Addicted to growth

Capitalism is addicted to growth. The system of commodity production—that is, hiring workers to produce things for sale at a profit—

developed within the stagnant feudal societies of Europe and Japan and soon replaced them because of its great productivity. As Karl Marx pointed out, it was the cheap goods of capitalist mass production that battered down the walls of earlier societies all over the world.

But that great thinker and revolutionary also showed that, in society as well as in nature, things turn into their opposites. Add a little heat and ice, a solid, will turn into a liquid.

The tempestuous growth of capitalism, now several centuries old, is running into a wall it finds unconquerable. What was once capitalism’s endearing asset—dynamic growth—has turned into a noose around its neck.

Part of it is due to capitalist overproduction, which has been a recurrent feature of the system since Marx’s day. The mad race for profits leads to overbuilding of the means of production, which spew out much more than can be sold for a profit. A capitalist boom then turns into a bust.

But now there’s also something else. The unplanned, frenetic growth of production that is characteristic of capitalism has produced an environmental crisis of enormous proportions. No one knows for sure what will happen next, but the scientists reporting to the climate talks in Copenhagen agree that the planet is warming rapidly and little time remains to reverse this ominous trend.

In capitalist countries like the U.S., all the discussions on climate change taking place at high levels have to do with how to curb carbon dioxide emissions within the confines of a system that puts the profits of banks and corporations above everything else. In other words, how can they go on producing more goods and services—at a profit—while at the same time making money off reining in greenhouse gases.

They are interested only in programs that guarantee the growth of their capital assets. That is what is behind all the debate over “cap and trade” versus “tax carbon goods.”

The dilemma over what to do about climate change exists because of capitalism’s need for a specific kind of growth—growth that insures the profitability of the corporations and banks. This has nothing in common with what the workers need: jobs at a decent wage, homes, health care, education, recreation and culture.

A socialist, planned economy could provide jobs building energy-efficient housing for the people, mass transit, a universal health care system, schools, libraries and cultural centers for a fraction of what this capitalist government spends on subsidies to the banks and corporations, imperialist wars, and jails to keep the youth from rebelling.

And it could do so while cleaning up the environment and reversing the toxic effects of rampant capitalist expansion.