Fairy Tales of Eternal Economic Growth
Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN of 23 September 2019 has received considerable coverage, taking on nearly legendary status after only 2 days.
This is as it should be. Greta is passionate, eloquent, and fearless. She refuses to be bought or co-opted; she will not stand down. She is on a mission, and it is a mission to save the Planet, and the lives of millions – perhaps billions – of people, among other creatures. Many of her generation consider her a spokesperson for them, at least on the issue of Climate Crisis. Many of my generation feel much the same. I am 66.
As for me personally, I was blown away by this one line: “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?!”
This is nothing less than a direct challenge to capitalism itself. By a 16 year old, speaking to the entire world, and backed up by millions of strikers and demonstrators. I cannot honestly claim that all of Greta’s supporters understand the implications of this, but I believe that she herself does understand them.
Capitalism is the economic system that has brought us to this crisis. It has brought us here through the little-questioned mystique of an ever-expanding economy that supposedly benefits us all. And that system has run up against its limits. Plundering the Earth is rapidly, visibly making it uninhabitable, for all of us.
This is the part that is hard for many to swallow. Even the Green New Deal and those who espouse it – including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders – don’t necessarily oppose capitalism per se. After all, if capitalism is the problem – let’s suppose for a moment that it is – what would we turn to? We have only ever lived under capitalism. It’s brought us everything we know and depend on, from cars to the internet. What would we do instead? What would we replace it with? And immediately we flash on “Soviet-style” “socialism”, and reject that. Are there any other options?
At this point, many people turn away from the debate and just postulate that “something” will save us. Green capitalism will save us; capitalism with an environmental conscience. Proper regulation of capitalism will rein in its excesses and make it palatable and functional. Technology will save us, a technology that only capitalism can provide us with.
I have looked at a number of articles on the relationship between capitalism and growth. Some appear to me to be in simple denial; there must be a way to make it work because it’s the only thing that can work. From there, they rationalize the idea of growth to make it work somehow within the confines of a finite system, e.g. Planet Earth. This, to me, is nonsense.
The most coherent article I have seen on the subject is this one. It is detailed, thoughtful, and logical. Its author, Bill Blackwater, asserts:
There is one primary reason … why capitalist economies have to grow. As James Fulcher puts it in his Capitalism: A very short guide, “the investment of money in order to make a profit [is] the essential feature of capitalism”. This is … the difference between money and capital: money becomes capital when it is amassed not to be spent on the things one desires, nor to be hoarded as savings, but primarily as a fund for ongoing investment, designed to increase itself.
Blackwater explains in detail several other ways in which capitalism is inextricably tied into endless growth. The connections are often complex, and worthy of being read in their own right.
1. Investment (as cited above)
2. Competition, the “fundamental driver of continual expansion”
3. Soaking up unemployment, in order to smooth over inequality (thus avoiding anti-capitalist rebellion)
4. Credit: This link is complex, and is much better explained in the article than I can summarize here. Read it.
5. Mass production for an anonymous market – this requires an expanding market
6. Consumption of resources and energy – the obvious one, to most of us
He concludes that capitalism is essentially an elaborate Ponzi scheme. Before you dismiss this out of hand, I again request that you read his arguments.
The entire [capitalist] system is in debt, dependent on future growth, owed by future producers and consumers; the current income of capitalists and workers is drawn on a generational IOU; the entire system must keep growing or it will collapse. And it can’t keep growing forever.
Blackwater’s negatives – the elements a sustainable, non-capitalist economy must NOT contain, elaborated at the end of the paper – also merit a thoughtful examination.
I believe that an economic system that does not require endless growth, or exploitation of each other or the planet, is possible. To me, it seems that such an economy must be based on concepts like non-profits, worker- and consumer-run co-operatives, conscious sustainability, and workplace democracy. Giant multinationals, corporate excess and economic growth cannot be part of it. However hard it may be to envision such an economy, we need to get started, and to implement it fast. I am willing to trade my Apple computer and my Honda for a livable world. The status quo is not an option.
When Greta delivered the remark that is quoted at the beginning of this article, specifically about “fairy tales of eternal economic growth”, she was rewarded with enthusiastic applause. It may be that many of those listening recognized the wisdom and truth of her words. For the sake of all of us, I dearly hope so.
