What Really Caused the Great Depression? Essay Example

Capitalism in the twenty first century is converting into a senseless proposition. What is the point of a corporation amassing billions of dollars if the global climate’s temperature rises by average five or six degrees? The solution is common welfare economics.  In cities such as Detroit, where there are high indexes of unemployment, urban blight and calorie deficiencies, there’s a suggestion that has been practiced in Austria. The residents and the local government of cities similar to Detroit should become involved in community gardens. In Vienna, there are a number of community gardens that are being promoted for the common welfare. Some of the parts pants contribute with compost, others with finances and other with labor. The Austrian experiment is working. Many of the residents have their public spaces allocated to their use. This implies that if the citizens would like to use their allocated public space for gardening, they are within their right in  regards to the endeavor (Honetz 1).

The time is right for the consideration of a new economic system. In the Great depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, the economies were shifted toward a consumer basedeconomiesinstead of production based economies.As a result of a number of distinct economic and climactic factors, the Great Depression took place. In the Great Depression, $50 billion of wealth was eradicatedin one day (Federal Reserve Bank of St .Louis 34). A number of implementations had to be accomplished in order for the industrializednations to emerge from the Great Depression. The casual attributes of the Great Depression were five percent of the population possessing as much wealth as the lower sixty percent. The situation is similar in our present time. During the Great Depression almost one in three people were unemployed. What this led to was a lack of consumption.  There are parallels between the era of the Great Depression and the present (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 31).

Many of the richest organizations in America receive a subsidy that isequivalent to corporate welfare.Wal-Mart receives public funds in order to pay for its airport in Rogers, AR. The Rogers Municipal airport is used primarily for the use of Wal-Mart corporation’s aircraft.  The air traffic controllers that monitor the air traffic at Rogers Municipal Airport for the Wal-Mart fleet are paid for with taxpayer funds. In addition, the unsustainable wages that Wal- Mart is paying nits employees as salaries are costing the State of California over $86 million annually in federally sponsored programs.  The main oil companies in the United States (Shell, Chevron, Conoco PhillipsBP and Exxon Mobil) receive over $4 billion annually in tax subsidies. Solyndra, the solar energy development organization went bankrupt and was not able to repay $535 million in borrowed funds.  Organizations that include Dow Chemical, General Electric and IBM are presently receiving corporate welfare. These companies are receiving advanced technology grants from the federal government that total in the tens of millions of dollars (Marczak 1).

During human history, there have been many of the cultures that could not adapt their success strategies to new and changing conditions. The Vikings had been unable to remain in Greenland due to the deficiency in the perspective of being able to adapt to change.  Presently, there is a new challenge that is taking place. Many of those who wish to exploit the resources as if they were limitless are soon to receive a crude awakening. The societies that are the most prosperouswill be the societies that implement the common welfare economy. These societies thatimplement the common welfare economics will have an advantageoverthose who do not. In Germany, over 1400 small enterprises are willing to ratify and adapt their organizations to the common welfare economy.  The fourteenhundred smallenterprises in Germany adopting the common welfare economy  can be considered as a step towards change. . One third of theseenterprises have actually at altered their accounting methods toward the concept of the economy for the common welfare (Welder 1).

In the short term, the economy of the common welfare movement has the objective of making the social and environmental modifications that have been proposed by Christian Felber. The concept is that as an enterprise develops more common positive points in this program, the more encouragement that the business should receive from society. An organization that possesses an assertive positive good balance statement would be able to take advantage of a lower taxation rate, obtain borrowed funds from banks at lower rates of interests and become delegated with a priority status with regards to the awards of government contacts and the procurement of public purchases. The organizations that do not accumulate positive public benefit points would be subjected to higher interest rates in the use of borrowed finding and a lack of social benefits for not conforming to the ethical standards that benefit the common good.  This type of implementation would require an entire re-education of the people, in contributing to the social and the environmentalsustainability of organizations (Welzer 1).

In order to grasp and implement the common good economy, a new responsible leadership must be elected that is interested in the well-being of the people and the environment above the production of revenues. The tenets of the common welfare economy include the creation of fulfilling relationships that enable the fulfillment of the common good. The measurement of success in terms of a common welfare product and that organizations measure their success in common welfare balance is important. In this manner the organizations that manifest a higher common welfare balance would be eligible for benefits.  Many of the organizations will wish to become the optimal size in order to produce (Common Welfare Economy 1; Occupy Concepts 1).

In addition, there must be equality in income and wealth distribution. The wealth of an organization must be transformed into a common fund that is applied for the social good of society and the social good of the members of the organization. This would be defined as democratic common wealth. The creation of a central banking system that would be reliant on a new form of currency is right around the corner.  Keynes suggested that a global currenciesorganization (Common Welfare Economy 1; Occupy Concepts 1).

The value of nature as delineated by the government in Vienna will demonstrate that natural property cannot be held as private property (Common Welfare Economy 1; Honetz 1; Occupy Concepts 1). The land must be assignedtoward the fulfillment of concrete needs. As an outcome of the democratic common wealth ownership, corporate taxes and real estate taxes will become historic relics. In the national and the corporate systems, economic development is not a viable politicalobjective. The viable political objective is the establishment of the decrease of the ecological footprint (Common Welfare Economy 1; Occupy Concepts 1)

Conclusion

As the world entered in to the middle of the second decade of the twenty – first century, it becomes apparent that there is a need for change. This is demonstrated by the unrestricted corporate welfare that is given to large multinational firms in the United States. These benefits are given to these organizations and there is no sustainable benefit that is returned to the people. This is why the common benefits economy is a requisite for a sustainable future.

Works Cited

Common Welfare Economy. “20 cornerstones of the common welfare economy.” Common Welfare Economy, December 2011. Web. 14 October 2014. http://www.christian-felber.at

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. “Lesson 3? What really caused the Great Depression?” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2007. Web. 14 October 2014. http://www.st.louisfed.org/greatdepression/…/the-great-depression-lesson3.pdf

Honetz, Simone. “Booming trend: Urban gardening in Vienna.” Crowd City, July 2013. Web. 14 October 2014. http://www.crowdcity.com/booming-trend-urban-gardening-in-vienna

Marczak, Tricia.” 4 examples of corporate welfare in action.” Taxpayers for Common Sense, 19 August 2013. Web. 14 October 2014. http://www.taxpayer.net/media-ccenter/article/4-examples-of-corporate-welfare-in-action

Occupy Concepts. “Common welfare economy.” Occupy Concepts, 2012. Web 14 October 2014. http://occupyconccepts.org/wiki/cCommon_Welfare_Economy

Welzer, Harald. “Climate summit trap: Capitalism’s march toward global collapse.” Spiegel Online 6 December 2013. Web. 14 October 2014. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/warsaw-climate-conference-shows-capitalism-root-of-climate-failure-a937453.htm