What comes after Capitalism?
Capitalism is broken, of that I am now certain. So what do we do, how can we fix it? I don’t have all the answers by any means, I mostly have
questions. But here are some of those
questions and my thoughts around them.
Capitalism is all about money (capital) which throughout history has
equaled power. We’re all slaves (in some
form) to that power. If freedom is the
absence of anyone/anything having power over you, then freedom is a direct product
of power.
The essential shibboleth of Capitalism is that money (i.e. the
market) will fulfill all needs. The deceit
of this idea is that it will not fulfill them all equally, and for many (most)
it comes at a huge price – their labor, their freedom, and even, sometimes, their
lives.
Capitalism has singularly failed, decaying from within (as
Marx predicted) by its own excesses. The
flow of money/power to those at the top has corrupted the very fabric of
governments which supported it. The hidden
externalization of the costs of Capitalism has created a juggernaut of
consequences – most obviously the Global Climate Crisis – which it (and therefore
we) cannot avoid. Absent an actual,
physical revolution (which I don’t advocate) nothing will derail Capitalism from
its current course and ultimate collapse.
The key problem as I see it is not just money, but how we
use it as a reward. The desire for money,
and what it brings (power) has consistently overridden rational public policy,
scientific evidence, and even ethical behaviors, to the extent that doing evil
is richly rewarded (examples of sociopathic CEOs, politicians, etc. abound).
Remove money, and many of these problems simply would not
occur. People would not be encouraged to
act unethically by being so richly rewarded for it.
That idea is so ridiculous, so simplistic, so unimaginable, that
I’m increasingly becoming clear that it is a key part of any solution. Whatever comes after Capitalism, money as we
know it today, will – must – inevitably disappear.
So if money is gone, what would replace it? I don’t know for sure, but I have some ideas. Human nature to always strive for more; it’s
why I’m typing these words right now and sending them out to people all over
the planet – both why I want to do so, and why such technologies even exist. That part of us still needs to be fed. However, it doesn’t need to be at the price
we’re currently paying for it. I truly
believe the motive force behind Capitalism, the essential quality of human striving
and ingenuity, will be (and already is being) unleashed in service to solving
that problem.
Even if replacing money is possible, how could we ever get
there? Aren’t the entrenched monetary
interests (corporations, politicians, billionaires, etc.) going to resist any
substantive change? Of course they
are. The break point, I believe, is Climate
Crisis.
There’s a scene in “Titanic”, where a rich guy tries to
bribe his way onto a lifeboat taking women and children off the ship. The ship’s officer basically tells him to shove
it, as money isn’t worth anything to him – he knows he will very likely die
that night. This is where we are now as
a planet. Money will not save us (other
than a few billionaires buying bunkers in New Zealand and funding private space
programs to ensure they and their children will have their own lifeboats), and
most of us are going down with the ship.
Once the mass of people realize this is their fate, I suspect it will
get very ugly, very fast.
I believe there is actually hope in the social changes currently underway. What happens if, for
example, AI, robots and automation destroy 10% or 20% of today’s human
jobs? What if it’s 30%? Or 50%, or 80%? What will that do to the social fabric, to
the political landscape, to Capitalism itself?
My hope is that such changes will force us to rethink our system or even
abandon it before Climate Crisis forces our hand. Maybe we’ll steam a little slower towards
that iceberg and maybe it won’t sink us?
The crux of it is that some kind of a revolution is going to be necessary
and inevitable to dislodge the power structures which are holding the current
systems tightly in place. As those
systems start to break down, the response by the owners of those power
structures will determine when and where that revolution will occur, and
ultimately whether it will be bloodless (or not). If they act responsibly and ethically and with a greater vision than just their own "enlightened self-interest", we may be able to transition to another
form of society – perhaps even one not totally unrecognizable from today’s – in enough
time to avoid hitting the iceberg at all.
x
posted by Trendar @ 10:14 AM
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