Political Economy, I: Capitalism and Disaster

Abstract

Capitalism certainly deserves praise. It has produced great cities and hitherto unknown, and undreamt of, productive capacities, making possible endless scientific and artistic achievements besides. In broad historical terms it has had a profound civilizing effect through its revolutionizing of the means of communication and through its globalization of production and consumption. As such it has had a positive cosmopolitan influence upon the world’s cultures. Capitalism also deserves condemnation. Its over-riding focus on profits has led to ‘cheap labour, damaged lives, a destroyed planet and polluted seas’. It has also produced unimaginable inequality; stated simply: ‘too much … has gone to too few’. The opening observations were made by Karl Marx, capitalism’s fiercest critic, and his writing colleague Friedrich Engels in the pages of The Communist Manifesto. The latter two criticisms come from leading figures in the capitalist corporate world — Richard Branson (2011, p. 21), founder of the Virgin Group and Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs (quoted in Maguire, 2014). When even the greatest beneficiaries of the system call the system into question you know there is a problem. Capitalism is the asteroid (for a similar conclusion from within the business community see the World Economic Forum’s (2012) Global Risks report which lists the most likely planetary risks as severe income disparity and chronic fiscal imbalances, and the severest risk as major systemic financial failure).