Erica's Manifesto and Oops, Earth needs a Balance Sheet

Erica's Manisfeto:  

Though considered by many to be impossibly dull and boring, I consider Bookkeeping as one of the most empowering skills one person can teach another. It has been used, for better or worse, as the basic wealth-building tool from the 15th century Merchants of Venice to the 21st century wWizards of Walls Street.

I believe that the more of us who understand basic bookkeeping, the better off All of us will be – in terms of our individual finances, our collective socio-economic well-being,  AND most of all in terms of reconciling our human existence with the natural world to which we foremost belong.

In my heart of hearts, I believe the more of us who understand what bookkeeping can and cannot do, the more likely we stand the chance of working in concert with Mother Nature here on Planet Earth to build true Wealth for All beings.

What's DBE got to do with the natural world?  

Look at the photo.  The little bubbles represent four earthly career paths.  Just where do those people actually get their incomes? 

In double entry bookkeeping "Income" comes from outside of the closed system of accounting.  So the actor gets paid by the producer, the mercenary by the army general, the teacher by the state, and the gold miner by the people who value the gold. 

That system was all well and good (the brutal and unjust, it was the best we could do at the time) so long as the sources of Income were relatively infinite. Certainly, at the time of the codification of DEB, the Earth and her resouces were, relatively speaking, infinite. 

A mere few centuries later, we know her resources are not infinite, her species of animals and plants can do disappear, and WE humans appear to play the central role. 

Have you noticed that none of the other species use money, or double-entry bookkeeping for that matter?

DEB has been an amazing wealth-building tool, allowing vast accumulations of wealth, and at the same time, allowing the denial of where our Income comes from. 

DEB does not show that the EARTH IS THE ULTIMATE SOURCE OF OUR INCOME - not Man and not God. 

If were are going to keep using money, the Earth needs to be accounted for, she needs a Profit and Loss and a Balance Sheet or the rest of us are accountable.