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Scientists Warn the UN of Capitalism's Imminent Demise (vice.com)
Capitalism as we know it is over, an anonymous reader writes. So suggests a new report commissioned by a group of scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General. From a report: The main reason? We're transitioning rapidly to a radically different global economy, due to our increasingly unsustainable exploitation of the planet's environmental resources. Climate change and species extinctions are accelerating even as societies are experiencing rising inequality, unemployment, slow economic growth, rising debt levels, and impotent governments. Contrary to the way policymakers usually think about these problems, the new report says that these are not really separate crises at all. Rather, these crises are part of the same fundamental transition to a new era characterized by inefficient fossil fuel production and the escalating costs of climate change. Conventional capitalist economic thinking can no longer explain, predict, or solve the workings of the global economy in this new age, the paper says [PDF].
I'll believe capitalism is over as soon as NetCraft confirms it.
The few places in the world that sort of do socialism and aren't cesspits of starvation and misery couldn't exist without the economic dynamo of capitalist systems like the United States. This article sounds more like wishful thinking by people who have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to economics.
The real gist of the article is that energy is becoming more expensive as fossil fuels start to run out, which is not news. How this translates into capitalism failing is left as an exercise to the reader, because the ability to adapt to changing conditions is a hallmark of capitalism, not central planning. Yes, capitalism tends to be short-sighted, which is why reasonable regulation is a necessary check, but you'll never figure out what works when you have a single experiment (i.e. a centrally-planned economy) compared to millions of simultaneous experiments (a capitalist economy), because economics is more complex than we can understand.
If we ever get real AI, not the kind that's just glorified pattern matching of pictures, but "general purpose", and superhuman, intelligence, then perhaps socialism could be a feasible solution, but only because the superhumanly-intelligent machines will take care of us, which is a scary proposition for many other reasons.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
"Political Scientist"
Politics isn't a Science by any stretch of the imagination.
Otherwise, we wouldn't have legions of Butt Hurts whining about Trump Every. Fucking. Day.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.