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An exercise in Planetary Thinking for an age of crises.

Reading “Children of a modest Star” by Jonathon S. Blake and Nlis Gilman. According to the authors of this book, the current world order is an ad hoc multi-scale governance dominated by the nation-state. In this world order, the primacy of the sovereignty of nation-states determines the shaping of local, sub-national, and global, super-national governance. According to the authors, this world order stands in the way of solving climate problems. We should not think globally, where the primacy of the nation-state is still the starting point, but think planetarily. A world order based on planetary thinking starts with the planet as a whole and allocates political power based on the principle of planetary subsidiarity. The idea is to scale up or scale down government tasks to new functional entities when policy goals will be more effectively implemented by these entities. The authors acknowledge that many facets play a role in the formation of multi-scale governance, including facets o...
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How to handle a finite world: Cap and Trade

The world is in a clear transition, a transition that is so full of uncertainties that it is not yet clear where we will end up. Will it be a catastrophe, a dystopia, or a utopia? What 'system change' is needed? What is the nature of the transition? Will this be the end of capitalism, growth, democracy, freedom? From a great distance, the transition can be interpreted as follows : for two centuries we have known seemingly limitless (and exponential) growth and progress. Yet there were indeed boundaries that were limited unnoticed (?) and they are now breaking us down. The earth is finite. The atmosphere is finite. Fresh water is finite. The Netherlands is finite. It is the confrontation with these finitudes that causes the transition. And there is only one answer: We will have to adapt our society and learn to deal with finitudes by drawing boundaries and making choices. That is the task for the Netherlands and the world. Most economists are advocating new tariffs ...
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Open letter to the authors of ‘the triumph of injustice’

  Dear Mr. Saez, Dear Mr. Zucman, The Triumph of Injustice is a sharp analysis of the origin of inequality and offers proposals on how to undo this inequality by introducing a wealth tax, income tax and a tax on national income.   I have studied them in detail and it has given me many new ideas and insights. I would like to comment on 3 topics related to your book. 1. The integration of wealth and income tax, 2. The relationship between the tax system and a sustainable economy, and 3 the relationship between the tax system and social security. I hope my ideas will inspire you as your book inspired me. For years I have been thinking about a better organization of the societies of Europe in the areas of taxation, social security and the labor market. Recently I updated my ideas and translated them into English. In this letter I will refer to those documents. My position is that the EU should set up its own tax system that, like your tax proposals for the US, is aimed at re...
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How to regulate transformation of our economy to a cyclic econonomy? Use a profile tax!

  The second issue of 'The Human Capacity' Magazine describes a new tax: a profile tax for companies which can replace all other taxes. Like to know more. Read the article .   
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