the farce is with you

The truth is we’re fucked. In a bizarre bout of global schizophrenia all 6 billion of us have come to live in a hellish fantasy world of our own collective creation. World leaders will point to this or that trend and claim the farce can continue, but some will not be fooled.

Exponential growth dominates current economic practice. It is not a by-product or some unfortunate side effect of practical economics; it is the basis of the entire system. This very fact is fundamentally incompatible with finite resources. The so called ‘problem areas’ of the current economy, poverty, environmental degradation, and other capitalism favorites will grow to enormous proportions in the years to come. The reason lays in the nature of the beast so coveted by world governments and other holders of large capital, exponential growth. And what a beast it is!
A mathematical characteristic of this type of growth is the so-called doubling time. This, reasonably enough, identifies the amount of time necessary to double the quantity in question. For exponential growth it is a constant, and conveniently can be approximated by dividing 70 by the rate of growth expressed as a percentage. For example, if an economy, or anything for that matter, is growing by 10% per year, then every 7 years it will double. As this may sound harmless enough to the average Big-Mac scarfing riot cop, it is critical to see just how this monster explodes.
Take the practical example of Moore’s Law, which states that computer processing power doubles every 18 months. This corresponds to a 47% per year growth rate. It is clear how little a computer from 1990 is worth today, and Moore’s Law is the reason. While it is true our economies don’t grow at such phenomenal rates, the result is the same, though ‘stretched’ over a longer period of time. Imagine how the colossal size of our current economy will compare to economies 100 years from now. Far from ushering in a utopian era of human wealth and dignity, these mega economies, will unleash more of the same problems though vastly multiplied in scale bringing with them unprecedented human suffering and misery.
Capitalism requires scarcity. Even the boldest of entrepreneurs would not attempt to sell atmospheric air, though give them a few years to degrade it thus creating an artificial scarcity and things will be different. The reason for this is that air is abundant, and freely available to all. Technology allows humans to magnify their production through productivity gains, and thus allows for creation of more and more goods and services with less work. Theoretically a good thing, but to those whose markets become overwhelmed with abundance, this is a death sentence. And so it has become the job of the state to assure scarcity where none exist with brutalizaiton, draconian laws, and obscene propaganda to enforce these laws. Napster is a good example here, and demonstrates the states increasingly difficult job. Incidentally, scarcity control is needed throughout industry, as readily seen by the fact that people around the world do not starve due to a lack of food, but rather a lack of money. To those who believe this artificial scarcity is good for humanity I can only question your sanity as well as your definition of humanity.
Today, the constant flux of misinformation, and outright disinformation has allowed an inherently unstable and astronomically complex system to perpetuate beyond the point of insanity, and into the realm of the bizarre. The people of the world, empowered by increased organizational ability, are slowly becoming aware of the phenomenal destruction profiteering has leveled on the many, for the sake of the few, and their rise from ignorance, if allowed to continue, will destroy capitalism as sure as abundance. What will take its place though, is a question for all and if not answered by all, will result in the same.