Dynamic equilibrium and Gaia’s wealth

Looking at an economy beyond capitalism

Photo by Ferdinand Stöhr on Unsplash

Dynamic equilibrium is a term when applied to economics creates a system that whirls without the whirlwinds. It whisks without the risks. It generates energy without gaining or losing any. It’s not some ideal. It’s real and we need to use it more.

In chemistry it is “a state of balance between opposing forces where the forward and reverse processes occur at the same rate. This results in no observable change in the system.” Now imagine dynamic equilibrium as an economic system where the forces of consumption and production occur at the same rate leaving “no observable change in the system.” Pretty cool, ay? And it’s been done for thousands of years. We just have to get back to it, but by going forward.

Enter Post Growth Institute’s The Wealth of Gaia project. These are folks who believe Adam Smith’s economic model has run its course. They look to model a new one as natural as the systems which work to make the Earth diverse in bioregional culture and biological habitat.

Their work on this book is about a quarter done, and here we enter the phase of almost insult. At least that’s how I felt after I spent the afternoon copying in longhand on scrap paper quotations from the Post Growth Institute’s podgram entitled ‘The Wealth of Gaia’ by Eve Smith. They didn’t tell me until the end that the book was not complete and that they were looking for a publisher. It was like a Zen koan conundrum: How do you review a book that’s not yet written?

I saw that the many writers had decided to call themselves Eve Smith. Initially,I saw the name ‘Eve’ as representing Mother Earth and the ‘Smith’ as being a sort of an everyman. Then when they mentioned Adam Smith, the Biblical proportions revealed themselves. Adam and Eve, the father of patrimony meets mother matrimonium and the economy of the Earth finds a balance where dynamic equilibrium hums all living things forward to fulfill their individual and integral destiny.

Well, that’s the fantasy anyway, and it’s a good one.