I'm not exactly a well-travelled person, but I've visited a few countries and as they say reading is equivalent to travelling, I've read a few books and watched a bunch of documentaries. As a working-class fatherless teenager with little resources, books and documentaries had been extremely important for my self-taught education.
The success of American capitalist consumer society and the growing addiction to convenience was largely due to cultural colonization through the glorification of egotistic consumerism. The capitalist consumer society uses advertisement to saturate our senses with images and messages to stimulate the acquisition of products and services through normalizing their presence in the daily lives of middle and upper middle class families that they will be followed by the lower middle class.
The glorification of consumption works as a link between the acquisition of goods and services and the feeling of happiness. Shopping has a certain magic and although many of the goods and services provide a real improvement in the quality and add more free time to most citizens, they end up inciting superfluous consumption, addiction and behavioural disorders.
In capitalist societies, a great part of scientific research is directed towards technological innovation, first applied in the military sector and then in the development of products and services for mass consumption. Competition requires constant investment in innovation due to the necessity to create new products and services to put on the market in order to appeal to consumption.
The free-market ideology is against any form of restriction on human creativity potential and the freedom to innovate is understood by most people as progress.
If there were restrictions on the innovative potential of human creativity, the technological marvels that we enjoy would not exist. Nonetheless, the technological marvels that we all appreciate and on which we have become dependent didn’t free us from the shackles of exploitation and the obligation of conformity and compliance with a socioeconomic order that continues to exacerbate socioeconomic inequality, in spite of having the means to solve it.
The current system is irreformable , which means that we can only expect more of the same, more concentration of wealth, more centralization of power, more surveillance and social control, and we are going to witness the rise of techno-fascism as a guarantee of the perpetuation of the current system.
The far-right voters believe on the restoration of national sovereignty and the return to a certain lost order, but the use of anti-globalist rhetoric doesn`t mean the far-right fascistic politicians really want to challenge the capitalist neoliberal globalized socioeconomic system which is the root cause of the problem.
Societies deluded with economic growth as an unquestionable variable, see scientific research and technological innovation as the only way to solve the problems generated by a system that must be maintained at all costs. Adding more technoscientific complexity does not mean proportional correspondence of effective solutions but increases the risks of systemic collapse.
Ideas have consequences and are used to model and frame cultural narratives that shape our perception of reality and thus condition human behaviour in the process of social adaptation. Consumerism is not a mere individual choice, it is a way of life imposed by an economic, political and sociocultural system to which we, ordinary citizens, respond adaptively because this is the "natural" environment where we grow and develop our sociocultural identity that largely defines who we are.
There is no such thing as unlimited freedom and a society unable to cope with this reality will self-destruct. Poverty is not caused by the lack of resources but by the way society is organized, with the exception of situations of natural disasters, changes in climatic patterns, outbreaks of diseases and pest infestations.
A society organized hierarchically to satisfy the petty whims and superfluous luxury of those who over time create a legal system that authorizes the use of repressive measures and a moral code that glorifies a society organized to defend the interests of the few will never be sustainable. Inequality is irrevocably associated with the concept of private property and to solve the problem of poverty and hunger without making the planet uninhabitable for most living beings, it is necessary to debunk the dogma of meritocracy.
It is not possible to solve one without confronting the other. The feeling of entitlement that many citizens believe they have over their fellow citizens is part of the classist mentality that we have in relation to everything that exists on planet Earth, seen as mere resources available to be exploited by human civilization, when in fact, these resources are controlled and exploited by and for the benefit of a restricted group of citizens who make up the top of the social pyramid.
In order for the wealthy elites to keep their luxurious lifestyles that can never be replicated by the lower middle class, much less by the poor without posing a threat to life on the planet, social inequality, indigence and homelessness has to be the opposite side of the coin. In other words, while the wealthiest classes live above the means that the planet can provide, the lower classes are deprived of the means to live.
If, in order to solve the problem of poverty, we need to keep the consumer society as it exists, then it seems to me that we are doomed to witness the collapse of society, unless some program of forced population reduction is implemented. The promises of green capitalism are more of the same, that is, the solutions presented prioritize the objective of saving the globalized neoliberal capitalist system dominated by the US imperialist hegemony with the complicity of most western countries in the NATO sphere.
Most countries have been colonized by the Western-style consumer culture that has become a global default system. The fascination with Western luxury brands and items has gone global. Most countries promote private enterprise and competition as essential steps to stimulate economic growth, apparently the only reliable instrument for measuring economic prosperity. The wealth generated by economic growth should translate into social prosperity and poverty reduction if this wealth were distributed equitably, something that is far from happening in capitalist societies.
But after all, when we talk about wealth, what are we talking about? Money? Despite the importance of money as a means of facilitating the acquisition and exchange of goods and services without having to resort to bartering, money itself is not wealth, goods and services essential to the survival of living beings, including humans, represent the true wealth.
The natural resources and raw materials crucial to survival, including the territory essential to community life, represent the real wealth. Regardless of the complexity of the modern economy, sectorized by activities, functions, roles and professional specialization, the production of goods and services fundamental for survival and provide basic comfort to the entire population should be the obvious priority.
And only when basic goods and services are assured (shelter, food, water and sanitation, education and health services) to the entire population without exception, products and services considered superfluous and luxury items should be produced and distributed. Some non-essential products and services do play a role in people’s quality of life (artistic, literary and cultural activities, sports and recreational activities, etc.) but if we are not completely devoid of compassion and empathy, it should not cross our minds deprive others the access to essential goods and services to satisfy superfluous appetites and secondary needs even when they are important to our wellbeing, we can always justify and rationalize our selfish entitlements to erase guilt from the equation.
Green capitalism will not solve environmental problems, much less social problems, because the objective of green capitalism is to convince the general public of the need to privatize and commodify the services provided by nature without exception.
We will not have a better environment, we will continue to externalize environmental damage and ignore the ecological consequences, the megalomaniac arrogance of the ruling class has no limits and most of us will become members of the useless class.
Who are the real beneficiaries of the productivity gains resulting from the profound technological transformation that we have witnessed in the last 50 years? The workday has barely changed for most workers, job insecurity has become ubiquitous, labour rights have been under heavy attack for decades in the name of competitiveness and economic growth and to make the economy attractive to international investors.
Privatization of public services and companies have become the norm introduced by globalization, globalized capital can circulate, speculate, manipulate and control strategic assets without restrictions, and we are required to recognize it as the path to prosperity.
Globalized neoliberal capitalism is being applied to all sectors of society under the slogan of making the economy more competitive, efficient and productive to create wealth that will somehow benefit all citizens. So why have poverty, inequality and precariousness increased along with the concentration of wealth at the top of the social pyramid?
The gains in productivity and wealth generation in the last five decades would allow the effective reduction of the working day, social inequality, and to allocate the necessary means to end poverty and homelessness, and also solve the problem of hunger in a global level, but for the plutocratic class it is more profitable to transform each citizen into an "entrepreneur" to stimulate competition among citizens who should cooperate and organize to fight the common enemy.
The truth is that an important part of the population is forced to resort to economic survival strategies that will never lift them out of the poverty line. The consumer society is also responsible for the indebtedness of the middle and lower middle classes as the only way to acquire goods and services such as: house, cars, furniture, appliances, vacations and even groceries. Indebtedness increases the vulnerability and makes citizens more subservient because debt repayment is considered a moral duty. Money is created out of thin air through credit, most of the new money in the economy requires the indebtedness of individuals, families, companies and even banking institutions, what is immoral is the payment of interest and compound interest and financial predation should be considered a crime against humanity.
Productivity gains are fully appropriated by 10% of the population and the true concentration of wealth is controlled by less then 1%. Most of the "wealth" generated in financialized economies results from schemes with financial instruments by financial markets that contribute nothing to the real economy where true wealth is produced.
But since the rules of the game are written by the plutocratic class, we know in advance who the beneficiaries will be. The truth of the matter is that doesn’t matter how “wealth” is produced, but who controls and can use it to acquire assets in the real world. The “wealth” produced in the parallel universe of financial markets is then used to acquire and control tangible assets. The real economy is therefore controlled by a group of individuals and institutions (a select club) who resort to a parallel universe where they create the fake wealth they can use to literally own and dominate the real world.
Understanding this fact is crucial for any form of effective resistance against an oppressive system based on the creation of false wealth, resorting to distorted schemes that only psychopathic and sociopathic minds could engender. If this problem is never properly tackled and solved, then absolute control of the main institutions of society will become an irreversible reality (if not already) and then we can say goodbye to the possibility of creating a truly functioning society.
Parties, movements, organizations and groups that identify with the values of the anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist left for a socio-ecological economic reality, meaning an economy in which people, natural resources, biodiversity and the environment must be managed as an integrated system. The homocentric vision allied to the current socioeconomic model is a disaster for the planet and consequently, will end up being a disaster for humanity.
The left has to assume the role of educating the population about monetary, financial and fiscal policy, as well as denouncing the fraudulent world of financial markets and the globalized neoliberal capitalism has to be debunked in a way that common citizens can understand the real reasons why economic productivity never improves social justice but keeps serving the interests of the plutocratic class.
The consumer society of superfluous goods was created by industrial capitalism, but in the era of financial capitalism, the economic growth produced in the parallel universe of the false economy does not depend anymore on mass consumption, but the universe of the real economy needs to pursue economic growth to meet basic needs and pay off debts. 3% of economic growth is absorbed by the interest owed to financial institutions by society as a whole, whenever economic growth is less than 3%, society as a whole will have to take on more debt to pay off previous debts, a never ending process of debt enslavement. The rest is the bullshit talk by economists deeply committed to neoliberal ideology, the official doctrine taught in schools of economics around the globe.
If the left continues to invest in fait-divers and woke politics instead of focusing on analysing and dissecting the financial tricks that strangle the real economy and cause unnecessary suffering (that is, not caused by a lack of resources, but by the way they are managed and in whose interest) it will share the responsibility for the rise of the far-right neofascist parties.
The international financial system was designed to serve the interests of American imperialism, that is, the defense mechanisms that sovereign countries could exercise to protect the domestic economies were eliminated in favour of economic liberalization, which means the opening of the national economies to financial colonization. Globalization was sold to people as an opportunity for economic development using private investment and market liberalization and public indebtedness to modernize the country's infrastructure (ports and airports, bridges and highways, dams and power plants) that ended serving foreign interests rather than national ones, public-private partnerships become a burden for the public budget and a fixed income for the rentier class.
The majority of the population of the Global South did not benefit from the globalization process, the opening to global markets was a disaster for many peasants who saw the prices of their products fall sharply in globalized markets while losing food sovereignty to produce exportable products under controlled conditions by globalized markets in the Western interests.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) designs and oversees the international monetary and financial policies that will be implemented by most central banks.
The IMF and the World Bank, and some other regional development banks, work as instruments of financial colonization through the imposition of economic adjustment and restructuring measures that imply massive privatizations, wage and social support cuts, unemployment and reduction of the taxes for investors and entrepreneurs.
Neoliberal-inspired shock therapies essentially serve to impose a minimal state, open the door to economic and financial appropriation and plunder of natural resources, while stable jobs are replaced by precarious contracts. In some countries, the economy grows at the expense of the sharp increase in inequality, equally observable in Western countries.
In the last seventy years, western capitalism has served the interests of those who control it to the detriment of the whole humanity, the real economy and the environment. Putting people in the situation of having to compete with each other for the right to survive, forces people to be “creative” like accepting precarious and poorly paid jobs, resort to activities that consume resources and produce waste without adding little to nothing positive to society. On the other hand, the citizen's participation in society is null, as far as political agency is concerned.
The system does not meet people's needs and still contributes to the destruction of the environment and the planet's biodiversity. Many people are forced to run from place to place to avoid starvation, wasting their lives doing useless work and never earning enough to make a decent living. Most of the wealth produced will end up being assimilated by the financial system, accepted by the vast majority as an immutable reality. Most people are so convinced of its legitimacy that they don't even give it a second glance, they never consider that we are being deceived, used and abused by a system made up of supranational institutions and organizations that work in coordination to the detriment of our interests while convincing us otherwise.
We need to bring down the globalized neoliberal capitalist financial system and contrary to what most people believe, there are better alternatives, for people, society and the environment. Green capitalism is not a solution to solve the socio-economic and environmental problems we face, we are just adding another layer of complexity to the existing problems so the changes introduced only reinforce the hegemony of globalized neoliberal capitalism, eternalizing the US imperialism.
The seriousness of the problem will require citizens to choose between fighting for a new socioeconomic paradigm or letting themselves be deceived by techno-fascist illusionism and contributing to the foundation of the techno-feudal era.
