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Deforestation - Peter Blanchard flickr
While having breakfast this morning I was watching a segment on DW Global 3000 on how people in Asia and the Pacific are having a hard time with illegal logging and deforestation. As well has habitats for wild animals. Like the Bengal tiger.
There was a segment a while ago I watched on Neil deGrasse Tyson NOVA Science NOW about making artificial diamonds. That they can make them as good as or even better than the ones dug out of the ground.
We are all aware of how OPEC controls the price of oil by manipulating the supply. And there was a segment on RT on genetic seeds, so called Terminator Seeds. That are good for one harvest only so that farmers are forced to buy more seeds for the next harvest.
How products are kept off the market on purpose because they would upset the economic apple cart as it were.
Here is the biggest evil of capitalism in my opinion. It encourages and rewards the raping of the planet, decimation of life and holding hostage of ideas for personal gain.
The scarcer the resource – the more likely it is to be pillaged with complete disregard for the consequences. The more likelihood an idea is to effect a some person/group from making money, the greater the chances are of it being summarily buried.
Capitalism is the antithesis of real growth and survival. Preying on peoples greed and self interest to the detriment of all else. It has to be completely destroyed if we are to survive.
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“To the detriment of all else” indeed.
My greatest concern is this:
” Where’s your next disease coming from? From anywhere in the world–from overflowing sewage in Cairo, from a war zone in Rwanda, from an energy-efficient office building in California, from a pig farm in China or North Carolina. “Preparedness demands understanding,” writes Pulitzer-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, and in this precursor toBetrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, she shows a clear understanding of the patterns lying beneath the new diseases in the headlines (AIDS, Lyme) and the old ones resurgent (tuberculosis, cholera). As the human population explodes, ecologies collapse and simplify, and disease organisms move into the gaps. As globalization continues, diseases can move from one country to another as fast as an airplane can fly.
While the human race battles itself … the advantage moves to the microbes’ court. They are our predators and they will be victorious if we, Homo sapiens, do not learn how to live in a rational global village that affords the microbes few opportunities.”
Resource rape is slow suicide for the human family, I believe. Laurie Garrett speaks of microbe reservoirs in The Coming Plague…how war and other activities causing great destruction can contribute to relocating the microbes…to places where they do not belong.
http://wac03.hayeskim.com/Reviews/book/The_Coming_Plague_Newly_Emerging_Diseases_in_a_World_Out_of_Balance-wiki-1513515.html
Thanks, c.
Thanks CS.
You are correct that pillaging scarce–and usually non-renewable–resources is probably capitalism’s cardinal sin.
The answer, as many others have pointed out, is to discourage this pillage by taxing producers for their negative externalities. The US currently has it back-asswards by subsidizing (thereby encouraging) the most ecologically destructive activities.
Right. Because the Communist regimes of the past century had such an awesome record on not raping the planet, decimating life, and holding ideas hostage for personal gain.
I’m not really buying this argument. Not because I think Capitalism as a system is any better. But it is far from exclusive to free-market capitalist societies and prevalent even in the sweet little social democracies of Scandinavia. You know what they call darling little Denmark, with all those lovely wind-mills, over here? The Dirty Man of Europe. (their agricultural policies are single-handedly destroying all life in the North Sea).
Well we tried regulating and taxing and that worked out …oh so well.
“To restore the biosphere is not just an esthetic and hedonistic necessity, but also a socio-economic necessity. Beyond this, restoring crucial elements of the life we are meant for, is a moral necessity, a psychological necessity, and even a neurobiological necessity.
The perverse society plutocracy is pushing on us is enabled by a loss of moral and common senses, both originating from cruelty against the biosphere.” says Patrice Ayme in
https://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/cruelty-against-biosphere/
I definitely agree that capitalism is a problem, given that it encourages exploitation of both environment and humans. However, I don’t agree that fixing all of our environmental problems is as simple as getting rid of capitalism.
Cars don’t run on pixie dust, even in a socialist utopia.
When have we actually tried those things?
80% tax rate under Eisenhower. The EPA and Glass Steagle among others.
Unfortunately capitalists always find a way to wiggle out.
I thought the tax rate was 90% back then. And they don’t “find a way to wiggle out,” the government chooses to let them wiggle out.
Still, the simple fact though is that we did have more economic equality back when the taxes were high—we just needed to close some loop holes, and put rich people in jail who try to get out of paying. And Glass Steagle did help, until it got taken away. Regulation and taxes can be effective.
However, I think that humans will continue to have decent sized environmental foot prints no matter what from of government there is. The real issue is that 7 billion humans is way too many humans.
It most definitely is WAY to many humans. At least on this one planet.
As the responses above demonstrate, just complaining about a system won’t solve anything. You need to recommend a viable alternative. For instance, you say
So what is your prescription for real growth, and will it really work?
I think the problem we all have with capitalism is that it plays to the base predilections of human nature (self-interest, greed, desire). But, unfortunately, it does work. Can it be perverted? Of course – just look at our tax code! But rather than rail against capitalism, I think a better approach is to acknowledge its superiority as a system of organizing economic activity, and farm its wealth for the greater good of society. This means finding an optimal tax rate and regulatory regime that maximizes both GDP and tax receipts, and protects the environment and natural resources for future generations. It means an end to crony capitalism, but also acknowledgement and celebration of success: that there is nothing wrong with being rewarded for good ideas and hard work, as long as society as a whole also benefits.
And in case you are tempted to recommend 100% as the optimal tax rate, I would answer, really? A 100% tax rate would entirely defeat the aforementioned incentives of capitalism. GDP and tax receipts under a 100% tax rate would be based entirely on altruism or coercion, but they would be no where near maximal because the vast majority of humanity (I hate to say it), really is just out for themselves.
How delusional.
So please correct my delusional rantings and enlighten us with your superior system for organizing economic activity. The truth is, no other system encourages more innovation or better serves consumers. The profit motive and competition are powerful forces, which if constrained by the rule of law and regulation can unleash man’s incredible innate potential. And if harnessed to a balanced and fair taxation system, can work for the benefit of society as a whole. Why deny what works? To throw out profit motive and competition in some misguided egalitarian project is to miss out on a huge opportunity. And for what? So you can feel better about yourself?