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Dear Sir/Madam,

The lack of transparency and culture of secrecy in respect to what we and others earn are characteristic of our non-sustainable economy, which so cleverly and "successfully" exploits - along with the classic "factors of production" - our lower, more animal than human, nature  (How do you fancy a pay check?, 1 March 2003).

Since the survival, let alone the prosperity, of our children and coming generations on our finite and vulnerable planet, Spaceship Earth, depends on us achieving a sustainable global economy within the next 2 - 3 decades, this is an extremely urgent matter.

As the planet's "greatest ape" we are programmed and conditioned to respect power and achievement, fearing our dependency on others and thus always striving to maintain or improve our social and economic standing. It is this programming and conditioning, together with our acquisitiveness and fear of dependency, that history has tailored our money economy to exploit, and on which, conversely, it depends.

Although more and more people are beginning to realise where this is leading us, like the man in A Tale for Today, we seem powerless to do anything about it.

As aspiring human beings (Homo sapiens or wise man), and if we are to create a sustainable society and economy, we must reprogram and recondition ourselves and base our economic activity on much more enlightened self-interests.

Such reprogramming and reconditioning requires transparency in respect to what we and others are doing towards creating a fair, humane and sustainable society/economy.

We need to know not just what others are earning, but also what they are contributing towards sustainable and non-sustainable society in so doing.

And no less important than what we contribute to sustainable society in earning our money, is what we contribute in spending and investing it.  An economy involves people earning (working) spending and investing money. Sustainable goods and services can only be produced if people invest in their production and they and others buy them.

A sustainable economy will also have to be a "moral economy", in which market forces are shaped, rather than slightly influenced, not by man's lower nature, as they are now, but by his higher, more human than animal, nature.

It will be impossible to change existing, non-sustainable society and its economy in the time available. Instead, we (those who recognise the situation and care about the future) must create an alternative, sustainable society and economy within and coexistent with existing, non-sustainable society, on which we all currently depend. As it grows it will be possible to transfer more and more of our activity and dependency from one to the other - particularly in respect to how we earn, spend and invest our money. 

Everyone is free, of course, to change at their own pace, notwithstanding the fact that time is running short. 

Many elements of sustainable society already exist in one more-or-less imperfect form or another (organic farming, some so-called "alternative" businesses, cooperatives, recycling and the use of renewable resources), but so far they account for just a tiny fraction of total economic activity, and lack the framework of a clear and cohesive moral and economic philosophy, something that I'm working on - so far with only limited success - on my website at www.spaceship-earth.org.