“Our assaults on the ecosystem are so powerful, so numerous, so finely interconnected, that although the damage they do is clear, it is very difficult to discover how it was done. By which weapon? In whose hand? Are we driving the ecosphere to destruction simply by our growing numbers? By our greedy accumulation of wealth? Or are the machines which we have built to gain this wealth-the magnificent technology that now feeds us out of neat packages, that clothes us in man-made fibers, that surrounds us with new chemical creations-at fault?” MenMadeDoneHandsDifficultWealthPowerfulNumbersTechnologyClearGrowingCreationClothesWeaponsGainsBuiltDestructionMachinesFaultsEnvironmentalDrivingDamageSurroundChemicalsMagnificentAssaultGreedyPackagesAccumulationNeatEcosystemsFiberInterconnected Author:Barry Commoner
“Unfortunately, once an economy is geared to expansion, the means rapidly turn into an end and "the going becomes the goal." Even more unfortunately, the industries that are favored by such expansion must, to maintain their output, be devoted to goods that are readily consumable either by their nature, or because they are so shoddily fabricated that they must soon be replaced. By fashion and built-in obsolescence the economies of machine production, instead of producing leisure and durable wealth, are duly cancelled out by the mandatory consumption on an even larger scale.” MeanEndsTurnsGoalWealthEconomyFashionIndustryBuiltMachinesProductionsScalesGoodsLeisureDevotedConsumptionReplacedExpansionOutputObsolescence Book:THE CITY IN HISTORY Source: THE CITY IN HISTORY
“The market is like a machine that needs to be constantly excited. It needs to constantly produce wealth and more excitement. There are some leading players who are always there before everyone else, and they set market trends, they make people safe about the excitement. Of course, those who buy it first are the first to drop it. It's an ongoing game.” PeopleNeedsFirstsCoursesGamesWealthPlayerProduceSafeMachinesExcitedExcitementTrendsOngoing Author:Maurizio Cattelan
“The aim of industrialization has always been to replace people with machines or other technology, to make the cost of production as low as possible, to sell the product as high as possible, and to move the wealth into fewer and fewer hands.” PeopleHandsMovingWealthTechnologyProductsCostLowsMachinesAimSellsProductionsFewerIndustrialization Author:Wendell Berry
“The great weakness of the West is that it has nothing with which to inspire loyalty except wealth. But what is wealth? Another washing machine, a bigger car, a nicer house to live in? Not much to feed the spirit in all that.” SpiritHouseWealthCarInspireWeaknessMachinesBiggerWestLoyaltyWashingWashing Machines Author:John Burdett
“In today's materialistic world there is a risk of people becoming slaves to money, as though they were simply cogs in a huge money-making machine. This does nothing for human dignity, freedom, and genuine well-being. Wealth should serve humanity, and not the other way around.” PeopleWorldWayShouldHumansWellsDoeTodayHumanityWealthRiskHugeBecomingDignityMachinesSlaveGenuineWell BeingMaking MoneyMaterialismWise Man Once SaidMaterialisticHuman DignityCogsMaterialistic World Author:Dalai Lama
“We must understand what our idea of wealth is. Is it just about more buildings, more machines, more cars, more of everything? More and more is death. In the most affluent societies in the world, for example in the United States of America, a significant percentage of the population is on anti-depressants on a regular basis. If you just withdraw one particular medication from the market, almost half the nation will go crazy. That is not wellbeing. Generally, an American citizen has everything that anyone would dream of.” IfsWorldIdeasStatesDreamAmericaNationsWealthUnitedHalfUnited StatesCrazyCarExampleBuildingParticularCitizensMachinesBasesPopulationSignificantUnited States Of AmericaPercentagesWellbeingMedicationAmerican CitizensAffluenceAffluentDepressants Author:Jaggi Vasudev
“Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution.” PeopleIfsEndsEnjoyWealthPoorMachinesOwnersLeisureLuxurious Author:Stephen Hawking
“By fashion and built-in obsolescence the economies of machine production, instead of producing leisure and durable wealth, are duly cancelled out by the mandatory consumption on an even larger scale.” WealthEconomyFashionBuiltMachinesProductionsScalesLeisureConsumptionObsolescence Author:Lewis Mumford
“Forget land, buildings, or machines-the real source of wealth today is intelligence, applied intelligence. We talk glibly of "intellectual property" without taking on board what it really means. It isn't just patent rights and brand names; it is the brains of the place.” MeanRealTodayNamesWealthForgetBrainRightsLandBuildingSourceIntellectualMachinesPropertyBrandsBoardsReally MeanPatentsIntellectual PropertyBrand Names Author:Charles Handy
“Whatever else it was, Adolf Hitler's short-lived regime was also a colossal industrial process by which the wealth and productive power of much of Europe was wrenched from its normal purposes and converted into a machine for killing.” PurposeProcessWealthNormalEuropeMachinesKillingProductiveRegimesColossalShort Lived Author:James Buchan
“In the days when the nation depended on agriculture for its wealth it made the Lord Chancellor sit on a woolsack to remind him where the wealth came from. I would like to suggest we remove that now and make him sit on a crate of machine tools.” MadeNationsWealthLordEconomicsToolsMachinesRemoveAgriculture Author:Prince Philip
“As the earth spins through space, a view from above the North Pole would encompass most of the wealth of the world - most of its food, productive machines, doctors, engineers and teachers. A view from the opposite pole would encompass most of the world's poor.” WorldEarthWealthSpacePoorViewsTeacherDoctorsMachinesOppositesProductiveEngineersNorth Pole Author:Barry Commoner