Just because we have the technology doesn’t mean we have to use it. 

I received three telephone “calls” from “Hillary Clinton” yesterday, as well as one from “Jack Nicholson,” also asking me to vote for Hillary Clinton.  But just in case you were wondering, it was not really Ms. Clinton calling me. It was (you guessed it!) a “robo call.”  A word that has entered our vocabulary  along with “carbon footprint.”  My mother would not know from either.  Nor would have I just ten years ago.

But I volunteered on a political campaign recently and called people from my neighborhood on behalf of Deval Patrick. (He won)  When I called, some people were shocked; when they found out I was not a robo call, but actually their neighbor.  “Hi, this is Michael Brown. I am your neighbor. I live down the hill from you, near the skating rink,” I would often say.

When they got over the shock that  I was a real person, more than one person said, “Well, I am going to vote for your guy, just because you called me.”  I thanked them and told them they would likely see me (“ a bald middle aged guy standing with a blue jacket at the polling place on election at 7 am”) when they came to vote.

I am not now and have never been a robo call.

Remember the first (Bill) Clinton presidential campaign and its motto: “It’s the Economy, Stupid?” It was meant to remind everyone that people really cared most about the economy . That concern would elect Bill Clinton.

Nowadays, people are concerned about being “green.” But, as Kermit the Frog, tells us: It is not easy being green.

Many, if not most of us, still care about “the economy.” (Well, really not “the” economy, but “our” economy. Our job, Our family’s prospects for economic security. Which is really different from “the economy” – which I can’t see, small, touch, taste or feel, and which frankly does not exist! . But more about that later

When I was a kid, my mother used to remind us to turn off the lights, yelling, “We don’t got stock in Con Ed.” (For non-New Yorkers, Con Ed was the electric company in New York. My mother, not being a stock holder (of anything) reminded her children that turning off the lights was our economic duty. My mom was not trying to be “green.” She was teaching us our class position.

Many of us today, want to be “green.” We want to turn off the lights – even if we DO have “stock in Con Ed.” -- because we want to avert global warming, etc.

So, now it is both the economy AND the environment, although for most of us, we know which is going to hurt us first. And that is “the economy.” Which is why ...   more »

Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy is an important and thoughtful book.  He shows us how if China, India and other parts of the developing world continue to mimic America’s energy consuming ways,  the world’s entire oil supply will soon be gone and the planet disastrously hot.  Our economic addiction to “growth” puts on a collision course to catastrophe.

But the poor, (and even many in the middle class) in the developing world and in America, won’t change their habits without a viable alternative.  Why should I not want a car when the bus service sucks?  Why should the Chinese ride bikes when Americans drive big cars?

McKibben disses the consumer economy.  He points out, quite correctly, that beyond a certain point, more things don’t bring happiness. in spite of what advertisers and traditional economists tell us.    But, some things do bring happiness.  At least, I think so.

I really like my new red leather couch.  It comes from Norway (at the cost of much oil expended I am sure), and it is much more comfortable than my old crappy one where the cushions used to always slide off.  My new backyard deck allows me to sit outside in the nice weather.  I like that.  I also like the new windows on my eastern wall.  It makes me happier to be able to look outside, and have some light come in.  So, sometimes, some “things’ ...   more »