Stephen Yearwood
2 min readMar 24, 2022

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You did ask for feedback... (I do have an M.A. in economics, with my Thesis in political economy.)

Is it fair to say that you agree, Mr. Koonin, that we humans are putting too much pressure on the natural environment, not just in warming the climate but via extractions and waste in all its forms?

As it happens, I stumbled upon a solution that can be applied to the existing economic system of any nation--without imposing any cost on employers, without redistributing anything, without imposing any limit on income/wealth, without any requiring any additional regulations on businesses (though the regulation of businesses would still be a political issue), and without requiring people to act any particular way.

Total output would be governed, passively but effectively, by demographics, and only that. The economy would become completely self-regulating, with no unemployment or poverty at any level of total output.

All of that is accomplished with a kind of permanent 'quantitative easing', but with built-in protections against inflation. We could even eliminate taxes/public debt for funding government--all government, from central to local — at the current level of per capita spending, forever (as long as government did not exceed that level of spending, but noting also that welfare would be not be an issue).

Full disclosure: for the good of the economy, 'nonproductive speculation' (buying assets only to sell them for a profit) in real estate, commodities (as inputs for production), and currency would have to be restricted. To my mind that should be done, anyway. Such speculation in those areas distorts the economy in unproductive ways.

Wealth as an end in itself, by any means whatsoever, is not a necessary condition for a just society as we in the ‘West’ commonly think of justice, based on liberty and equality. Liberty is limited in various ways for the good of society, and limiting the buying and selling of pieces of paper for the sake of a much more stable economy cannot be deemed an unreasonable restriction on liberty, especially when other forms of even nonproductive speculation (including what is actually called gambling) are still allowed.

if curious: (for, primarily, economists) "Paradigm Shift;" "Same Economy, Way Better Outcomes for Society" (both here in Medium, but not behind the paywall)

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Stephen Yearwood
Stephen Yearwood

Written by Stephen Yearwood

M.A. in political economy (money/distributive justice) "Please don't confront me with my failures/ I'm aware of them" from "These Days," as sung by Gregg Allman

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