Western Capitalism - what next?

The capitalism we have today is at root an immoral system as it depends on exploiting (over the recent century’s and in preset day) the powerless, using their resources (natural resources from other countries) and labour (from our own underpaid workers and those in the third world) to add to our capital to give us a better lifestyle.   Add to this the use of cheap energy which in effect exploits the future generations by creating climate change and wasting that fossil fuel capital.

Any system based on immoral ground will become corrupt as ours has.

Somehow we must come up with a new vision of what green sustainable capitalism would look like. If we are to win the argument it must be based on sound moral and ethical ground.   

Some ideas:

• A great principle - From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.
• A ratio between earnings in a firm of the highest wage not more than 10 times that of the lowest wage.
• Local banks, credit unions, crowd funding to reform the credit system.
• A return to 'sound' money where the money supply is connected to real GDP not created out of thin air. 
• A figure of GDP and therefore growth that measures the positive healthy, activity that adds to well-being of the country and doesn't count other destructive activities as being 'growth'!
• Community based self reliance - supporting local producers and businesses.
• Re-skilling formal and informal being supported in every way through apprenticeships, adult education, evening classes, cheap venues in local halls etc

More ideas please.

Chainsaw Mill

Yes we have bitten the bullet (after looking at all the Wood-Mizer etc options) and bought an Alaskan Mill.  With my MS 280 Stihl saw we can cut about 15 inches of width.   The saw is working hard and its slow progress.   I have decided to buy a bigger saw (from Ebay) and won a Stihl 046 which is older but much more powerful.  I will be able to leave this in the mill which will save me time.   Hope we will soon have some nice oak and chestnut gateposts and planks to sell!

Try these out

Great video on the story of fossil fuels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-J91SwP8w&feature=colike
And
Look at this crowd funding site, one answer to the credit/ capital / banks crisis
http://www.peoplefund.it/

Buddleia garden sticks

Now is a good time to prune buddleia bushes and as a bonus the prunings make great garden canes for next year.

On another topic;  We have had a very nice feature about EcoDIY in the Essex Gazette see http://www.ecodiy.org/gazette%20article.pdf  (its a Pdf download)

Holey apples batman

Here is our wwoofer Charlotte making apple rings for drying.  The rings are dried on canes and racks by the wood stove or in the solar drier
The rings make great snacks and additions to cakes etc.

A new solar PV system for the workshop

The roofers fitting the PV rails to our oak stringers

The completed 16 PV panels

Yesterday was an epic day here as the new 4kw solar PV panels arrived.  We had already spent a week digging a half meter deep trench to take 45meters of heavy armoured mains cable and a network cable from the workshop to the house - the dry clay we had to dig out was like concrete!

Steve and Fraser digging the trench

Then we fitted the stringers to the galvanised workshop roof which we had cut from one of the oak trees cut in our woodland.
   .

Chris and Steve fitting the oak stringers
We are hoping to log the performance of the system by PC using the network cable.  Watch this space for reports.

Insulating our floor - a tough job completed

Yippee!!  we have just finished insulating our floor with recycled insulation (with Steve's help)
This was probably the hardest job I have ever had to do! it involved crawling under our house fitting the insulation offcuts which we had cut to fit between the rafters under the floor.   Dark, dirty and cramped, in the course of the work we had to slide over , under and round the sewer pipes, plumbing and gas pipes (without damaging them).  The pay-off is that as well as a warmer house I now have a garage and workshop which can be used for more productive things than storing the insulation - celebration time!!

Cutting the insulation to the spacing of the rafters. 

Disappearing under the floor

We cut a hole in our office floor!