The Inevitable Labor and Environmental Crises and the Need for a New Economic System

Abstract

Capitalism is economically stable only if new investment creates jobs at least as fast as efficiency eliminates them, and physically sustainable only if sufficient material sources and pollution sinks exist to support new investment. We are passing limits on both conditions, leading to twin problems: A labor problem, where technology may begin to eliminate more jobs than it creates; and an environmental problem, where industrial activities are breaching planetary boundaries that will limit our ability to meet basic human needs. Both problems are products of a growth-based capitalist economy and are fundamentally unsolvable within that framework. We must endeavor to replace our capitalist growth economy with a system based on human flourishing. Drawing on degrowth literature, I propose several criteria for a replacement and suggest that they are met by tribal communities. Although challenges remain in design and implementation of such systems, the alternative of inaction is untenable.