Why capitalism must be replaced: Income Inequality and the Ecocide
Non-sustainability occurs only when an enterprise carries the burden of 'return on capital employed' in the form of rent, interest and profit, along with taxes, both external and internal (ie unequal pay to, either, an internal 'management' and its enforcers, such as supervisors, inspectors, foremen and sub-foremen, and the external 'Praetorian Guard' of those with jobs beginning with, often, the letter P).
The reason for the exponentially accelerating production of pollution (see the CO2 data as one marker pollutant) is that the creation of wealth and pollution are linked:
Materials + Energy ----> 'Wealth' + Pollution
(By 'Wealth' I mean 'that which assists in providing for human needs' and 'Pollution' being 'waste' heat and 'waste' materials.)
In capitalism, the wealth is appropriated (stolen) by the capitalists (ie by the thieves of the economic resources needed to create wealth and, thus, supply human needs) and, then, converted into more money than was needed to finance the first cycle of production.
(I understand that Karl Marx got a handle on this with his equalition, M ---> C ---> M' where M is the initial money invested, C Resultant Commodities and M' the larger amount of money accumulated (stolen) in each pproduction cycle. I'm no Marx scholar and whether that equation hhad been identified earlier, I don't know. Incidentally, Marx worked before modern chemistry had been fully worked out. Whether he was aware of its state, in the mid- nineteenth Century, I, also don't know.)
So, that larger amount of money is then 'put to work' in a second cycle of production: the operation of which produces more pollution than in the first cycle. And, hence the accellerating rise in pollution, as observed.
All of this is 'The Chemistry of Wealth Production'. To it may be added the rôle of The Second Law of Thermodynamics, which we don't need to discuss here.
(Ps, my 'Dr John' bit is because I'm a UCL PhD Chemist, with both a Teaching and Research past. And, as a worked class man, plenty of life experience of unemployment, work, business, homelessness, the 'benefits' meat-grinder, etc, etc!)
Now, these mechanisms are rooted in the *qualitative* inequality of oppression: slave-owner and slave, capitalist and worker, etc.
Which leads to the *quantitative* inequality of 'rich' and poor.
And, it's the inequality that's killing us.
And the Planet.
(See 'The Spirit Level' book, its sequel, 'The Inner Level' - that focusses on the increasing level of mental ill-health that is consequential upon, caused by, increasing inequality - and the supporting web materials at www.equalitytrust.org.uk )
All of the foregoing requires, therefore that we implement a plan for equality: ie a replacement for capitalism.
Hence the plan for equality: the plan for Co-operative Socialism.
Details of which may be found in the papers' section at www.interestfreemoney.org and by searching YouTube with the search term:
"Co-operative Socialism"
There is an archive of essays at:
www.sustainabilitynotcapitalism.blogspot.com
I hope this helps.
Very best wishes,
John Courtneidge
Non-sustainability occurs only when an enterprise carries the burden of 'return on capital employed' in the form of rent, interest and profit, along with taxes, both external and internal (ie unequal pay to, either, an internal 'management' and its enforcers, such as supervisors, inspectors, foremen and sub-foremen, and the external 'Praetorian Guard' of those with jobs beginning with, often, the letter P).
The reason for the exponentially accelerating production of pollution (see the CO2 data as one marker pollutant) is that the creation of wealth and pollution are linked:
Materials + Energy ----> 'Wealth' + Pollution
(By 'Wealth' I mean 'that which assists in providing for human needs' and 'Pollution' being 'waste' heat and 'waste' materials.)
In capitalism, the wealth is appropriated (stolen) by the capitalists (ie by the thieves of the economic resources needed to create wealth and, thus, supply human needs) and, then, converted into more money than was needed to finance the first cycle of production.
(I understand that Karl Marx got a handle on this with his equalition, M ---> C ---> M' where M is the initial money invested, C Resultant Commodities and M' the larger amount of money accumulated (stolen) in each pproduction cycle. I'm no Marx scholar and whether that equation hhad been identified earlier, I don't know. Incidentally, Marx worked before modern chemistry had been fully worked out. Whether he was aware of its state, in the mid- nineteenth Century, I, also don't know.)
So, that larger amount of money is then 'put to work' in a second cycle of production: the operation of which produces more pollution than in the first cycle. And, hence the accellerating rise in pollution, as observed.
All of this is 'The Chemistry of Wealth Production'. To it may be added the rôle of The Second Law of Thermodynamics, which we don't need to discuss here.
(Ps, my 'Dr John' bit is because I'm a UCL PhD Chemist, with both a Teaching and Research past. And, as a worked class man, plenty of life experience of unemployment, work, business, homelessness, the 'benefits' meat-grinder, etc, etc!)
Now, these mechanisms are rooted in the *qualitative* inequality of oppression: slave-owner and slave, capitalist and worker, etc.
Which leads to the *quantitative* inequality of 'rich' and poor.
And, it's the inequality that's killing us.
And the Planet.
(See 'The Spirit Level' book, its sequel, 'The Inner Level' - that focusses on the increasing level of mental ill-health that is consequential upon, caused by, increasing inequality - and the supporting web materials at www.equalitytrust.org.uk )
All of the foregoing requires, therefore that we implement a plan for equality: ie a replacement for capitalism.
Hence the plan for equality: the plan for Co-operative Socialism.
Details of which may be found in the papers' section at www.interestfreemoney.org and by searching YouTube with the search term:
"Co-operative Socialism"
There is an archive of essays at:
www.sustainabilitynotcapitalism.blogspot.com
I hope this helps.
Very best wishes,
John Courtneidge
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