“The metabolic connection between so many organisms provides biological synergies, nutrient availability to plants, checks on disease or insect outbreaks, etc.”

Diversity in the global economy is essential to sustain a balance and support the variety of****. However, the current global economy suffers from a lack of diversity in a variety of ways. The wealth distribution throughout the population is not diversified. For every dollar of new wealth that has been created in the United States since the financial crisis, 93 cents has gone to the top wealthiest 1% of the population.[1] Of all stocks globally, 84% are owned by the richest 10% of Americans.[2] Workers are suffering from the disappearance of middle-class jobs due to the lack of distributing wealth among society. Meanwhile, the top executives of companies are rewarding themselves with mega-million-dollar compensation packages.[3] Lastly, CEOs of large US companies last year made as much money in one day as average workers made over the entire year.[4] Further lack of diversity occurs with banks ignoring the macroeconomic impacts of their activities. They only will finance things that are profitable in the short term, like fossil fuel prospecting, instead of financing something like low-carbon infrastructure. Low-carbon infrastructure does not have short-term profitability but has profitable results in the long-term as well as being environmentally conscious.[5] Lastly, annual global spending is not diversified. Various areas of the world have their priorities, for example some of these priorities are cosmetics, cigarettes, alcoholic drinks, military spending, and pet foods. These priorities cost upwards of eight, 50, 780, and 17 billion US dollars, respectively. With these priorities, areas such as basic education, water and sanitation, reproductive health for women, and basic health and nutrition for all are neglected. However, costs to resolve these issues and provide universal access to these basic social services would only cost a total of 40 billion US dollars.[6]

Efficient Economic Cycles – How does the current global economy lack efficiency?

The global economy does not utilize resources efficiently. A summary presented by New Economics Foundation concluded that many natural resources are in a severe decline, even though they were previously recognized as infinitely abundant. This is due to emerging economies around the world that strive for an abundant lifestyle filled with material items. These material items are created by industries that neglect the limits of resources.[7] Further with the improper use of resources, the production and distribution of these resources are not planned properly, and further waste handling of expired items. Localizing economic activity is disregarded.[8] Apples are shipped from England to south Africa to be waxed, and then flown back to England to be sold to consumers. Tuna fish are caught on the east coast of America, flown to japan to be processed, and flown back to America to be sold to consumers. The whole process involves incredible quantities of waste.[9] Only with a full cost accounting system, a true cost accounting system will we begin to understand that goods that are shipped from 10, 000 miles away are far more expensive than goods produced locally. If you shorten the distance between producers and consumers, you’re cutting out your food miles, you’re cutting out your emissions, you’re cutting out your oil dependency.[10]

The global economy relies on continuous growth, which is not efficient. Historically, industrial growth was destabilized by agricultural collapse as both processes required the same resources: labour and land. This was before the coal period, however when coal was introduced it allowed the industrial growth to no longer rely on land to provide productivity, like growing fuelwood and fodder for horses. This allowed agriculture and industrial growth to work alongside each other, but this later became at the cost of the natural world as both practices relied on continuous growth and endlessly sacrificed the natural world to achieve this growth, to this day.[11] Growth is a measure of the conversion of nature into cash, and commons into commodities. “When every aspect of life is commercialised and commoditised, living becomes costlier, and people become poorer.” An old, living forest does not contribute to growth, but when the forest is clear-cut, and the trees are sold as timber, that is growth. Water as a common that provides for all and is shared freely does not create growth. However, when Aquafina builds a factory, mines the water, and fills plastic bottles with it, the economy grows. These two examples show that nature is at the chopping block of growth. This is not an efficient process.[12]

Self-Regulation – How does the current global economy lack self-regulation?

(what process in our society don’t self regulate, think how nature is self-regulatory but our capitalist society isn’t with the processes we have created)