The Origins of the Current Economic System
- With the exception of small and primitive communist groups, there has been a tendency everywhere in the world toward violence-based exploitative capitalization and, ultimately, state formation as the largest form of capital.
- The Industrial Revolution initiated mass production, giving rise to a form of capitalism based on the commodification of labor and the reckless consumption of nature. This was the dream of every state, and it began in Europe.
- Classical economic theories assumed that the free market, through the invisible hand, would balance everything by aiming for individual profit maximization. In practice, however, this led to the minimization of everything else. People revolted against this corrupt and simplistic line of thought. On the left, economic determinism was presented as a solution, arguing that a transition to a planned economy was inevitable. Yet the states that adopted the rhetoric of economic determinism behaved like even larger and more ruthless corporations.
- The financial order established after Bretton Woods created a growth-oriented global structure by encouraging consumption through debt-based monetary expansion. The planned economies promoted by economic determinism could not withstand the appetite of private enterprise; moreover, individuals—like ideas—were not ideal, and the imitations of communism collapsed.
- Technology and digitalization laid the groundwork for modern financial capitalism. The vast majority of circulating capital consists of virtual and unsustainable claims. Wealth narratives constructed through popular bubbles continue until people suffer and awaken, all while real production is absent.
- Some people recognize the inconsistencies of this narrative, while others react upon realizing that the world and society are being destroyed as the story is told.
Those Who Complain About the Current System
- A large working population complains about the deepening income inequality, the erosion of the middle class, and declining purchasing power. The disappearance of the middle class first harms intellectual life and eventually damages all of humanity, including the wealthy. The fact that thinkers tend to align with the left stems from economic reasons.
- Environmentalists are disturbed by corporations’ unlimited consumption of limited resources and by the exclusion of environmental costs from balance sheets.
- Only a small portion of the lower-income population—which constitutes the majority—internalizes global issues and voices discontent. The rest, even when they complain, do so in childish ways that merely replicate what they oppose, often in the form of “why am I not rich?”
- Developing countries claim that they started from an unequal position due to colonial history, but their complaints remain rhetorical. In their domestic politics, they often act even more colonial and capitalistic themselves.
Those Who Believe They Benefit From the Current System
- Capital owners and multinational corporations have succeeded in maximizing their profits, but they have failed to realize that the only true wealth being minimized is humanity itself.
- The financial sector and speculative investors have adapted to the artificiality of the current monetary order, without realizing that exiting the illusion of virtual money will be painful.
- The corrupt, the thieves, and the unscrupulous failed to realize that stolen wealth only entangles them in deeper trouble. Lying politicians failed to realize they are lost within their own lies.
- Those who chase pleasure through desire failed to recognize their pitiful condition. They did not understand that unless desires are restrained, their misfortune will not cease.
- Political lobbies, energy cartels, the war industry, and “too-big-to-fail” financial institutions failed to realize that they should be ashamed of their very names.
What Is Required for Economic Sustainability
- The consent of stakeholders. Any endeavor that requires human cooperation must obtain the consent of its components. If stakeholders do not react, this signals a deeper problem. Silent extinction is the most dangerous outcome.
- Economic activities must align with nature’s capacity for regeneration. We continue to cut the branches we are sitting on, yet the branches are running out.
- Fair income distribution benefits the wealthy most of all. Humanity’s foundation is built upon pillars of compassion. Attempting to remain indifferent to others’ suffering does nothing but destroy our intellectual capacity.
- Transparent, accountable institutions grounded in the rule of law benefit everyone. A corrupted legal system can exert disproportionate force even on those who corrupt it.
Future Conditions
- Unemployment caused by artificial intelligence and automation. The purpose of human beings is not to be assigned to a job. The instrumentalization of individuals by states and corporations must end. Humans are not unemployed; their purpose is not to be exploited in labor. The perception of unemployment will only disappear when the exploitation system collapses.
- Climate change. An economy based on desires rather than reason is destined to perish, just like an individual who chases desires. Humanity, which transforms its environment along with itself, must pay this price through strict policies. Even the harshest environmental laws are preferable. Contrary to capitalist rhetoric, “we do not come into the world; we come from the world.”
- Population growth. Viewing humans as surplus is itself a corporate mindset. Corporations are tools founded on individual power ambitions and cannot see beyond that. Rather than seeing people as excess, we should want there to be more of us. There is no population growth problem; there is a harmful perspective that views humans as units of production. If the system were human-centered, it would strive for trillions of people and celebrate the diversity of perspectives this would bring.
- Digitalization. It is necessary to prevent good tools from functioning badly in the hands of bad people. Unless great benefits come without great costs, they will become a burden on humanity.
- Politics. States, spread across the world like monopolies of violence, should become part of federations for their own good and should also grant federative rights to individuals. They can only escape the swamp of regulation by creating feedback loops.
CONCLUSION
By maintaining this system, we may become merely “a species that lived during the era of the blue whales”—possessing a brief and insignificant existence. Alternatively, we could begin to use our reason and transition from an economy driven by impulses to one controlled by intellect. We can start by asking what exactly the free market is “free” for. It is clear that some degree of planning is required, if not outright economic determinism.
By trying to align yourself with an interest group, you are only leading to further exploitation. As long as complaints are aimed at maximizing one’s own gain—meaning, as long as people rebel not against poverty, but against their own lack of wealth—the rat race will continue.
Humanity has lived better lives than animals thanks to compassion; it must organize its life within large social groups on this same basis. Our species, which carved out an artificial niche away from natural selection, can also break away from social selection on this same foundation.
A new economic system does not begin by trying to be like others or unlike them; it begins in the mind with what ought to be. Since we see no signs in this direction yet, we can understand that we have not yet passed the darkest hour of the economy.
