Our species is facing the twin crises of global warming and Earth's exhaustion. This is not some far-off speculation. We either take steps now to address these facts, or, within a few decades, today’s symptoms will become a full-blown global plague on other inhabitants of the Earth and us.
Capitalism must be replaced as our economic system for the following reasons.
First, capitalism requires constant growth. This is an obvious impossibility on a finite planet.
Second, capitalism feeds off cost shifting1. Capitalist producers shift as many of their costs to those outside the firm. Pollution in its myriad forms is an example. Plastics now collect everywhere. And industry promises of recycling are a fraud. The trillions of hours of human attention sucked by the social media-based advertising industry is another example. Cost shifting is not an optional business strategy in capitalist enterprises. Cost shifting increases profits. If your business does not take advantage of cost shifting at least as much as your competitors, you will suffer lower profits and likely collapse.
Third, capitalism treats the extraction of resources (think fossil fuels, minerals, etc.) from the Earth as a right, with no consequences.
Fourth, capitalism is driven by the desires of a tiny fraction of human beings, the owners of businesses. And this same tiny fraction plays a completely outsized role in our politics. They set the agendas to suit their needs, not the needs of our species.
Fifth, capitalism lives on, and drives, fetishized consumption. We are surrounded by the marketing that incents us to buy more and more. The effects of this are most visible in the developed world and amongst the rich. The utility-maximizing agent featured in neoclassical economics (see Econ 101) is overwhelmed by the tsunami of marketing messages.
Sixth, capitalism is only interested in the basic needs of most human beings for housing, food, healthcare, family life, and more to the extent that they can extract a profit from these needs.
For those who have taken economics courses in college, cost shifting is referred to as “external costs” or “externalities”.
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