“Capitalism is Killing the Planet…”
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interesting to read that the “WEF points out that there is no mechanism in the capitalist system to control its excesses” (anyone on here know where he got that from?) Despite the promising headline, the author of course ends up by looking at the problem the wrong way up “Curtailing consumption is the conversation nobody wants to have”
Another well-meaning sort dazzled by capitalIt’s in the link given in the news item:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/02/does-capitalism-have-to-be-bad-for-the-environment/
Here is the relevant passage:
“First, firms in a capitalist setting are under enormous pressure to cut costs, because if they don’t, their competitors will. Since their competitors cut costs to be able to reinvest in the firm’s growth and thereby, become more competitive, if one firm refrains from doing so, it will be soon pushed out of the market by others.
As the economic sociologist Erik Wright of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said, one way of cutting cost is to project some of that cost onto the environment. Imagine, for instance, throwing a can of soft drink from a car window because this is a low-cost way of disposing of a can, and being totally indifferent to its negative impact on others. The same behaviour is often adopted by large businesses.
The market dynamics in capitalism do not provide any mechanisms in themselves to prevent this behaviour; it requires some forms of non-market intervention either by state or by organized social forces. States have shown that they are reluctant to or deliberately ignore taking measures against this.”
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