I’m going to return to the idea of post-capitalism for one, maybe two last thoughts on the topic.
Because the dirty secret of post-capitalism? Is that there isn’t any real clear step. There’s not one financial system waiting in the wings for everyone to make a nice clean step to.
Oh, there are bits and pieces. Shared resources is one. Universal Basic Services are another.
What many people in the post capitalism community agree on is “the understanding that the endless pursuit of capitalist growth will ultimately lead us to planetary destruction, and that we urgently need to find ways of living that are more ecologically sustainable and socially just (both within societies and between the global North and the global South).”
That line was lifted whole cloth from an email that Chris Wellard, host of the Post Capitalism podcast sent me when I reached out to him, slightly desperate, to find a single next step past capitalism.
He wasn’t any help, pointing to multiple possible solutions.
One idea he mentioned is the degrowth movement. Degrowth is predicated on the assumption that to keep going the way we’re going will destroy the planet, and by extension, the economy. Instead, we need to shrink global economic activity. That we should try to build a livable world without economic growth fueling it.
He also mentions doughnut economics.
That’s based on the idea that the economy is circular, with things like food, water, and shelter side by side with gender equality and peace and justice. “There are two concentric rings,” says the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, which sounds more like a bakery than a think tank. “A social foundation, to ensure that no one is left falling short on life’s essentials, and an ecological ceiling, to ensure that humanity does not collectively overshoot the planetary boundaries that protect Earth’s life-supporting systems. Between these two sets of boundaries lies a doughnut-shaped space that is both ecologically safe and socially just: a space in which humanity can thrive.”
But, while these are interesting ideas, they don’t seem to be taking the world by storm. When was the last time you ran across the concept of the doughnut economy?
The trouble is, I tell Wellard when I email him, is that people look at previous iterations of non-capitalistic societies of the last century and see gray, boring, stifling communist states where all the sharp edges are sanded off and where there is (apparently) little to no creativity or forward momentum. Is there a way to reign in the most egregious forms of capitalistic excess, yet still leave space for innovation?
“Most contemporary post-capitalist theories seek to encourage much richer, fuller kinds of life than we see under capitalism,” explains Wellard.
“That includes more localized ways of working and producing the things we need, more community involvement in day-to-day political decision-making, and lives that are not as dominated by work, debt and the other ways that capitalism dominates our social and financial lives. That leaves more space for creativity and conviviality (and so hopefully avoids the “gray” and “boring” issues you mention).
“Some more radical theories—such as Fully Automated Luxury Communism—suggest that technological automation has the potential to lead us to a post-work, post-scarcity society.
“While that theory has its critics, it does offer an appealing and compelling re-imagining of the future, which is important as we seek to create a different world that is appealing.”
And, while we work to change the global economic system, Wellard says there are things that can be done at a local level.
He points to the Mondragon Corporation in Spain, a cooperative founded by a Catholic priest and based on an 1891 encyclical by Pope Leo XIII, which eschewed both socialism and unrestrained capitalism, instead, arguing the role of the state is to “promote justice through the protection of rights,” and wrote that the free operation of market forces must be tempered by moral considerations. Mondragon has grown to be one of Spain’s ten largest corporations, while being owned by the workers, who share in the profits of the organization.
Indeed, says Wellard, right now, there’s not a single global economy, but various shades of capitalism. Despite erosions over the last 40 years, Canada is still a more socialistic country than the US, but less socialist than, for instance, Finland.
At the heart of most of these post capitalistic movements, he says, is the need to do something about the climate crisis. “Given its pressing nature,” he says, “doing nothing is not an option. That, rightly, can feel overwhelming and make it feel impossible to change anything.
“Engaging with the debate and political dimension is obviously important; but doing something, even at the smallest and most local level, is also extremely valuable; that could be backing campaigns for social justice, reducing carbon footprints, buying less/reusing more, supporting local co-ops, sharing new ideas in book groups, and so on.
“There is a famous quote (attributed to various sources) that “it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism”. Doing anything to overcome that feeling, however small, is very worthwhile.
“No one can fix everything, but if we all do something to step away from the economic logic and social division of capitalism, we can make undoubted progress towards something better.”
Want to find out more? Wellard’s Post Capitalism Podcast is available where ever you find podcasts. You can also visit https://postcapitalismpodcast.com
