#COP26 #climate_change #planet #earth #choice #binary #capitalism #catastrophe #uk #global #future #death
As posted on Diaspora Europe on 27th October 2021.
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@iankenway I agree with the notion that binary choices are short sighted and generally wrong... I strongly disagree with the notion that capitalism is an inherently harmful form of government. In fact most things that people blame as hallmarks of capitalism are in fact by their nature a quality that is anti-capitalism. For example corruption caused by greed, when that occurs you no longer have a capitalism because corruption implies manipulation which implies you dont have a free market, which is what defines capitalism.
My apologies for not responding earlier.
There are many points I would like to make here, so I shall just make a few.
First, I'm not sure that any national government can be described as capitalist. It may however arise within a capitalist economic milieu or order and can promote and/or facilitate the same. (There is of course the slightly tricky question of how governments establish legitimacy in the first place within nation states and the legitimacy of nation states themselves!)
Secondly, while I believe in free markets myself, they are not in my view synonymous with capitalism, but simply a sine qua non for its emergence and continuation. The other factors that characterise it include share-holding, capital accumulation, pricing systems, private property (with associated recognised rights), voluntary exchange and wage labour. In addition, of course, capitalism is essentially predicated on usury.
Here's a starting point (and there others)
Marxian critiques of capitalism are well known, if not always well understood. However, the critiques arising from the current climate crisis are based on the central recognition that capitalism is essentially predicated on indefinite growth, is ideologically resistant to external constraints that limit profitability to shareholders, and ultimately puts consumerism before sustainability in the use of the finite resources of the earth. In short capitalism always has been and always will be rapacious and exploitative.
To be perfectly honest, I think that the problems with capitalism are simply legion and these will become more and more evident in the years ahead. There are many alternative economic and social models.
