ABSTRACT
K. William Kapp was an extraordinary social scientist who contributed much to an interdisciplinary systems approach to the social sciences, particularly in relation to the biophysical environment. His work anticipated core contributions to ecological economics, and he was a major contributor to social economics and institutional economics. Kapp attempted to open social scientists’ eyes to the shortcomings of the market system, especially its relentless drive to shift costs from the powerful to the weak, off the books of going concerns onto workers or the biophysical environment. Kapp also attempted to alert scientists and policymakers to the mounting threats that modern economies pose to basic ecosystems that support all life. Although his arguments were well-reasoned and supported with substantial empirical evidence, his limited success in these educational efforts is not surprising. Cost-shifting is a radical concept, undermining capitalism’s legitimacy. Ecological education is not easy either, as a significant portion of social scientists, including a large majority of economists, continue to believe that the biophysical environment is immune from significant degradation.1 Despite widespread frequent publication of scientific findings that we are wrecking earth’s life-support systems – systems that provide air to breathe, water to drink, climate to support agriculture, and so on – many economists remain oblivious, ‘plugging away’ in what Thomas Kuhn called ‘normal science’ (Kuhn 1962).
