The World as it Stands Today (Part 1)
As of now we live in a primarily capitalist society. I find little fault in a capitalist society until we lose sight of what we are actually doing. Food is a good example, when you buy food your goal is to either feed your family or feed your self so in that instance that is all that matters. The act in and of itself of feeding your family is required, however what happens on the other end. It is likely that the food was transported almost half way around the world from a country which needs its food much more then we do. However it is the all mighty dollar that makes it possible to become so disconnected from the consequences of buying.
By this logic the capitalist system only works when one understands completely what they are buying. Because of this I will make an attempt to understand what I am supporting when I buy something. In a lot of ways what comes before you in any system of production and distribution is much more important then after it is bought. Unfortunately all that matters in our current system is making you buy it, before that it doesn't really matter.
Another issue this world has is our treatment of natural resources. The reason this is a problem is because we see resource management as a one way street, you buy something and when you are done with it you throw it away. However it is a fundamental property of matter that it can not be created or destroyed. Because it can not be created it must come from somewhere, mainly the earth as of now. Because it can not be destroyed when one throws something away it must go somewhere. Now what happens when we run out of the materials needed to make things on one end, and everything is now in a land fill? This is why everything must eventually be recycled. If we continue down this one way street we will only end up destroying our self in the bust side of the boom bust cycle.
The reason this is such a problem is because it is so hard to identify with running out of resources. Other issues, like the crises in Darfur, are really easy to identify with, people are dyeing that’s right in your face. But something like this that says one day we are going to run out of resources and this will cause all of us to die is much harder to put a face on. Nothing has happened yet so why would it now?
A different way of looking at it was purposed by M. King Hubbert who said the following:
The world's present industrial civilization is handicapped by the coexistence of two universal, overlapping, and incompatible intellectual systems: the accumulated knowledge of the last four centuries of the properties and interrelationships of matter and energy; and the associated monetary culture which has evolved from folkways of prehistoric origin.
The first of these two systems has been responsible for the spectacular rise, principally during the last two centuries, of the present industrial system and is essential for its continuance. The second, an inheritance from the prescientific past, operates by rules of its own having little in common with those of the matter-energy system. Nevertheless, the monetary system, by means of a loose coupling, exercises a general control over the matter-energy system upon which it is super[im]posed
By this Hubbert means that we have two systems which are currently fine together. On the one hand you have the monetary culture which grows and consumes following an exponential model. Essentially the human race wants things, thus we will get them and grow bigger exponentially taking them from wherever we can. However it requires resources to manage that growth. And the resource system follows a bell shaped curve. This means that we will get allot of resources to start with, simply because technology will get better and better so we can get more and more. However, eventually we will run out so no matter how good our technology is we will not be able to pull any more out of the ground. This is where it turns and starts to gradually fall. Eventually we will no longer have the resources we need to support ourselves. Once this happens we will be in trouble and that may lead to the end of the world because by that time no one will have enough to support themselves. I hope that before this occurs we will be able to create a sustainable system were everyone gets enough.
Figure 1