We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Future of Capitalism - Profits and Growth

by George Mobus from The Oil Drum. Although I have not yet returned home from my trip, I spotted this article while checking my email at a library's computer. I haven't had a chance to read it thoroughly, but it looks like an excellent article that fits with the point of this blog which is that capitalism is going to destroy the earth's habitat for humans and many other species--if we let it!
Over the next several decades we (humans) will have to change our understanding of what is feasible and what we need to be doing to have a future. The future does not include growth of the GDP or profits. Capitalism as it has been practiced in the 20th century and now hanging on in the early 21st century is dead. Or rather, at this juncture in history, it is moribund.
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