By Ghassan Karam, Special to Ya Libnan
It is ironic that many in the developed world are rather pleased that the global economy in general and the developed countries in particular have experienced economic contraction over the past year. The idea is based on the simple premise that no finite system can grow without limits. This idea was expressed rather forcefully by the economist Kenneth Boulding when he said: “Only mad men and economists believe in infinite growth in a finite world”.
Those ideas that question the popular economic mainstream mantra of consistent and exponential economic growth were given a lift by the studies of the Club of Rome that wrote the famous study “Limits to Growth” which showed that the world cannot avoid a severe crash if it is to maintain its current trajectory of economic policies all over the world. The dire outlook of these studies has been confirmed whenever the models were updated with new data and more sophisticated techniques.
Herman Daly an ex Senior Vice President at the World Bank and currently a Professor of economics at the University of Maryland became closely associated with this idea when he published his very popular and influential book “Steady State Economics”. The notion that an economy cannot grow forever was not invented by Mr. Daly. He gives all the credit for the idea to JS Mill a major figure of classical economics during the nineteenth century.
Steady State Economics (SSE) is currently on a roll of sorts. It is gaining adherents and influence all over the world but has gained most in the developed economies. The blue ribbon committee appointed by the French President, Sarkozy, to study the reasons behind the global economic meltdown recommended that it is high time that the world reexamines its love affair with what it called “GDP fetishism”. France intends to use its presidency of the group of 20 this year in order to legitimize and popularize the concept of SSE.
It is important to note though, that the calls for SSE rest on two pillars (1) a constant level of human population and (2) a constant level of physical output. There is no controversy that any system, and especially the global ecosystem, should have a limit to its carrying capacity. Proponents of the Club of Rome and Steady State Economics are telling us that the world is already past its carrying capacity and that it will be ill advised not to change course.
The New Economics Foundation of the United Kingdom is one of the better known groups that are sparing no effort to promote the need to stop economic growth. NEF is working towards “an economics as if the planet matters” has produced the following short video clip to promote SSE. Take a look.
An Excellent video clip…
The hamster is portrayed in this video clip as an economy that is constantly growing and getting bigger under the current finite world recources which is off course impossible to achieve.
Karl Marx he famously said in his critique of the political economy that the biggest obstacle to the accumulation of capital in this world is capital itself. This is why our present economic model under its current form is unsustainable because it depends on never ending commoditity extraction in order to support economic growth, and we all know that this is impossible since we live in a world with finite resources.
Sebouh,
And that is why we are inevitably heading towards a global crisis of unprecedented proportions. Unfortunately very few people are willing to see the canaries that are falling down every which way we look.
Unfortunately all we hear and read now is about global crisis, global warming, climate change and nuclear invasions..The capitalists are making sure humanity is heading towards The Judgement Day crisis real soon..:(
Dalal,
You are right,it is clear that Capitalism is not sustainable.
The developed world has not been experiencing “Capitalism”, the western developed nations and most developed nations are being robbed blind by an international banking cabal. The current congressional trials in the US of A and the End the Fed movements, as well as the overwhelming support in congress of the “Audit the Fed” bill,are signs that we the people of the developed nations are awakening this fact. Bloomberg financial had a great article on this. The central banks of all developed countries are subsiduaries of the world bank a, bank of England and IMF, private, for profit run banks that bankrupt nations.
Ghassan, I suggest you read a “The Creature from Jekyll Island” , this book will further your knowledge of the economic situation around the globe. Another suggested book is “Tragedy and Hope” by Carroll Quigley ( Bill Clinton’s mentor).
Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows: David Reilly
Commentary by David Reilly
Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all.
Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials.
We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system — apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout — deserves further congressional scrutiny.
…continued
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aaIuE.W8RAuU
Bachir,
Thanks for the tips. I will look into booth books.
Let me however respond by saying that I am not a proponent of conspiracy theories not even in the case of Bear, Lehman, Citi or AIG. It all depends on what you mean by conspiracy. If what you mean is that the outcome under the current circumstances cannot but be harmful because of the architecture of the global economic and financial system then I will go along. But if what you mean by conspiracy is that a group of people sit in a room and discuss plans to take advantage of some at the exoense of others then I will have to reject that totally.
You might not like the bailouts that took place but I do not think that you would have liked the outcome had they not taken place either.
The idea behind the Impossible hamster is a simple one. The world is full and cannot keep on growing. Actually there is only one solution: recognize the limits to growthand adopt a SSE.
The above easier said than done since very few, if any, are willing to accpet paying the price that such a radical shift entails.
Ghassan,
It’s great to have an intelligent debate on such pressing issues. I thank you for reading my response and replying, and I know you will enjoy the reading.
I would like to remind or bring to your attention the fact that it’s now public that there is a Bilderberg annual meeting. It is a secretive meeting between leaders of nations, Royalty, leaders of the international banking cabal, leaders of media, leaders of industries. (many books, documentaries and mainstream news articles are available on this)
We here in Canada have protested these meetings when they are in our towns, because an unelected group of the world’s most powerfull organizations are making future policies in secret.
In the meantime I will leave you with a quote from Adam Smith , the pioneer of political economy :
“When people of the same calling consort together, the result is always a conspiracy against the public.”
All that being said I do somewhat agree that we cannot keep growing on this planet, this is why we as a species are exploring the solar system the galaxies, and we will certainly expand our civilizations to unimaginable heights. As our ancestors have always done in he past.
Here is the list of (previously mentioned) Bilderberg attendees from the 2009 meeting.
http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/
Before disregarding it as an unsudstantiated internet listing, one could easily google picutres and videos of these meetings. Most notable video documentation of the 2006 secretive elite Bilderberg meeting is found in the world renowned film “End Game: Blueprint for global enslavement” , please view for refference (free on google video or youtube).
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=1070329053600562261&ei=_eJpS-fcBZWkqAK7jP2YBw&q=endgame&hl=en#