ABSTRACT
My view is that the 2007–2008 “recession” was worse than the Great Depression. I referred to that “recession” as a stage in an evolving economic black hole. The only way out that doesn’t lead to a decrease in the carrying capacity of the planet (possibly to zero) relative to the human population is a radical development and deployment of new energy sources that (and here’s the kicker) do not require a massive overhaul of the existing infra-structure. A capitalist system as a macrohistorical reality is defined by the goal of endless accumulation for the sake of accumulation in association with systems of penalties for any economic actors who attempt to operate in terms of other values or objectives. Granting this, my argument is that this goal implies violating the various elemental assumptions that show up in the set of models of capitalism and show up in particular in a Weberian ideal type model of capitalism. Whether we approach capitalism as an ideal type configuration of elements or adopt Wallerstein’s definition the results are the same: the systematic degradation of humans individually (via alienations) and collectively (via class struggles and inequalities), and of the planetary ecology (via waste and pollution).
