Provocation # 196

Economics can be seen as a kind if systems maintenance manual, plumbing for the flow of dollars in the economy. If economics were more seriously interested in science it would raise questions like: what is capitalism, what is socialism and if we understand these, is there a third possibility?

————————

The financial times has a challenging article on when economic good is driven at a strategic level so that it becomes a huge force in society,  by pulling and pushing millions out of their villages, breaking up their lives and communities, in the effort to make their lives better. 

But the reality is the land goes to weeds attended by the old and sick who have been left behind. Then the economy slows and those who went to the cities are struggling, losing hope. How do we struggle to help the billions while sensitive to their lived lives?

The fight for survival in China’s abandoned rural towns

https://www.ft.com/content/cdad0a82-fd38-11e8-aebf-99e208d3e521

Need to be a subscriber.

——————

Four very serious and difficult readings on global heating. I would very much appreciate reactions to these, each saying the climate problem is more difficult than the previous.

Andreas Malm Fossil Capital

The problem is not human nature but capitalism and capitalists. Society seems to lack the leverage to do anything

Naomi Klein This Changes Everything

Capitalism is the problem but there are things we can do

Roger Annis

http://rogerannis.com/andreas-malms-fossil-capital-unearths-the-origin-of-capitalisms-attachment-to-fossil-fuels-but-finishes-with-the-shallow-outlook-of-ecosocialism/

Real socialism and a different regime needed

Alexander Dunlop

https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3797-end-the-green-delusions-industrial-scale-renewable-energy-is-fossil-fuel

True socialism won’t work because green energy still costs lots of environmental damage. The energy and materials cots for producing a single wind turbine are shockingly high. No way out.