The ghost of catastrophe past, present and still to come

Very interesting and thought provoking post.

Rob, I've thought about this a lot over the years. In many cases what we decry as inhumane in other countries today was the norm in the west as these countries developed. Child labor being just one example. While it is laudable to stop these practices, if simply stopped they could have some significant negative consequences. Child labor may be a key source of income for some families, same as what we see as low wage/slave wage woman's jobs. Take these away and the family may have no support and the country cannot take the same path to development many countries in the west took. Now smart people learn from their mistakes and truly smart people learn from others' mistakes. So if we want to prevent the human toll that development took in western countries and is taking now in developing countries, we need to build paths to prosperity that are less destructive. While globally we certainly have the means to do this, today's developing countries are plagued by a condition most western countries did not have during their development: lack of a governable state and considerable violence (yes there were wars, but not on a nearly daily/endemic basis like in many developing countries). Any solution needs to address governance and stability as well as economic and social development. Simply dumping aid in an unstable, nearly failed state may only feed the flames of further violence and chaos. An effective solution must e a holistic solution. I've played with the idea of archipelagos of stability approach. Essentially this concept is to takes a region--not necessarily a country--that has some degree of stability and makes focused, synchronized investment in a holistic manner to build an initial island of stable development and then connect islands into archipelagos. As part of this, the developing islands/archipelagos need to be protected from violence, graft, and instability. The inhabitants must accept responsibility for effective governance and their own development. This idea also recognizes that there are places on this earth that at least for the foreseeable future will not support a prosperous developed society. These areas are either geographically isolated or have such severe climate and/or problems that they are effectively unable to sustain much more than a nomadic or subsistence form of life.

Hi Rob and readers, I must agree with your post in every aspect. The subject really worries me and so I would encourage every first world inhabitant to join your and my thoughts about FSR (Full Social Responsibility). Nobody including me has ever written about FSR but you, yes you are very precisely spotting the pain chain that is steadily leading us to a assured degraded Life on Earth. From Wikipedia (sure I like some entires there!) I would cite and comment a definition for CSR, to which everyday Corporations around the World brag they abide as the ultimate solution for our planet's relief: "Corporate social responsibility (CSR, also called corporate conscience, corporate citizenship or responsible business) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model." —GREAT DEFINITION INDEED! "Corporate" is the key word to achieve compliance with CSR. I wonder how many among multi-national corporations have CSR in place but still benefit from children in their manufacturing processes. "CSR policy functions as a self-regulatory mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards and national or international norms." —GREAT! But, to which national norms? First world's or third's worlds? Do they establish compliance throughout their internal processes AND their supply chain? I guess not every corp. does! "With some models, a firm's implementation of CSR goes beyond compliance and engages in "actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law"." —This should be the point to callit FSR: go further, let the legislative bodies adapt to a more responsible business conscience. Not only meaning charity or similar programs, but ripping unfair, harmful and noxious practices off their business processes from top to bottom, not just within their first-world operations. "The aim is to increase long-term profits through positive public relations, high ethical standards to reduce business and legal risk, and shareholder trust by taking responsibility for corporate actions." —What about reducing impact on Earth itself, Flora, Wildlife besides Human Environment? "CSR strategies encourage the company to make a positive impact on the environment and stakeholders including consumers, employees, investors, communities, and others." —"OTHERS" Just one word among five to encompass the largest and most important part of the equation! Sorry for the drag! Have a nice day. Juan

Planned obsolescence (which smacks of greed and capitalism) was a shift marketed to the consumer. Somewhat innocently we allowed our values to be shifted. How then is a shift to durability, repurpose, the Long View (with its human costs) marketed? Can we rebuild that value? The comment I read about 'kids throwing away technology (cell phones, tablets, etc.) like they were paper towels hit me. I am still worrying about the paper towels.

Enjoyed reading this. We often hear about the poor labour conditions of clothing factories in East Asia; cellphone factories in China but so little about the poor labour conditions of Africans involved in making our first world products. Coffee, Diamonds and mining of rare metals.