8 EMERGENCE
Capitalism has created problems that cannot be solved by - Capitalism!
I remember thinking, in the 1970s, that once people became aware of the ecological crisis — disappearing species, polluted rivers, poisoned air — that the necessary changes would be simple to achieve. Humanity only had to curb industrial waste and destruction, preserve wilderness for other species, put limits on our consumption, stabilize human population, and just be smart about how to live on Earth without destroying it. Of course, I was naive to think any of that would be easy.
Since that time, human population has doubled, consumption of material resources has quadrupled, biodiversity collapse has accelerated, and after 34 international climate meetings, we are emitting more carbon than ever before. Meanwhile, we have not exactly ended war, vanquished racism, nor achieved gender or economic parity. Even worse, giant corporate interests actively work to halt and reverse any ecological regulation on industrial activity. (Weyler (2020) Thresholds, cascades, and wicked problems17)
Our emotional responses to crisis evolved over millennia, primarily to meet immediate needs, perhaps to benefit our tribe or community, not necessarily to solve complex, multi-dimensional, long-term dilemmas. Our ideas about “solutions” tend to be linear, short-term, and linked to a perception of simple cause and effect. Our educational institutions encourage this linear thinking about problems and solutions. Meanwhile, our social and ecological challenges are systemic, multidimensional, and complex.
We are in a war-like situation and need war-like instruments. The neo-liberal ideology of always relaying on markets has brought us the problems - and are unfit to correct them.
We have to scrap standard economists mode of thinking about steering through incentives and nudging.
We do not have the time for designing sophisticated indirect measures.
We know what the problems are and have to attack them directly. This means New Economic Planning.
We are headed for the Emergence of Eco-Socialism.
MEMO EMERGENCE
This should be about societal and environmetal developments after transition - not about transition itself (prior chapter)
Eco-socialism as something to raise from the ashes of new imperial wars? i.e. no transition phase!
Working within the system vs
voluntarism = “ecopolitics without struggle” small scale,localized
Critique of bioregionalism (Kovel) Belief in the self-sufficiency of “appropriate bioregional boundaries” drawn up by inhabitants of “an area”. Such ideas are impossible to translate to populations of modern proportions. bioregions that do “not require connections with the outside
Critique of actually-existing socialisms
society an inert mass requiring leadership from above.
The guardians of the current system are making sure to protect the modus operandi that has served us, 10% of the world population, for such a long time. Growth, scale, consumption. Repeat. The middle classes of the western world will not start radical system change movements. Why? What is in it for them? How would that improve their life? I think that one of the major flaws of the climate emergency movement across the world, and in the financial so-called ESG world, has been the focus on how to cut CO2 emissions. That is probably the third question to be asked. The first one is: “What is the root cause of the situation we are in?” The second should be: “Who is responsible and accountable?” And then the third question is how to cut CO2 emissions. Which is done by changing the underlying root cause and making people responsible for it to act and assume that responsibility. https://esgonasunday.substack.com/p/week-2-in-a-world-of-contradictions
With the onset of globalization, the system is running out of new ecosystems.
more important to restructure societies to reduce energy use before relying on renewable energy technologies
Marxist aversion to utopian thought, which Neurath saw less as daydreaming than the practical work of building a new society. (Vettese)
/home/jmh/zdocs/Themes/Environment/Planning/Combet_2020_Planning_and_Sustainable_Development.pdf
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8.2 Scope
When capitalism became global it met global boundaries and broke down. The emergent society willhave to be global - international. - International, i.e. global scope. It has to be international - or it will be nothing.
8.3 Features
8.3.3 Sustainable
- use values, not exchange values
After decades of commodity delirium, a turn to democratic planning—channelling investment according to social need and ecological boundaries—would be the revenge of use value. (Cedric Durand)
- renewable energy cannot power a high-consumption civilization.
8.4 Institutions
8.4.2 Economy
BASICS
renewable energy cannot power a high-consumption civilization.
sacrificing consumption as a way of life
8.4.2.2 Planning
The claim made by the advocates of planning has never been that it will deliver ultimate perfection - the best of all possible worlds - rather it’s that planning ought to be able to do better than the market at satisfying the needs of the majority of the population while avoiding the gross inequality generated by the market mechanism, plus that it’s arguably better at achieving substantial economic restructuring in a short time.18
Planning decisions will be taken directly based on the available productive resources and not some measure of ‘value’. The availability of the means of production and labour power constraints a feasible plan. Cybersocialist models rely on computer networks and algorithms to derive an optimal production plan.
Economic planning does not rely on monetary payment or exchange.
?object function?
8.4.2.3 Distribution
Distribution - not exchange
8.4.2.3.1 Vouchers - not money
Dapprich
Money is thus a kind of IOU issued by the state which circulates in the economy, as it is being used for exchange between private agents and for settling of payments in the private sector.
Socialist labour token proposals suggest that this be done through vouchers or tokens denominated in labour time that can be redeemed for consumer goods of equivalent value. The most influential discussion of this is found in Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme.
Tokens on the other hand, are only or primarily used to mobilise labour for socialised production and to distribute consumer goods out of the social supply of goods to individual consumers.
The token prices of consumer products should not be linked to labour values but should instead be responsive to supply and demand.
Socialised production yields some mix of consumer products. Considering how the collectively produced consumer goods should subsequently be distributed to individual citizens.
Vouchers are not money. They do not circulate.
Tokens are issued to individuals by society or the socialist state and then redeemed for products out of socialised production.
Cockshott