Comment 33186

By LL (registered) - website | Posted September 02, 2009 at 19:15:24

I view population growth the same way I view abortion. They're both bad things. But rather than address them with authoritarian-state solutions (whether laws or tax incentives), we need to address the root causes of population growth. So many in the rich countries view children as a consumerist identity projects. So many in the poor countries use children as retirement funds. Where is the pressure coming from?

There is an elephant in the room here. How can you write an article about the intersection of population and the "growth economy" and not mention the word "capitalism" even once?

Capitalism is by definition a growth economy. Perpetual growth is a fundamental feature of capitalism. When growth slows, the system experiences crisis. For capitalism, population growth is the growth of labour power and increased resource consumption is the growth in fixed capital. The capitalist system needs both to continue.

So any talk of a Zero Growth Economy - a steady state economy - leads us inevitably to reopen discourse around socialism.

I know people automatically equate this with a state-run command economy. But "true" socialism - libertarian-socialism - is quite the opposite. It's a community-run, democratic form of economics. It empowers workers and consumers with direct democracy.

This, I would argue, is precisely what we need to handle the ecological crisis. Only libertarian socialism can deal with resource restraints equitably and democratically, and run a steady-state economy, while still offering women and others the chance to educate themselves and improve their lives with the best that industry has to offer.

A Smith's question - can economic growth continue with dwindling resources - is a fundamental one for green-liberals like Ryan. Certainly, some growth can be absorbed by using labour, energy and materials more effectively. (The organization of cities has a lot to do with that.) Consumers can be persuaded to value more immaterial products, like software and entertainment. But eventually, I would argue, the perpetual growth of GDP is going to require perpetual growth of labour (population) and energy supplies.

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