Title: Does capitalism have to be bad for the environment? | World Economic Forum
Headings: Does capitalism have to be bad for the environment?
Does capitalism have to be bad for the environment?
What can be done?
License and Republishing
Written by
Subscribe for updates

Content: But while capitalism stimulates tremendous productivity rates, it biases productivity towards more consumption to ensure that the production process is not impeded. Therefore, mass consumption - or consumerism - is not merely a cultural phenomenon. It is embedded in the core tenets of capitalism as an economic system. The higher consumption, the higher production, the higher production, the higher sales, and with higher sales, higher profits are generated, which are largely re-invested in the sustainability of the firm or the business-unit. But if we live in a finite planet with limited ecological and natural resources that ought to be preserved for sustainability purposes, how than, can we resolve this contradiction? If the carrying capacity of the world cannot sustain endless consumption and production, there is clearly a contradiction at stake here. This contradiction naturally raises the more important question: how to reconcile the quandary of maintaining a capitalist system that meets necessary growth rates to remain stable on the one hand, and simultaneously contain the environmental hazards that threaten our planet on the other? To answer these questions, there are three propositions about the very nature and dynamics of capitalism that have to be examined. First, firms in a capitalist setting are under enormous pressure to cut costs, because if they don’t, their competitors will.