In article ,
songbird wrote:
Billy wrote:
songbird wrote:
...
capitalism does not require infinite resources,
i dunno where you get that idea from.
You sell one, and buy materials to make 2. You sell 2, and buy materials
to make 4. You sell 4, and buy materials to make 8, ect. Pretty soon you
are looking at very big numbers. Capitalism is founded on growth. Even
with planned obsolescence, an infinite amount of widgets requires an
infinite amount of resources.
you're confusing capitalism with some imaginary
construct.
songbird
In that case, it is a mass hallucination ;O)
http://endofcapitalism.com/about/1-is-this-the-end-of-capitalism/
Capitalism requires growth. A system that requires growth cannot last
forever on a planet that is defined by ecological and social limits.
Capitalism is therefore fundamentally unsustainable sooner or later it
will run up against those limits and the system will stop functioning.
The current economic crisis which began in 2007 is unlike any previous
crisis faced by global capitalism. In earlier downturns there remained a
way to grow out of it by expanding production there were new resources
and energy supplies, new markets, and new pools of labor to exploit. The
system just needed to expand its reach, because there was plenty of
money to make outside its existing grasp.
http://www.greens.org/s-r/47/47-03.html
From an ecological point of view there is something crazy about
capitalism. An ecological worldview emphasizes harmony, sustainability,
moderation - rather like that of the ancient Greeks, for whom a constant
striving for more was regarded as a mark of an unbalanced, deranged
soul. Yet every capitalist enterprise is motivated to grow, and to grow
without limit.
The root problem with capitalism is not that individual firms are
incentivized to grow, but that the economy as a whole must grow, not to
survive, but to remain healthy. Why should it be the case that a
capitalist economy must grow to be healthy? The answer to this question
is rather peculiar - and very important. A capitalist economy must grow
to be healthy because capitalism relies on private investors for its
investment funds. These investors are free to invest or not as they see
fit. (It is, after all, their money.)
But this makes economic health dependent on "investor confidence," on,
as John Maynard Keynes put it, "the animal spirits" of the investors. If
investors do not foresee a healthy return on their investments,
commensurate with the risks they are taking, then they won't invest - at
least not domestically. But if they don't invest, their pessimism
becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. The lack of investment translates
into layoffs - first in the construction industry and those industries
dependent on orders for capital goods, and then, since layoffs lead to a
decline in consumer-goods consumption, in other sectors as well.
Aggregate demand drops further; the economy slides toward recession.
As we all know, a slumping economy is not just bad for capitalist
investors. It is bad for almost everyone. Unemployment rises. Government
revenues fall. Indeed, public funds for environmental programs are
jeopardized - as mainstream economists are quick to point out, impatient
as they are with "anti-growth" ecologists.
So we see: a healthy capitalism requires a steady expansion of
consumption. If sales decline, investors lose confidence - as well they
should. So, sales must be kept up. Which means that a healthy capitalism
requires what would doubtless strike a visitor from another planet (or
from a pre-capitalist society) as exceedingly strange - a massive,
privately-financed effort to persuade people to consume what they might
otherwise find unnecessary.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/igorgree...pitalism-dying
/2/
Capitalism assumes an infinite supply of resources, which is absolutely
absurd. Infinite growth within a finite system is impossible. Real
scientists understand this. However, many economists would have us
believe that itıs alright if we run out of something because there will
always be a substitute. And when we run out of that, another substitute.
Unfortunately, the planet we live on doesnıt work like that.
There are natural constraints at play that are completely missing from
our economic models. We are all living with our heads in the sand. It
will be impossible for future generations to experience the growth and
material wealth that we have now because we are using up our natural
capital as quickly as we can with no regard for what will be left in the
future.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/feb/02/energy.comment
It's capitalism or a habitable planet - you can't have both
Our economic system is unsustainable by its very nature. The only
response to climate chaos and peak oil is major social change
Capitalism is not sustainable by its very nature. It is predicated on
infinitely expanding markets, faster consumption and bigger production
in a finite planet. And yet this ideological model remains the central
organising principle of our lives, and as long as it continues to be so
it will automatically undo (with its invisible hand) every single green
initiative anybody cares to come up with.
=======
In any event, it's not idiopathic behavior.
The only way to stay healthy is to eat what you don't like, drink what
you loathed, and to do what you would rather not do.
- Mark Twain (1835-1910)
--
Remember Rachel Corrie
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/
Welcome to the New America.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg