For most of my adult life I’ve railed against “corporate capitalism”, “consumer capitalism” and “crony capitalism”. Economic growth is the aggregate effect of the quest to accumulate capital and extract profit. Those who defend capitalism argue that, as consumption switches from goods to services, economic growth can be decoupled from the use of material resources. Economic growth, intrinsically linked to the increasing use of material resources, means seizing natural wealth from both living systems and future generations. Do we stop life to allow capitalism to continue, or stop capitalism to allow life to continue?

Source: The Guardian April 25, 2019 05:02 UTC