Let a Million Flowers Bloom

Of course we could have a Parliament instead.

Having many candidates from the same party enables the party, through debate, to develop a progressive vision for the country, the nation.

This would require suppressing personal advancement for the good of the group.

But this makes it possible for more interests in the country to make their case for how the country might conduct its business; to arrive at a compromise with a promise of future negotiations to arrive at a society that can live together in peace: arrive at some kind of equilibrium. 

This means that the so-called "debates" a way for each "candidate" to present to the nation their vision of a perfect or at least desirable world or nation ... and get the nation's reaction and opinion on that vision.  Very optimistically. 

Greta Thunberg sailing across the Atlantic on a zero-carbon boat is, at one level, somewhat ridiculous, but at another, possessed of deep and powerful metaphor and symbolism.  One way to think about it is that it is only the First of Millions of zero-carbon voyages.  In other words, it has to start somewhere.

On the other hand, even though we manage to pollute ourselves to death (global warming is a response to pollution) that does not mean that "it ends".  Life will go on; possibly even human life; if it is able to adapt -- evolve quickly enough to thrive in the changing environment, whether the population can adapt to the environment.

The two views are not incompatible.  In fact, they are restatements of the same thing.

Common Property Resources and Capitalism's Failure

"Ultimately, the measure of a society’s wealth is the range of human problems that it has found a way to solve and how available it has made those solutions to its citizens."  Capitalism Redefined.  Hanauer & Beinhocker, 2014. Democracyjournal.org

But what are those problems.  We tend to characterize them as material problems -- a nicer car as a way to get around, a better entertainment system, an amusing thing to defray our boredom, a faster and more accurate way to write our letter and do our taxes, a more convenient way to shop, a better mousetrap.  Finding solutions to these problems have made a few people wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice.  And finding solutions other problems like these will enrich future Midases.

Why these problems have been solved has to do, I think, with the fact that these solutions are solutions for discreet individuals, the purchase of which enrich discreet individuals. 

But there are other problems which are problems of the commons, which benefit individuals, but more importantly, benefit all individuals.  Fixing a pothole may benefit me and my car, but it also benefits everyone else who uses that road.  The same goes for other common property resources like clean air and water, parks, good schools, cultural institutions, public health. 

The persistent problem with common property problems is that it is difficult for an individual to become rich by providing these resources.   These resources are not divisible so that they can be parceled out to individual buyers, so no one can become rich by selling these goods piecemeal like one can by selling copies of MS Word, or buying through Amazon.