A look at capitalism

Capitalism is an economic and political system where trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, and demand and supply are expected to set prices in the best interests of society. Capitalism’s essential feature is the motive to make profits.

Our current form of capitalism focuses almost entirely on the economic aspects of capitalism – financial capital (wealth) and manufactured capital (goods and infrastructure), ignoring the other three important forms of capital - social (societal relationships), human (skills, knowledge, experience), and natural (natural assets like air, water, soil & etc.) because they do not make profits.

Some things that have been tossed aside to ensure higher profits are living wages, pensions for retired workers, medical benefits and sick days, and unions to name a few. Where exploitation of human beings happens, environmental destruction is usually not far behind. We have witnessed the unsustainable harvest of fisheries and forests, which can leave these systems degraded for decades or lead to permanent destruction. We have seen abandoned oil wells that are left for taxpayers to pay to clean up. We see oil and gas companies using and permanently polluting billions of gallons of free water from lakes, rivers, and streams to frack for gas. Not taking climate action and continuing to emit our current levels of greenhouse gases negatively affects our air, fresh water, food supply, and increases health hazards and risks of natural disasters which are becoming all too familiar.

You cannot put a price on air, water, habitat, sunlight, and food. These are the basic needs of all living things, including humans, and without these five essential resources, we will perish.

We created our economy so we can change it to ensure it best serves the interests of our society. As the WWF Living Planet Report said in 2014, “Ecosystems sustain societies that create economies. It does not work the other way around.”

Jane Weixl, Vernon