Why Capitalism Is Not Really an Option
The world is in crisis. We are going through the world’s sixth mass extinction, extreme weather is getting worse, our coral reefs are dying, the Amazon Rain Forest is in danger of being cut down, and humans are the cause of it all. We are destroying this planet, despite the fact that almost none of us own a factory, cut down trees, burn coal, or poach wildlife. So how are so few of us doing so much damage? The answer lies in capitalism.
Capitalism in America is so often hailed as one of our greatest virtues. Growing up, I was told about how it could correct any wrong and fix any issue, with the principles of supply and demand and consumer choice alone. I was told, ‘sure climate change is an issue, but the market will “correct” it’. I was never given an expansive education in school about what capitalism really was and did, nor on how dire the climate situation was quickly becoming.
Americans and the rest of the world need to wake up and smell the last of the roses. Capitalism is killing us. Either we will survive, or it will. A lot of people are unaware of this because our capitalist education system and capitalist media outlets obviously have vested interests in keeping the status quo, but it is the truth. I have outlined some of the major strings that show how capitalism is the true root cause of climate change and how unless we finally end this oppressive and destructive system, the world will be beyond saving. This work is not expansive, there are many, more scholarly texts that delve deeper into these issues, but this is an introduction into viewing capitalism in a more accurate light.
The Beginning of Capitalism and Climate Change
In order to understand where we are now, we need to know what happened before. What is capitalism? When did it start? How does this relate to climate change? Capitalism is defined by The Oxford Dictionary as “An economic system … with the goal of making the greatest possible profit for the owners”. Essentially, capitalism is a system where profit is the highest goal. This means it is more important than ethics, equality, morality and, of course, our environment.
When capitalism “began” is more vague, because it came about naturally as industrialization made it possible to create profits for few capitalists for almost no work on their part. Economic historian Karl Polyani, in his book The Great Transformation claims that “not until 1834 was a competitive labor market established in England, hence industrial capitalism as a social system cannot be said to have existed before that date.” The exact year is debatable to say the least, but modern capitalism is generally agreed to have begun in or around the 1830s.
The beginning of man-made climate change is similarly hard to pin down. A recent Nature.com study found that climate change began, you guessed it, in the 1830s, coinciding nicely with capitalism. Of course, correlation is not causation, but there is more to look at here. Capitalism was made possible partially by industrialization, which of course also produced excessive greenhouse gasses, a huge factor in climate change, so in this case, correlation is causation.
Capitalism Today
Modern capitalism looks pretty different from the capitalism that Polyani wrote about or that was practiced in the 1800s, as does modern climate change. Due to the ever-accelerating nature of capitalism, the rich have gotten richer than ever, and the climate worse. In order to understand the future, we must look at not only the past, but the present.
Looking at capitalism in America today can be encouraging or frightening, depending on how deeply you look. Proponents of capitalism will point towards shallow numbers like our chart-topping GDP, saying that because capitalism has made the country rich, it must be a success. Everyone else, however, will point towards the fact that America has the 4th most wealth inequality on the planet, meaning that even though the top 1% of the country is absurdly wealthy, the real bulk of the country is no more rich because of it.
Another sobering realization that America is rigged in favor of the rich is news stories like this, a rich banker getting 40 months in prison for $3 billion dollars worth of fraud while this homeless man gets 15 years for taking a $100 bill from a bank for food and returning the rest of the money. The justice system is just as set up in favor of the rich as the economic system.
Morally, most Americans realize that this system needs to be remedied and that success has more to do with privilege and luck than hard work. While not everyone knows the rhetoric well enough to blame the capitalist system itself, it is clear that if it were properly understood, Americans would support an end to this unfair system for economic reasons alone, before the climate is even introduced as an issue. With a proper and unbiased education system, which may seem like a pipe dream, very few in this country would continue to support capitalism, as is shown in this chart below.
Climate Change Today
Climate change today is bordering on catastrophic. A recent UN study found that we have less than a decade to make changes in our footprint in order to avoid a 1.5 degree Celsius change, the mark that they say would be disastrous and irreversible. If we do not make these changes, changes on a scale never before seen in our species, the world will never be the same, and will likely be uninhabitable for us in the near future.
While climate change is the symptom, capitalism is the cause. 100 companies are responsible for 70% of all carbon emissions. Clearly allowing companies the freedom to pursue profit at any cost is unsustainable and dangerous. There is no way for the planet to survive or our species to thrive while profit continues to take priority over the environment and the future. In other words, capitalism cannot be allowed to survive.
Despite these new shocking findings about our impending doom, we have shown no signs of changing. For anyone who wants to live on a planet free of constant droughts, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes, with animals in the wild and in the sea and air, this is the most terrifying news. If you, like me, want to have kids one day that can live a life even remotely as nice as ours, or really any life at all, this news is crushing. Things simply have to change.
All we can do is believe that this is not the end. The only way we could ever make these changes is if our number one priority, every one of us, was completely halting greenhouse emissions, and even spreading carbon-negative technology to reverse the destruction we have already wrought. The only way we could accomplish this of course would be to stop worrying about money, profit, and ridiculous wealth. The only way to do this would be to accept and implement socialism worldwide with an emphasis on saving the planet.
Conclusion
This is the truth. Capitalism is killing us. There is no debating this. There is no green-capitalism or eco-capitalism, those are oxymorons and history has proved it. The only way we can survive is if our priority is survival, the planet, and the future. Only if we decide to collectively work for all people and our future, rather than profit for any few, can we survive. We must accept socialism, there is no argument left on the contrary. It is adapt or die, socialism or apocalypse. We have this information, we know that what we are doing isn’t working, we need to do everything possible to get the sick monsters out of office who are knowingly killing the future of humanity for more yachts mansions and hotels. This is not about options anymore.
We have to realize that maybe Ghandi, Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr, the Pope, the Dalai Lama and Jesus Christ had some pretty smart things to say about the world.
