Capitalism And A Simple Petri Dish

Hello Oh Ramblers,

Here's hoping that the current worldwide financial crisis will be ever so much worse than everyone fears. I have a dream - I hope to see all of the fat pig executives, those uber-greedy tools of the monied powers, open up the windows of their top-floor offices and take a great big dive into thin air, raining down on the streets below.

Hopefully this rain will wash away an evil that has hypnotised three generations of people who have been living way beyond their means without regard for their fellow humans or the planet on which we all live.

I can't believe that people are surprised at the current state of affairs. It is merely the natural conclusion of capitalism left to grow and abuse resources unchecked. The grand, sweeping towers and monuments of capitalism are built on foundations of greed and an unwavering aim to become the biggest, the strongest, the greatest, irrespective of the physical and ethical boundaries in its way.

It always amazes me that people complain about monopolistic behaviour in capitalism. Isn't that the natural end game? Eventually, one big corporation will swallow up everything else, in a grand parody of Darwinian evolution. The most efficient and ruthless player will best all of their competitors on the economic field of battle, and will then be free to unleash their insatiable thirst for greater profits on the ragdoll bodies left strewn on the battlefield.

This very thing has been happening with China for years now. Seen as a poster child for economic success, everyone points to China and says what a great success they are. I've been there. It's smelly, polluted and disaffected, with a billion people ready to spend up big as soon as they realise the capitalist dream that we've all been chasing for the past hundred years or so. Just what the planet needs - at a rate of about one coal-fired power plant per week.

As China has become the dominant production force that feeds the insatiable hunger of the consuming nations, they have paid a heavy toll indeed. Pollution is only one small part of it. The rest of the world has been only too happy to abrogate responsibility - let's face it, we get all this neat stuff from China, and don't get to see how much damage it's doing to our planet, because their backyard is suitably far away, locked behind the Great Wall and too many rabbits.

Before this fine economic meltdown came along, my greatest fear was that, once China had strangled every country's manufacturing industries by out-competing them, they would be able to control the world markets and name their price. After all, it is the end game of capitalism - best your competition to control the market.

My fear now is that we will not learn our lessons. Capitalism will continue to be the ruling power on our planet, and the really tough issues, like pollution, resource depletion, species extinction, chronic overpopulation and declining quality of life, will continue to remain unaddressed.

The current response by the ruling governments of the world is to encourage their fine people to spend their way out of the looming recessions. The undeniable equation is this - we have too many people on this planet, and many of them are living way beyond any reasonable or sustainable means. Continual growth is what has kept the fallacy of capitalism going way past its use by date. Continual growth will not solve the problem. Continual growth is the problem.

Just look at a simple petri dish in a laboratory. The dish has a finite food source and a bacterial culture. Simplicity itself, and a wonderful scientific construct that acts as more than just a simple metaphor for our planet and our current situation. The bacteria will thrive, experiencing exponential growth. Times are great, and the bacteria are throwing expensive parties left, right and center. Wow! This growth is great! We will keep growing forever. Go bacteria!

Then the bacteria run out of food and all of them die. Duh! Go figure. Now that's hardly rocket science.

So, go out and spend, oh rambling masses, like good capitalist puppets. Everything will be fine. Mankind will find a way to satisfy insatiable greed with finite resources. It can't be that hard to transcend immutable laws of nature, right?