist, first published online in 1996 is a practical guide to campaigning.

Now, 10 years later, Elizabeth May has written a definitive followup to the "How to be an Activist" guide - How to Save the World in Your Spare Time published by Key Porter Books.
Whoever said "you can't fight city hall," never had access to a book like this. An invaluable guide and fascinating glimpse into the life of a tireless campaigner for the planet, How to Save the World In Your Spare Time can show anyone how to fight for a cause.
A veteran environmental organizer and activist, Elizabeth May has put decades of experience and advice into this entertaining read. Sprinkled throughout are stories of her career in activism: from adventures in the Amazon with Sting and Gordon Lightfoot, to surprising stories of Canadian political figures including the late Dalton Camp and Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Read the opening chapter to what reviewers have called "the go-to guide that shows you how to fight for a cause".





Elizabeth May unveils her party's Green vision for Canada ... OTTAWA – Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May today congratulated Green Party of Ontario ...

www.greenparty.ca/

Impact on Chemicals Regulation

The SPP Regulatory Framework Agreement and Its Impact on Chemicals Regulation
by Bruce Campbell
September 24, 2007 | National Office

Download the Report/Study:

• More Than Jellybeans: The SPP Regulatory Framework Agreement and Its Impact on Chemicals Regulation - PDF File, 133 Kb

Roots & Shoots ...

Jane Goodall Institute of

JGI Canada currently supports a sanctuary for orphaned chimpanzees at Ngamba Island in Uganda and a three-year program to introduce Roots & Shoots ...



www.janegoodall.ca/news-lectures.php

What is Earth Science? University of Windsor

[PDF]What is Earth Science? University of WindsorFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
University of Windsor. http://www.uwindsor.ca/earth. Page 2. What is Earth Science? The objectives of Earth Science are to study and ...
web2.uwindsor.ca/earthsci/WhatIsEarthScience.pdf -