Australia might be the best place in the world to live. Most people would be likely to say that in general its economic system is pretty good and certainly better than any alternative that could be suggested. But the system has major problems and faults causing large numbers of its people to experience much less desirable living conditions than they could have. More importantly, it is generating huge problems for the planet which could very well trigger a catastrophic global breakdown in the next few decades. This book is intended to make clear how the main source of these lifestyle and planetary problems is the kind of economic system we have, and that there is a very strong case for scrapping it.
The book begins with the economic system’s undesirable effects on the personal everyday experience of people in rich countries such as Australia. It makes life for most of us much more of a struggle than is necessary, and treats many people at the bottom of the heap badly while it greatly enriches the rich. This kind of economy inevitably works more in the interests of richer people than in the interests of the rest of us.
But the second area considered is much more important. Chapter 3 shows that the present economy is generating most if not all of our major global problems and accelerating us towards catastrophic breakdown. It is causing resource depletion, environmental destruction, extreme inequality, wars over access to resources and markets, and loss of social cohesion, and it is preventing people in low-income countries from getting a fair share of the world’s resources. It condemns more than half the world’s people to deprived and struggling lives because it gears their economies to the benefit of the world’s few rich nations and people.
The first major fault in the economy is that it is a growth system; it must have ever-increasing amounts of production, sales, consumption and GDP. But the planet is already well past sustainable global levels of resource consumption and ecological impact. There are far too few resources left for all the world’s people to rise to anything like the consumption rates and “living standards” people in rich countries average today. We cannot get to a sustainable and just world unless the per capita levels of production and consumption in rich countries are dramatically reduced.
The second major fault is that this economy allows market forces and the profit motive to determine what is produced, who gets things and what is developed, and this mechanism always delivers most to the richer people who can pay more while it ignores need.
Many analysts argue in detail that these problems will lead us to terminal global breakdown within decades, and that these trends cannot be reversed unless we shift to a very different kind of economic system.
The common reaction to this “limits to growth” case is that economic growth can be “decoupled” from resource demand so that technical advance will make possible continued growth despite dwindling resources. This is incorrect. There are now many studies showing that this technical-fix faith is seriously mistaken.
The rather long Chapter 3 goes into many aspects of a capitalist economy, pointing to difficulties and faults. But is there any realistic alternative? Most people would say there isn’t. This book’s main task is to explain convincingly that there is.
Is the alternative “Socialism”? You will be: a) relieved to hear that the answer argued below in Chapter 10 is no, but b) dismayed to hear that the answer is… Anarchism. But it’s best not to discuss in these very ambiguous and confusing terms. Just be reassured that the solution detailed in Chapter 10 is a form of thoroughly participatory democracy whereby most of us live in fairly small communities which run their highly self-sufficient local economies to provide sufficient goods and services for all to enjoy a high quality of life. The crucial element must be much simpler lifestyles and systems, because only in such communities can the per capita resource and ecological impacts be got right down to sustainable levels. Lifestyles will have to be materially frugal, but they will be entirely sufficient and there will be major quality of life benefits. There will be no need for deprivation or hardship, and we could actually increase resources going into high tech R&D, modern medicine, etc. I refer to this vision as The Simpler Way.
The important point here is that although it must be an economic system in which what is done is not decided mainly by those with capital investing in what will maximise their profits, this does not mean it has to be run by an authoritarian centralised Socialist state, or even a benign state of the kind the Scandinavians have. Chapter 10 explains that most economic decisions will (have to) be made by town assemblies in which everyone has a say and a vote. Centralised states cannot run these communities satisfactorily. There will still be some functions for centralised agencies, such as coordinating telecommunications, railways, legal systems, etc., but they will not have that much to do, and eventually they will be under the control of the local assemblies. So you need not fear big-state or nanny-state Socialism.
The argument will be that the present predominantly capitalist economic system is not reformable; it cannot be fixed. The problems it is generating are due to essential defining mechanisms built into its foundations and if we removed these it would no longer be a capitalist economy. Thus the goal has to be shifting to a quite different system. However it is important to recognise that the present economy has important merits; it does various things very effectively, such as get rid of inefficient firms, cut costs, and encourage innovation. These merits will be discussed with a view to explaining how we could have these benefits in a system which doesn’t have the faults this one has.
It is pretty obvious that most people would not at first sight agree with this claim that the system has to be replaced, because there isn’t widespread serious discontent with it or demand to replace it. This book’s first purpose is to argue that most people don’t realise how unsatisfactory capitalism is. Their complacency is largely due to the fact that the system is effective at delivering lots of goods and services to us in rich countries. Unfortunately few realise that their consumption, comfort, leisure and security would not be possible if they were not getting far more than their fair share of the world’s scarce resources.
The book’s intent is to offer a quiet, polite and rational case for consideration, especially by those who do not initially agree with it, in an attempt to persuade sensible thinking people to its critical view. It is not an angry polemical rant. Unfortunately much of the literature against capitalism is only read and agreed with by people who are already against capitalism. The concern here is to put forward considerations, reasoning and evidence that will persuade people who are not initially opposed to capitalism to agree that we urgently need to replace it. It is not addressed to economists or experts; it is for “ordinary people” and especially teenagers and students. And I believe that it is the best critical analysis you will find. The literature against capitalism is voluminous but mostly turgid and cranky, and lacking very convincing arguments.
Finally, it will be argued that the system can be replaced in a non-violent way, and without a powerful centralised state forcing the change through. Indeed, it will be argued that the only way we can get to an alternative economy that enables a sustainable, just and nice world is if it is built voluntarily and willingly by ordinary people who have come to see the need for it. The good news is that a shift in awareness of the required kind is now underway around the world and there are many practical grass-roots movements working on building the new systems we need.
It should be noted that the account does not give much attention to Trump and the era he has introduced. This to avoid giving the impression that the trends and problems described are due to him as distinct from being due to the capitalist system.
Some themes are dealt with more than once in different chapters. This enables those chapters to be used as stand-alone units in courses etc.