Shop ’til you Drop — The Unsustainability of Capitalism
This is part two of a six-part series in response to the lies propagandized by our capitalist society. Part one, The Capitalist Lie — Welcome to the Slaughterhouse can be found here https://medium.com/coping-with-capitalism/the-capitalist-lie-welcome-to-the-slaughterhouse-5e178fe7118c.
Capitalism is clearly a consumption-based economic system. In a real sense, the more consumption, the healthier the economics. Each transaction contributes to the success of the system.
Something is produced, brought to market, purchased and consumed. Certainly, services are also brought to market and consumed. Robust consumption of both goods and services is required for capitalism to function at its best.
Clearly, the very fact that capitalism is driven and entirely based on this essential feature — consumption of goods and services — seems to be neglected if not entirely forgotten by its proponents.
It is almost like capitalism, in its shadowy epicurean inner justification, emphasizes micro components of economic theory while virtually ignoring the big “macro” picture. The individual, and really the self, become more important than the whole or the collective.
This doesn’t just take place at a theoretical level, but envelops the entire argument to satisfy the self and one’s needs and desires to justifying economic “liberty” that can mean full throttle exploitation and even oppression.
It likely bears repeating and is really this simple. Capitalism is a consumption-based economic system.
The system is driven by the mass consumption of resources, finished products and services. In truth, the more that is consumed, the more the system is propelled.
While one may be led to believe capitalism derives from lofty human aspiration, it seems more true that capitalism is directly rooted to our primordial past and our competitive interests to secure these needs and the various wants we are so concerned about and often believe we truly need.
One working example of this is the fact that the global market is capitalistic and competitive. There are no rules to the game, other than the “jungle” or “everyone for themselves” in the global economy. Rules or regulations can only emerge from individual trading partners and their specific agreements as to the terms of their trade. In this way the mythical competitive “natural state” becomes the force de rigueur when there are no rules or other compulsions for any economics other than this type of Darwinian struggle.
Of course, the success of consumption brings along important baggage. Indeed, this is at the heart of these “macro” difficulties.
The consumption of finite resources makes these resources less plentiful. As resources diminish, their value increases.
So even as vigorous consumer activity propels the capitalist economy, in consuming resources it creates what is called the inflationary spiral.
This is the critical contradiction of the capitalist or consumption-based economy. By encouraging consumption, by very literally basing the entire economy on consumption, the system steadily increases costs over time. Depletion of resources eventually leads to scarcity as demand continues while supplies diminish.
Immediately we can see that the system is clearly not sustainable. It unwinds until it can no longer support itself and it topples over.
There is both an ecological aspect to this and economic. These factors are interrelated. Certainly, deterioration of the environment has extraordinary costs that directly impact the capitalist economy even if these costs are tactically and temporarily delayed. Regardless, the capitalist economy will eventually suffer as costs increase over time and eventually this burdens the macro economy to the point of negative returns for most participants.
Factors such as under-regulated manipulation of capital can buy time as can such powerful forces as globalization and the exponential advancement of technologies displacing labor with automation.
Corporations have become global enterprises ideally with small payrolls and extensive networks of contractors able to provide finished product on the cheap. Global reach finds new markets that increase demand, but technological improvements diminish the demand and value for labor.
Despite these efforts, the system must eventually collapse.
In a real sense, any economic system is built upon the resources provided and fostered by our natural habitat and our ability to harness these resources. When the system propels us to consume these resources as vigorously as possible, the system is working to undermine its own foundations.
It is an economics that spends and does not save.
Capitalism, in its starkest sense, references the reward given to mankind for the exploitation and despoilment of planet Earth — our collective home.
Inflation must eventually accelerate into a final death plunge.
This is what we are seeing most starkly with the climate catastrophe. We see the contradictions of this system laid bare as the capitalist pursuit of “growth”, “development” and rising GDPs simply accelerates the deterioration of the environment.
This will inevitably lead to an inflationary collapse of the global economy.
At this end, once we free ourselves from our cultural shackles, we recognize that consumption is in opposition to conservation and a consumption-based system is fundamentally disastrous to any efforts to preserve our planet and its resources — human, animal, vegetable, and mineral.
Indeed, this is the heart of the matter. Capitalism is a form of slow suicide. The end game is self-immolation. This is an economics that erases the future.
Yet, the capitalist confidence men continue to tell us the same old myths.
In Part Three: The Myth of the Meritocracy and the Palace of Thieves we will unpack some of the frauds we are taught and bring them into the light of day.
