ABSTRACT
The corporation under capitalism has been described as an “externalizing machine” (Bakan, 2004). Since the industrial revolution, profits have relied upon not only the ability to extract surplus value but also the ability to internalize benefits while externalizing at least part of the costs of production. That is, others, including nature, have borne some costs of the production process. Poisoned rivers, ill and injured workers, and toxic wastelands are examples of the ways in which costs have been externalized. Nature is treated as if it were unlimited and inexhaustible. The most significant historical example of externalizing costs is the climate crisis; for the past three centuries owners of capital have directly and indirectly emitted carbon into the atmosphere without paying for any of the cost that these emissions cause. That crisis now threatens the existence of capitalism (Liodakis, 2010; Wright and Nyberg, 2013).
