An ex-British colony launched a currency during the 19th century. The US dollar referenced the British currency in the sense of being valued at a ratio of approximately five-to-one. In other words, two hundred years ago the pound was worth about five dollars.
The value of a national currency, broadly speaking over time, tends to reflect the status of the national economy.
Unsurprisingly, the pound has, broadly speaking over time, fallen and fallen and fallen. It is now worth about one dollar. It has fallen by a factor of five over the last two hundred years.
Quite a fall from grace.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/the-sad-end-of-the-british-empire-110362/
Most of the current ecovillages should be viewed as demonstration projects. They model “best practices.” But they are too thin to truly and fully prefigure home places for significant numbers of people.
So it’s not surprising to hear that people don’t stay. In particular, it’s not surprising to hear that there is a dearth of young families. Even the Ecovillage at Ithaca, having three neighborhoods, a hundred units, and 230 residents, suffers from the latter conundrum and wonders what to do about it.
Solution for EVI:
Build out the five neighborhoods originally envisioned. Thus achieve a critical mass of children, making sensible the idea of having a school located within EVI.
Naturally it will be an especially appealing school, along the lines of how the whole community is especially appealing. Young families then will flock to become residents.
signs:
* the trend toward increasing longevity has peaked
* depression and alienation predominate at the periphery
* there’s a “turning back” (like: to religious fundamentalism and/or nationalist populism)
* the mystique of our immersion in the Technosphere is fading
* there’s a discomfit with our envelopment in the urban-industrial labyrinth of atomism, gray complexity, and noise
* there’s resentment of the domination of politics, the economy, and culture by cosmopolitan elites who tend to live in or near “world class” cities that comprise a network of a globalized most-thriving reality-that-matters
* * * *
“Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill
But since we’re on our way down . . .”
Give up delusions about development. Settle back. Relax. Live lightly. Smell the roses.
https://vtdigger.org/press_release/bristol-village-cohousing-hosts-open-house-oct-1st/
“Bristol Village Cohousing is one of ten cohousing communities in Vermont”
The movement started in 1889 with the founding of the German Social Democratic Party. Its popularity and influence led to the establishment of similar parties in most of the advanced democracies by 1900.
This graphic happens to show vote percentages for the social democratic party of Sweden, specifically, but it’s pretty representative of most other European moderate-left parties. Notice strong growth 1900–1950, then some decline (not precipitous in most cases, except in France) over the last forty years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management
Some industry officials said that Federal Reserve Bank of New York involvement in the rescue, however benign, would encourage large financial institutions to assume more risk, in the belief that the Federal Reserve would intervene on their behalf in the event of trouble. Federal Reserve Bank of New York actions raised concerns among some market observers that it could create moral hazard since even though the Fed had not directly injected capital, its use of moral suasion to encourage creditor involvement emphasized its interest in supporting the financial system.
Always been that way, always will be. The wealth/power elites, often working through the governments that they, ultimately, control intervene when necessary to mitigate systemic crises.
Always been that they manipulate when necessary and cooperate when necessary.
Ever since Sumer.
