Our way of life is doomed. [View All]

Our American capitalist system is doomed, ultimately, to failure. Our way of life is not sustainable, yet almost no one seems willing to face this unpleasant truth.

Capitalism is predicated upon constant and ever-expanding economic growth. This growth requires as its engine several factors: A constant or expanding resource base, an expanding base of customers for the products of industry, and an ever-expanding pool of money to fuel the system.

We can see, already, that the system is starting to break down. Resources are limited, and many of the resources required for the maintenance of our economic system and way of life are seriously depleted and on the way to eventual exhaustion. Petroleum resources are projected to be exhausted sometime between 2040-2050. When that happens…indeed, long before, as decline in supply leads to inevitable problems of allocation…we can expect massive blackouts, fuel rationing, and in the worst case the collapse of society.

This is not a paranoid fantasy, not cynicism…this is almost a certainty. The flow of oil, in a very real way, is the life-blood of our economy. Oil fuels almost all of our transportation, and generates over sixty percent of our electric power. It accounts for over four-fifths of energy consumed in the United States. And there is no other currently known energy source which is as efficient as petroleum. When the oil starts to run out, the machinery that keeps our civilization running will grind to a halt, throwing large numbers of people into pre-industrial living conditions. The time to begin a large-scale shift to alternative sources of renewable energy is NOW, while there are enough petroleum stocks remaining to ensure a smooth transition. However, this isn’t going to happen, as leaders of the major political parties and industries, not just in the US but in most of the world, seem more interested in rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, as it were, than in keeping a sharp lookout for any icebergs up ahead.

I wish I could say I felt optimistic about the future, but nothing I’ve seen of human behaviour is particularly reassuring.