Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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lesson in the importance of managing borders in what is rapidly becoming a
borderless global economy.
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Applying Organic Principles to New Zealand
In Chapter 2 I discussed evidence of the growing gap between rich and poor
within New Zealand and quoted some rather distressing social indicators. There
is also a huge difference between the various regions within New Zealand. From
this a picture of the country emerges that demonstrates what happens when
conventional economics emphasises competition, expansion and domination at
the expense of respecting the ecological principles of living systems.
During the 1990s, Auckland suffered from congested highways and decaying
infrastructure, while certain small towns faced the contrasting problems of
unemployment, low wages, loss of morale, and lack of full utilisation of their
resources. In such an arrangement every New Zealander is a loser.
In order to apply organic principles in New Zealand, we need to examine
the economy on the basis of Korten’s six principles (see page 000):
1. Is the economy complex and self­organising, or does a central body have to
keep making decisions? Are there many centres of decision­making in each area
of endeavour (for example, government, industry and health) or just one? Is there
continuous negotiation between the holons, or does litigation and stagnation
prevail? Is there a hierarchy of importance, or is each small unit just as important
as the larger one? Is one town dominating other smaller towns in the district or
does each area have just one strong centre of influence to the detriment of other