From Colin Tudge, whose address I unfortunately largely missed at yesterday’s Green Economics Conference (love to know what happened to the 8.56 from Paddington to Oxford…), a couple of nice thoughts/facts:
There are more people in jail in America than working on the land.
The reality is ecology, the market is mere fantasy. (As a suggested response who say “we can’t do this because of the market.”)
I also learnt about a fascinating scheme in Alaska, the Alaska Permanent Fund, which takes about an eighth of the state’s oil revenues and invests them for the benefit of all, with residents being paid a dividend each year that makes a small basic income for all.
And that basic income is an idea taking off in parts of the developing world, including South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique.
There was a lot more excellent stuff, including an interesting outline of the state of trafficking law – about enter big changes now that the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against the Trafficking has come into force (which it did on Feb1, with sufficient countries ratifying it), and the UK government has promised to ratify it by the end of the year.
I was also introduced to the Women’s Budget Group, which to quote from its website: “brings together feminist economists, researchers, policy experts and activists to work towards our vision of a gender equal society in which women’s financial independence gives them greater autonomy at work, home, and in civil society”. Definitely needs doing!
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