Abstract
Capitalism’s environmental unsustainability is demonstrated not only through the arguments of Kenneth Boulding (The economics of the coming Spaceship Earth. In Jarrett, H (ed.), Environmental quality in a growing economy. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1966, pp. 3–14) and Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (The entropy law and the economic process. Havard University Press, 1971) but also by Herman Daly’s impossibility theorem (Sustainable growth. An impossibility theorem In Daly, HE, Townsend, K (eds.). Valuing the Earth: economics, ecology, ethics. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1993, pp. 267–285): an economy based on capital’s expanded reproduction in a limited environment occupies a position in economic theory that is the equivalent of the fundamental impossibilities of physics. This chapter examines the two impossibilities of implementing regulatory frameworks capable of containing the tendency toward collapse within the realm of globalized capitalism: (1) the self-regulation of economic agents induced by the presence of mechanisms emanating from the market itself and (2) regulation induced not only by market mechanisms but also by agreements negotiated between businesses, the state, and civil society. The idea of self-regulation does not apply to capitalism because markets are not ruled by the principle of homeostasis. Moreover, capitalism cannot price its action on ecosystems because ecosystems are broader in space and time than the investment/profit cycle. No matter how corporate leaders want to improve their corporations’ ethical conduct, they cannot afford to subordinate their corporate goals to the environmental imperative. Analysis of the second impossibility mentioned above (regulation induced by agreements negotiated between businesses, the state, and civil society) touches on the punctus dolens of all the problems discussed in this chapter and even in this book: the impossibility of this second route stems from the lack of parity between the parties, a necessary condition for an effective negotiation.
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Notes
- 1.
See Pascal Lamy, “Capitalism Cannot Satisfy Us”. Interview granted to Daniel Fortin and Mathieu Magnaudeix. Challenges, 6/XII/2007.
- 2.
See Claude Bernard, Introduction à l’étude de la medicine expérimentale” (1865): “La science antique n’a pu concevoir que le milieu extérieur; mais il faut, pour fonder la science biologique expérimentale, concevoir de plus un milieu intérieur. Je crois avoir le premier exprimé clairement cette idée”. Cited by Georges Canguilhem, (1968/1983, p. 148).
- 3.
Founded by Ralph Raico, the New Individualist Review. A Journal of Classical Liberal Thought was published between 1961 and 1968. In the Introduction to its reprint, in 1981, Friedman declared that his articles “remain timely and relevant.” See M. Friedman, “Introduction”. In New Individualist Review, Indianapolis, Liberty Press, 1981, pp. ix-xiv.
- 4.
On the concept of the economic value of nature and its measurement, as proposed, among others, by Pavan Sukhdev, see The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Business and Enterprise and his videos available on YouTube.
- 5.
“Report to Congressional Addressees. Opportunities exist to Strengthen Policies and Processes for Managing Emergency Assistance”, July 2011, GAO-11-696. United States Government Accountability Office. I thank Dr. Orice Williams Brown, director of GAO’s Financial Markets and Community Investment, for kindly sharing this document with me. http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-696.
- 6.
US Senator Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), Washington, D.C., 12/VI/2012, “Jamie Dimon Is Not Alone”. http://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/061212DimonIsNotAlone.pdf
- 7.
Between May 2010 and March 2011, the ECB bought 66 billion euros from bankers and other investors. In August 2011 alone, the ECB bought a further 36 billion euros (always in the secondary market and at a much higher price than the one traded in that market) of government bonds from Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Not satisfied with this rescue operation, banks took the opportunity to buy more junk bonds in the secondary market at a rate of 42.5% of their face value on August 8, 2011 (and even lower later on), and to resell them to the ECB at 80% of this value. Eric Toussaint, “La BCE, fidèle serviteur des intérêts privés.” Interview granted to CADTM, 16/IX/2011
- 8.
In “The Use and Abuse of History for Life.” (1874), Nietzsche discusses the three meanings of history necessary for the man who lives in his own time: as a being that is active and has aspirations (monumental history), as a being that preserves and venerates (antiquarian history), and as a being that suffers and has a need for liberation (critical history). Precisely between the years of Nietzsche and the twentieth century, the social democratic state was the guarantor of these “uses” (Nutzen) of history that Nietzsche refers to.
- 9.
Quoted in La Tribune, 16/X/2008, p. 38
- 10.
See Global Justice Now, “Corporations vs governments revenues: 2015 data.” http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/resources/corporations_vs_governments_final.pdf.
- 11.
“10 biggest corporations make more money than most countries in the world combined.” Global Justice Now, 12/IX/2016
- 12.
“Band of brothers”. The Economist, 22–28/XI/2014, p. 77. Review of Karen Dawisha, Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who owns Russia? New York, 2014
- 13.
See also Mark Thoma, “How To (Maybe) End Too Big to Fail.” The Economist’s View, 25/II/2013
- 14.
See also Foster, “Capitalism and Degrowth: An Impossibility Theorem”. Monthly Review, 62, 8, 2011.
- 15.
World Bank, Global Economic Prospects. Broad-Based Upturn, but for How Long? January, 2018, p. xv
- 16.
Here is the meaning of the cowboy economy and spaceman economy metaphors: “For the sake of picturesqueness, I am tempted to call the open economy the ‘cowboy economy,’ the cowboy being symbolic of the illimitable plains and also associated with reckless, exploitative, romantic, and violent behavior, which is characteristic of open societies. The closed economy of the future might similarly be called the ‘spaceman’ economy, in which the earth has become a single spaceship, without unlimited reservoirs of anything, either for extraction or for pollution, and in which, therefore, man must find his place in a cyclical ecological system.”
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Marques, L. (2020). The Illusion of a Sustainable Capitalism. In: Capitalism and Environmental Collapse. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47527-7_13
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