Robbing the soil, 1: Commons and classes before capitalism
Between the decline of feudalism and the rise of industrial capitalism, rural society was transformed by the complex of processes that are collectively known as enclosure.
capitalism
Reparations would shake up American capitalism – and that’s a good thing
Paying compensation to the descendants of slaves would not just right a historic wrong, it would transform the US economy for the better
Intensive Fishing and the Birth of Capitalism, Part 3
But for the merchants who were the primary promoters, financiers and often warriors on the English side, it was an economic war — if they had read von Clausewitz, they might have said that their war was business conducted by other means.
Capitalism, the Doomsday Machine (or, How to Repurpose Growth Capital)
Why wait for collapse? Repurposing growth capital now could help unwind the doomsday machine sooner rather than later.
Intensive Fishing and the Birth of Capitalism
An important factor in the rise of the Dutch merchant-industrialist class, scarcely mentioned in many accounts, was the absolute dominance of the Dutch fishing industry in the North Sea.
The economic legacy of the Holocene
We should face reality: The other-than-human-world now has become almost entirely eclipsed by an unassailable “superorganism”—us, the human species—that continues to expand in evermore destructive fashion.
Brexit stems from a civil war in capitalism – we are all just collateral damage
To one sort of capitalist, the insecurity and chaos that Brexit will bring is horrifying. To the other, it is highly profitable
Einstein’s Take on Capitalism, Socialism, and a New Kind of Business
A glimpse at the headlines surrounding the upcoming presidential election in the U.S. reveals how we are still largely governed by the old dichotomy of business vs. society.
What If Preventing Collapse Isn’t Profitable?
You see, the real downside of the green-profit narrative has been that it created the assumption in many people’s minds that the solution to climate change and other environmental dilemmas is technical, and that policy makers and industrialists will implement it for us, so that the way we live doesn’t need to change in any fundamental way.
COVID-19 and the Death of Market Fundamentalism
COVID-19 gives us clear evidence that market fundamentalism is a failed economic strategy. Interpreting markets as an ideology or quasi-religious belief system, results in unmanageable and systemic economic risks.
The Three Causes of Global Ecocide
In a recent post I questioned the well-known formula: Human Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology. But I don’t question that humans now have a severe impact on earth systems. So if not PAT, then what? Here I’m going to lay out some other factors that I suggest underlie our impact and our present predicament in a more fundamental sense than the PAT variables.
Riding the Populist Wave
In either case, the ultimate realization of social justice, economic equity, true democracy, peace, and environmental stability will depend on people learning to work together in our communities to find common ground and tackle the larger task of building systems that better serve all the people and promote the common good. Your vote does count, so stand up and be counted.
