In a comprehensive and well argued essay Peter Smith (‘Rewilding’) takes us on a tour of the last century of such ‘captures’, the most prominent being Labour Unions transformed from Class Struggle formations into Lobbying outfits and the Environmental Movement turned into consultancies for financialization of natural resources.¹

The conclusion is that the real problems are not attacked but fragmented and commodified for intensified extraction by new and old classes of rentiers.

Rewilding thinks a better solution lies in Georgist taxing of all types of rentiers: ‘Price land honestly and you get efficient land use’. Nothing wrong with ’the market’ - only a need to get the prices right.

But how can such ‘prices’ be set when democracy itself is structurally captured?

I think the belief in ‘market solutions’ itself has to be scrapped. A market is fine when wealth is equally distributed. Over time any market will distort the wealth distribution - it’s a machine for creating inequality.

No - kick out the accountants and the economists - bring in the scientists and the engineers.

The common man cannot look through financial subtleties, but he can understand direct regulation and rationing. And he can understand that ’the system’ is erroding the ground under his feets and nature around him.

‘The market’ cannot fix this, pitchforks will be needed.