this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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The memes of the climate
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The climate of the memes of the climate!
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Honest question, what economic or political system exists out there that would be better for climate change?
Or is the assumption that system doesn’t exist yet?
There are several ideas out there, but yes they generally require transitioning away from capitalism. The one I'm particularly fond of is called a "library economy", where we no longer commoditize anything that isn't consumable. Imagine instead of buying a wheelbarrow and shovel to do some yard work, you go to the gardening library and checkout the things you need. When you're done in about 3 weeks, you return the items back to the library.
In general though, any planned economy would be far more efficient and less wasteful. Imagine that instead of 30 different TV's with the exact same panel, there's 2 or 3 types of tv with that panel. The way Walmart operates is a perfect example of a planned economy.
I don't see how a library economy would work with a lot of things. Like, if I wanted to do a house cleaning day, I go to the cleaning library and rent a vacuum. But what if I drop something on the floor...I have to check out a vacuum, just to clean it up? Then what if all the vacuums are checked out? It really seems horrible inefficient and a logistical nightmare.
Yeah it’s not really a feasible idea, imo. People are terrible and it would be a classic tragedy of the commons.
The 'tragedy of the commons' is very much exaggerated and misunderstood. It is 100% possible to collectively govern commons without a tragedy situation, and there are plenty of examples of it happening in real life. The economist Elinor Ostrom actually won a Nobe Prize in Economics for demonstrating this.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2012/06/17/elinor-ostroms-work-on-governing-the-commons-an-appreciation/ https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth
The real tragedy of the commons is that we lost the commons to the wealthy elite. We can govern the commons collectively by ourselves without the need for governments, corporations, or the influence of money. I also have a hard time imagining someone deciding that they need 10 wheelbarrows and taking them all from the library, which can acquire more. Are there people checking out every copy of Harry Potter from a book library just to deprive others from reading it?