Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Evidence that Oil Limits are Leading to Declining Economic Growth

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Evidence that Oil Limits are Leading to Declining Economic Growth

Click here to access article by Gail Tverberg from her blog, Our Finite World.

In this post we will examine evidence regarding declining economic growth and discuss additional reasons why such a long-term decline in real GDP might be expected.

She provides abundant evidence that declining economic growth lies in the future. However, she doesn't explore the implications of this which portend a future characterized by a descent into barbarism if the ruling One Percents and their self-serving system of capitalism is allowed to continue. Many people in various parts of the world are already experiencing this. Ask Iraqis, Pakistanis, Sudanese, Afghans, refugees eking out an existence in foreign lands, and the homeless everywhere.

Unless we are able to change the system of the One Percent that is destroying our world into something that is sustainable and socially just, all of us in the 99 Percent will descend into a nightmarish world where the rich One Percent live in zones behind heavily fortified walls and barbed-wire fences surrounded by the rest of us existing in squalor. If you want to see the future under capitalism, see the Mexican film called "La Zona". Israel and its relationship with the Palestinian territories offers another model of such a future:crossing through checkpoints, being stopped to prove that one has permission to be where they are, and general police harassment and humiliation.