The Economy We Need to Save Ourselves
Consumption is Killing Us
Before I left Twitter due to sociopathic ownership, I made hundreds of friends around the world. I had conversations with deeply worried climate scientists and citizens, ranging from the UK to Pakistan, who are experiencing the devastating early effects of the #ClimateCrisis first hand. No responsible, informed person can credibly deny its reality now. The planet is changing before our eyes, and the social systems we have built and depend on are beginning to come apart. Devastating droughts, resultant wildfires, heavier, slower moving hurricanes, and floods rushing over parched ground are here to stay and worsen, because even if we could eliminate all greenhouse gasses today, warming is locked in for decades to come. In 2022, eighteen #ClimateChange driven weather disasters cost the US one billion dollars. Over the last seven years, such events have cost the country more than $1 trillion. These figures don’t adequately express the deaths, personal suffering, years it takes for people to recover, or the anguish of those who can never recover.
We have two choices. Stay on the current path, that guarantees the collapse of the natural world and systems we depend on, or recognize the physical limitations of the planet and live within our means. The former leads to anarchy, violence, mass climate refugee migrations, disease outbreaks, increased starvation, resource wars, and the rise of authoritarian and fascist governments. The latter is an opportunity, not a diminishment, to build more peaceful, equitable, sustainable societies. We can now see clearly how small the planet is, because of the increasing efficiency with which we harvest her, with our ever more efficient technology.
Until the industrial revolution, we could get away with barbaric behavior. Sure, we tortured and murdered each other at scale, but now overpopulation and technology has created an extinction level situation. We have a profound behavioral problem. Our greed and barbarism must end, if we are to retain an inhabitable planet.
Our over prosperity in the global north has been based on unsustainable, runaway natural resource extraction, achieved through cruel human exploitation, particularly of the global south. Powered by greed that ignores everything except the bottom line, the filthy drilling for and expelling of fossil fuels is now burning our planet up. Those in the industry will tell you their products are the reason for our success, and that a population of eight billion people is evidence. That’s a half-truth at best. When 828 million people are starving in the world, that is not success. When 1.1 percent of the world population holds 46 percent of its wealth, that is not success. When the product you have been pedaling is endangering all life on Earth, that is not success.
We can support our current eight billion people. Scientists calculate we can support ten billion people. To achieve this, however, we must restructure our economic model. There are enough resources and wealth on Earth for everyone to lead healthy, meaningful lives. Our biggest hurdle is behavioral. Imperialism and colonialism must end. Neoliberal economics must end. This economic practice unleashed under the Reagan administration has allowed unabated greed to flourish, destroy the environment, and worsen social and economic inequality. Originating in the University of Chicago Economics Department in the 1950s, the theory pushed that pure unregulated markets and minimal government intervention would create the perfect economy. What resulted is pigs at the trough. Up to that point, Keynesian economics built on the foundation of government created stimulus and business regulation had created relative economic equality since FDR’s New Deal. These developmentalist policies, investing in the greater good brought the country back from the banking fueled ruin of the Great Depression, and provided Americans training and good paying jobs, through investing in infrastructure and a strong social safety net.
Developmentalism was adopted with great success in Latin America as well, in the Southern Cone of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and parts of Brazil, in an effort to improve the lives of people there. U.S. multinational corporations were unhappy with that, as well as strong unions at home. The post-war economy was booming, but Keynesian policies, which enabled everyone to do well, forced them to share. The laissez-faire mantra of Milton Friedman and his disciples, the Chicago “Boys” had strong appeal. Dollar signs danced.
The Chicago Boys waited, decades, for a testing ground for their theories. Their opportunity came in South America, when the turmoil of the Cold War and U.S. corporate interests coincided.
The First Test of Neoliberal Capitalism: Chile, CIA Backed
Consider the story of Chile and the CIA backed coup that put General Augusto Pinochet in power in 1973, resulting in 3,200 people disappearing or executed, torture, 80,000 imprisoned, and 200,000 fleeing from political persecution.1 President Allende, his socialist democracy, and the entire the Southern Cone were seen as a threat to the profits of multinational corporations. The Soviets had expanded diplomatic, political, and military presence in the region. Both military and corporate interests were in play. Allende, a proponent of developmentalism, promised to negotiate fair terms for domestic companies that were losing their properties and investments to foreign competition. This made Allende a target, and long story short, he ended up dead, his head blown off, either by assassination or his own hand, when his government was attacked. Pinochet’s theatrical, unnecessarily violent overthrow designed to instill fear in the masses, was completed in hours.
Pinochet was installed, and Chile was used as a hotbed to test the extreme capitalism of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics, based on privatization, deregulation, and cuts to social spending. Do those ideas sound familiar, struggling Americans? How about to many of my foreign readers? The Chicago School Boys convinced the financially ignorant thug Pinochet to adopt their principles and landed positions in his cabinet. Local businesses were lost as cheap imports flooded the country, and foreign speculation proliferated. Unemployment hit record levels and by 1974 inflation was 375 percent. By 1988, 45 percent of the population had fallen below the poverty line, while the richest 10 percent increased their incomes 83 percent.2 Chile provided the first opportunity for the Chicago School to put their theories to work. It was also the harbinger of death for Keynesian economics in the U.S.
If It Sounds Too Good to Be True
The #ClimateCrisis is intensifying. Vast swathes of Canada are burning, and people in India are dying from heat by the dozens. I have a friend in Texas with its infamous shitty privatized power grid (brought to you by neoliberal capitalism) facing heat projected to hit 106º to 109º repeatedly over the next ten days. A 35-year-old utility lineman, from West Virginia, died combatting failures of the grid from heat-related causes on June 21. Mailman Eugene Gates Jr., a 66-year-old mailman, collapsed in a front yard on his route and died in 115º heat in Dallas on June 19.
In the meantime, Governor Abbott signed a bill rescinding city and county ordinances requiring mandatory water breaks for construction workers. No one should die from heat doing their job.
So I ask you? Why would you believe we will save the planet by throwing stuff in our recycling bins and driving electric versions of our monstrous SUVs? One ton of commercial grade lithium requires 500,000 gallons of water from some of the most water deprived places on the planet. Mining companies wish to extract minerals from our already dying oceans. How do you think that’s going to work out? And once again, most of this mining commits theft and crimes against the poorest, indigenous people from South America and North America.
Those who are telling you we will transition to a new, “green” economy with EVs and renewables backed by massive lithium battery grids are lying. They are filthy rich, out of touch sociopaths, who merely want to keep making as much money as possible before the whole system implodes, like the billionaire amusement park ride called the Titan submarine.
Billionaires even hope to transfer their brains into robots. I’m not kidding. That will be convenient when there is no breathable air, or food to eat, I suppose.
Six million species are at risk of extinction, including pollinators. No pollinators guarantee the widespread failure of agriculture, it’s that simple. They ignore science and facts. They believe they are above it all, such are their egos. They believe they are better than you and me, and are planning for life after we are gone.
We will not save the Earth by mining for minerals, with carbon capture systems (already a proven failure), or by injecting reflective particles into the sky to reflect heat (pure speculative hubris). We must halt new fossil fuel projects immediately. That’s the obvious first step.
How Do We Do Overcome Our Accelerating Failure?
I started this article talking about Keynesian economics and neoliberal economics. By far, I prefer the humanity of the Keynesian model. However, neither of these approaches can save us, because they both rely on unsustainable consumption. We need a new economic model built on sustainability, social justice, and the caretaking of our beautiful, amazing Earth. This is achievable if we can overcome greed and political inertia. Obviously, that will take a lot of work from you and me, but I can’t think of anything more meaningful or important. Good news, the new economic model already exists.
Degrowth, a Vision for Better Lives and a Healthy Planet
The model we need has already been envisioned by some of the best minds in the world, those in the scientific community, and it’s called degrowth. Imagine a life where you work fewer hours and retire earlier. Imagine a world where the economy revolves around sustainability and restoration, meaning increased jobs in renewable infrastructure and updating and insulating buildings. Imagine brand-new jobs in restoring ecosystems, landscaping parks over urban blight, and building efficient, clean mass transit. Imagine a new economy where excellent healthcare is available to everyone, and teachers are well paid. Imagine a world where you have time for family and friends, and to pursue personal interests. All of this is possible, and I will talk more about that vision and benefits of degrowth in my next article. Thank you for reading, and know I welcome your thoughts.
Figures from Naomi Klein’s heavily researched and remarkable book, The Shock Doctrine.
Once again, thanks to Naomi Klein’s amazing work in The Shock Doctrine.
I'm going to do my best to explain degrowth and all the ways it could make life better. If we can sell Chia pets and cheeseburgers, we can sell things that are good for people, too. We have to emphasize the benefits, and neutralize the fear of change, natural to most of us. Degrowth isn't a concept most have heard of, so making it known far and wide is the critical first step. It will be fought tooth and nail, even if we can create demand, and of course time is critical. There is so much we should have started doing 50 years ago, when this looming crisis was seen by those who were paying attention. As the system crashes and chaos results, the opportunity to transition to sustainability could easily be lost. Thank you for your thoughts, much appreciated.
Until I hear a better idea, this is the path, so I'm going to explain it and promote it as far and wide as I can. It's the answer to so many problems.