Green Options

Congatulations to Adam of St. Louis for his contest winning caption! Stay tuned for another caption contest in August…

Last Wednesday, as I was riding my bicycle down Third Street to the UCSF Mission Bay Farmer’s Market, my thoughts turned to the economist Jospeh Schumpeter and his seminal book “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy”. Streams of loud cars and trucks barreled past me on the road, some of the vehicles nearly grazing me as oblivious drivers chattered on cell phones. As I continued pedaling down the street, images of organic daikon and Schumpeter’s theory of “Creative Destruction” swirled around [...]

What will become of the Republican Party when Democrats lead us out of this financial crisis?

Ecobrain, a green publishing company offers ebooks, the ideal green reading choice. Ebooks can be instantly downloaded to your desktop. Ecobrain has a series of ebooks that make ideal reading for Ecopreneurs.

EcoBrain.com offers thousands of other titles about or relating to the environment. Their genres include environment, sustainable living, cookbooks, biographies, kids’ books, how-to guides, green architecture titles, organic gardening, composting, fiction and more.

Frank Dixon is the founder of Global Systems Change and the former Managing Director of Research for Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, which is the largest corporate sustainability research company in the world. His perspective on corporate thought and sustainability is that flaws in our economic and political systems make it impossible for any company to become sustainable. In fact, Mr. Dixon managed to shake my belief in many of the fundamental “sacred cows” I learned in business school

In an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes, his first since the election, President-elect Barack Obama said the $700 billion bailout plan has done little to improve the economy so far, but he credited the Bush administration Sunday for working to address the global financial crisis.

Economic populism involves an economic philosophy urging social and political system changes. In the current political and economic climate, the public concern over the inequity of wealth appears to be at a peak. There is a growing call by Senator Barack Obama and democrats to raise taxes on the wealthy to shrink the wealth gap. But is it true that the rich are getting richer? Or are the rich actually in danger of losing a significant portion of the nation’s [...]

The Inspired Economist (IE) (http://inspiredeconomist.com/) provides a bridge between idealism and capitalism, profit and passion, iconoclast and industrialist, right and left, and all of the other dichotomies that serve as distractions from the serious issues that face the world. The IE aims to foster creativity, and to rally both emerging and established business leaders around the goal of creating a more just and sustainable society. A multi-media resource for the New Economy, the IE serves individuals and companies focused [...]

As retail sales decline, manufacturing slows and unemployment benefit claims rise, the economic situation looks more and more grim by the day. Rises in the stock market that show a glimmer of hope are invariably followed by dips. The housing markets declines steadily and the recession promises to linger well into next year. George Bush has called for a mid November summit to discuss the international economic situation.

Editor’s note: We’re pleased to launch the fifteenth blog in the Green Options Media blog network today: The Inspired Economist. A counterpart to Ecopreneurist and other blogs in our Business & Technology channel, The Inspired Economist will cover the broad world of green and conscious business. Please welcome lead writer and founder John-Paul Maxfield to the GO Media family!

It is my sincere pleasure to welcome you to [...]

When the spirit of carpooling meets capitalism, what do you get? Of the possible answers, one new green one is Earth Aid Group Buys from the folks at Earth Aid Enterprises. This interesting concept brings green consumers together in order to harness their collective power and “leverage,” as it were, for large-volume discounts on eco-friendly goods.

For the most part, the muscle power that comes with large-volume merchandising has belonged to big corporations–Wal-Mart is by far the best example. When these megabusinesses flex that muscle, they often put the squeeze on more than just merchandise manufacturers; they also can squeeze out smaller, local businesses. After all, why would shoppers pay more for products at small pharmacy, grocery, and appliance stores when they can go to a single SUPERSTORE and buy everything they need at one place for a lower price? As these superplexes mushroom in size and number, the local “little guy” may quickly get strangled and suffocate.

In contrast, Earth Aid’s Group Buys puts the power back in the hands of consumers. As far as I can see, this is a great potential resource for consumers who are looking for ways to go green without spending all their hard-earned green. That is, Earth Aid allows consumers to wield the same power as large corporations–and so get those same big-purchase discounts from the manufacturers. Or, as Earth Aid puts it:

This process allows all of us to band our purchasing power together into a formidable force–which we use to drive prices down. And it works because of a very simple proposition–manufacturers can cut prices progressively for larger and larger bulk orders.