We hold this truth to be self-evident, that we cannot grow the material economy indefinitely on a finite planet.* Such growth however, is exactly what is needed to keep the economic system from falling apart, as many studies have shown.**
What about the "service economy"? Could it be the solution to grow an economy indefinitely? Of course not: people have a finite and very limited amount of time, and the efficiency people can reach depends on factors such as their education, or intelligence, things that are certainly not candidates for infinite growth. Tim Jackson has shown this more precisely in his 2010 book "prosperity without growth" (Here is a good summary of the book on the shift project).
So, this blog post once again wants to remind the reader that we're doomed? Perhaps we can make some useful predictions about what would happen if capitalism remains in place. Remember, in terms of its destructiveness, we are not by far experiencing enough to cause all-out action. There won't be a revolution in today's comfort society, because people are afraid of blood. One of the tragedies of the demise of humanity is that real action can only come too late. Visionaries who have incorporated this cynical standpoint might want to look into saving species DNA and seeds during a long "nuclear winter", to emerge after capitalism has played out and destroyed itself and most of the biosphere with it.
Wow. That's dark.
Another prediction I could think of, is that after the use of all available "resources" that are economically viable to extract (after the planet has been raped everywhere where they expect profit), capitalism would have to turn to further the exploitation of the workers. They had been protected by the fact that capitalism still had other ways to expand.
Here's how. If you don't work 80 hours a week, you'll be fired and on the street. We have already out competed the company that was going to offer you a better deal.
But there is one more inevitable development in the endgame of capitalism, which we can already observe (Exercise to the Reader: find some examples): Consumption becomes mandatory. Corporations (remember they are essentially capital-growing mechanisms, without a soul or link to reality) force the enactment of laws that makes using their products and services mandatory (threatening to "move overseas"), they manipulate the consumer through the privately owned media emporium. That would be the completion of capitalism: When everything and everyone is a direct slave of the capital flow, reduced to replaceable substrate in its process of optimizing capital gains.
Yes, you read this right. In the future final stage of capitalism, you will be arrested for not eating at McDonald's (or the equivalent, whichever generates the most profit). This might seem ridiculous, but ask an 19 century peasant about anything we experience now and he'll find it ridiculous.
Who knows the name of the Greek mythological monster to which we are likening capitalism? And who has a beautiful comment on this sketchy idea?
* That is why many futurists advocate colonizing Mars, rather than giving up capitalism. Indeed, this is one of the logical escapes from this contradiction, the other being to increase "efficiency" so that we can asymptotically keep growing towards a world of ultimate fulfillment (read: the ultimate realization of the capitalist dogma of indefinite growth)
** It is generally assumed that the "system" needs to grow 3% per year in order not to collapse.
See eg. David Harvey
Showing posts with label capitalism. Show all posts.
Review of 23 Things they don't tell you
Because the book is the cleanest account of a self-aware infinite growth economy. Its pages breath remarkable clarity and precise examples to dismantle all of the twenty-three Things Chang takes on. It is a very good read if you are still not convinced that the system of "free market capitalism" is founded on myths, non-free markets, political influence and powerful cynicism, and is of course not free at all.
Among the Things are the insanely high managerial pays that are, contrary to mainstream thought, not only not justified but even counter-productive. There is the non-sustainability of an 800% financial sector (the Iceland bubble), the fact that protecting "infant industries" is what made rich countries wealthy, the fact that state intervention ("picking the winners") can be successful as in the case of POSCO steal and other major Korean companies. There is the fact that countries with more social security (Scandinavia) also have a higher per capita GDP and living standard than the US. There is the Thing that the so-called service economy is always supported by a strong material foundation. Or the fact that shareholder value maximization of big firms is NOT always the best thing that can happen to a country. Or that our post-communist economies are still planned. Or equality of opportunity is not always fair. These and all the other Things make reading this book a cathartic experience, if you will.
One thing...
Chang's book is also a very good read if you are questioning the infinite growth paradigm. Throughout the book I kept wondering when Chang would finally address this issue. Although he points out the discrepancies related to the insane growth rate of the financial sector, with its packaging and other nifty abstractions - the fundamental fallacy of infinite growth on a finite planet is structurally ignored in this book.
Instead, Chang reminds us of the importance of material production (and hence consumerism), calling the "post-material" economy a myth and pointing out that presumably post-industrial countries like Singapore and Switzerland both have a GDP-share of industrial production among the highest in the world.
The growth must go on, and in order to make the international game fairer we have to re-invent the rules so that they are consistent with economic history and human wellbeing. That seems to be the message of this book. For the least, we need to add the planetary restrictions (See Tim Jackson's best selling "Prosperity without Growth").
But precisely because he sees so sharply that material production growth would be essential for economies like Ghana to mimic to some extend the Asian Tiger's success story and increase global fairness, Chang finds himself confronted with a new conumdrum: The impossibility of infinite production (or productivity) growth. Let's hope he will use his brilliant analytic mind to address this problem head-on in his next book. I suggest that he calls it "23 theoretical Ladders we have to kick away if we want to Survive as a Species".
P.S. If you want me to write a review about "Prosperity without Growth" for you, please mention it in your comment. I have read it and can give you a condensed to-the-point summary.
P.P.S. If you want to read "23 Things" I'd gladly share my copy with you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
