Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to Guardian Columnist George Monbiot, if we treat future generations not yet born as having equal rights to the living, property rights will have to be radically adjusted; we’re all effectively tenants, holding land in trust which will be passed to future generations who enjoy the same rights as us, even before they are born.
Capitalism is destroying the Earth. We need a new human right for future generations
George MonbiotThe children on climate strike are right: their lives should not be sacrificed to satisfy our greed
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At the heart of capitalism is a vast and scarcely examined assumption: you are entitled to as great a share of the world’s resources as your money can buy.
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So what should take its place? It seems to me that the founding principle of any just system is that those who are not yet alive will, when they are born, have the same rights as those who are alive today. … “Every generation shall have an equal right to the enjoyment of natural wealth.”
This principle is hard to dispute, but it seems to change everything. Immediately, it tells us that no renewable resource should be used beyond its rate of replenishment. No non-renewable resource should be used that cannot be fully recycled and reused. This leads inexorably to towards two major shifts: a circular economy from which materials are never lost; and the end of fossil fuel combustion.
But what of the Earth itself? In this densely populated world, all land ownership necessarily precludes ownership by others. Article 17 of the Universal Declaration is self-contradictory. It says, “Everyone has the right to own property.” But because it places no limit on the amount one person can possess, it ensures that everyone does not have this right. I would change it to this: “Everyone has the right to use property without infringing the rights of others to use property.” The implication is that everyone born today would acquire an equal right of use, or would need to be compensated for their exclusion. One way of implementing this is through major land taxes, paid into a sovereign wealth fund. It would alter and restrict the concept of ownership, and ensure that economies tended towards distribution, rather than concentration.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/15/capitalism-destroying-earth-human-right-climate-strike-children
Are the climate change strikers in tune with Monbiot’s thinking? I suspect so. Their manifesto seems to boil down to a demand that their parents provide them with free stuff. Like Monbiot they don’t appear to recognise that the effort others have put into improvement provide those others with any entitlements, or that they have any personal responsibility for their own upkeep or wellbeing.
As for Monbiot’s idea that we should accommodate the rights of future generations, frankly we have no idea what future generations will need.
The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894 is a classic example of panicking over future problems which never manifested. Cities were covered in vast piles of stinking horse manure, and the rotting corpses of dead horses. Projecting known population growth, city planners were aghast at the looming crisis – in 1894, The Times newspaper predicted… “In 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure.”
The solution of course was Henry Ford, and the foundation of Ford Motor Company in 1903; a technology shift which wasn’t obvious in 1894, at least not to the Times.
In just a few short years nobody wanted horses anymore. Clouds of smoke from primitive engines and exhausts were far preferable to vast stinking piles of renewable horse manure.
Yes George. Now take your meds and don’t forget them again
After all these years, he still hasn’t grown up and learned what is really going on. He is stuck in the stone age of foggy thinking.
He is Monbiot, the science child who never grew up.
George Monbiot looks a bit like Ned Isakoff, aka The Communist … onetime boyfriend of Elaine Benes. Do Commies all look alike? It’s not enough that they all think alike?
http://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/ned-isakoff.jpg?w=650
Until he was blacklisted 😏
Monbiot still owes me a crispy£tenner. see The Great Climate and Global Warming Fraud invented by the Club of Rome see http://www.theeuroprobe.org/210/
This issue is one of my pet peeves.
Please don’t fall for the idea that Capitalism is the opposite of Communism, it is a Straw Man comparison.
The Opposite of Communism is not Capitalism.
The Opposite of Communism is Freedom.
The United States was founded on the Ideals of Liberty, not Capitalism. Capitalism was not the objective – no one ever said, “Give us Capitalism or give us death.” They said, “Give us Liberty or give us death.” Nowhere is the word “capitalism” to be found in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.
We established a Government designed to Secure the Unalienable Rights of Mankind (Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness), first, then an economic system of Capitalism automatically followed because Capitalism is the only Economic System that fits with Freedom.
First comes Freedom then comes Capitalism.
When people criticize Capitalism they’re really criticizing Freedom.
Communists don’t want to argue against Freedom so they replace that term with the word Capitalism in order to redirect and muddle the issue.
We don’t need to defend Capitalism, we need to defend Freedom.
For instance, if a Communist says something derogatory about Capitalism don’t waste your time trying to prove Capitalism is better than Communism, simply prove that Freedom is better than Totalitarianism – it’s that simple.
In the end, Communism is nothing more than a Euphemism/Facade for Totalitarianism, and Capitalism is a Communist Epithet/Pejorative for Freedom.
The Debate isn’t between Capitalism and Communism, the Debate is between Freedom and Totalitarianism.
In a Totalitarian Society:
• All Capital and Property is controlled or owned by the State.
• All Economic Commerce and Consumption is planned and controlled by the State.
• All Human Sustenance, such as Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Healthcare is provided by the State.
• The Goal of Education is to Promulgate a Culture of Dependency.
• All Communication Media are produced or controlled by the State and limited by Political Correctness.
• Society is organized like an Insect Colony being divided into First and Second-Class Citizens (Leaders and Workers (i.e. Rulers and Peasants)).
In a Free Society:
• All Citizens have the Right to Own, Buy, Sell, and Leverage personal Property and Capital.
• All Economic Commerce and Consumption is determined by Supply and Demand.
• The acquisition of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Healthcare is a direct function of the intensity of an Individual’s ingenuity, determination, and perseverance.
• The Goal of Education is to Promulgate a Culture of Self-Reliance.
• All Communication Media are Privately owned Enterprises and Endeavors exercising the Freedom of Speech.
• Everyone is Free to Pursue an increase of their Wealth and Status in the Community
It’s as simple as that.
Agreed +100.
Now if only we can get out of the strawman/birth (berth) certificate/Statute/law of the sea deception. That’ll return us all our natural rights and freedoms.
A most illuminating analysis. Thank you.
“Communists don’t want to argue against Freedom so they replace that term with the word Capitalism in order to redirect and muddle the issue.
We don’t need to defend Capitalism, we need to defend Freedom.”
Excellent comments, FM!
We are defending Freedom not some “ism”. Freedom of speech and action is what we need. That’s what makes the world work properly.
I sort of agree but you can easily argue it under Capitalism and how the two are connected
In Capitialism all transactions between two parties must benefit both parties or it would not happen … you have the freedom to not to do a transaction if it doesn’t benefit you.
In Socialism few transactions between two parties benefits both parties, one party is often giving something up either voluntarily or usually by force. This benevolence is supposedly for the greater good of others in the state.
The weakness of Capitialism is simply that those that don’t have skills or products to sell are disadvantaged … so that usually translates to the poor and disabled. Usually Capitialism requires you put a small socialist structure in place to support those people usually called social security.
The weakness of Socialism is there is no incentive for people to excel because you get no advantage you either donate or the state steals all excess you produce. Why even bother going to work you can stay home and play computer games all day and still get your share of the resources. You also struggle to find people for the horrible jobs like cleaning because a person doing those horrible jobs receives no extra support.
That is why Socialism has and always will fail because it is an immoral and corrupt system.
LdB said:
“Usually Capitialism requires you put a small socialist structure in place to support those people usually called social security.”
“That is why Socialism has and always will fail because it is an immoral and corrupt system.”
So socialism is doomed to failure because it has no capitalist element, but capitalism isn’t doomed to failure because it has no socialist element, even though you say it requires one?
Freedom Monger said:
“The acquisition of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Healthcare is a direct function of the intensity of an Individual’s ingenuity, determination, and perseverance.”
So where does that leave an orphaned baby? Should the state stay out of it and let their fate be determined by whether or not individuals decide to provide charity?
What about someone who is rendered unable to work after being beaten up by unknown assailants? No health care for them, and no education for their kids?
Re: Phillip Schafer
Are you actually saying that Free People can’t voluntarily come to the aid of orphans and victims unless the Government forces them? Is that what you really believe?
You’re not the kind of person who wouldn’t help someone in need unless the Government made you, right? Why do think nobody else will?
Voluntary Charity is the essence of Love Thy Neighbor. (I know, Voluntary Charity is an oxymoron)
Of course, when I say that the acquisition of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Healthcare is a direct function of the Individual’s ingenuity, determination, and perseverance, I’m talking about adults, not children. I’m saying that it is not the Government’s (or anyone else’s) responsibility to provide people with these things.
if we treat future generations not yet born as having equal rights to the living, property rights will have to be radically adjusted.
According to the Pro Choice folks (mostly progressives) the not yet born have no rights.
Future adjustments, yes. Selective-child in progress. Wicked.
Free markets, retained earnings, and the prophecy of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming are destroying the Earth. Throw another baby on the barbie, he’s done.
The guy who wrote this blog post says he invented the Great Horse Manure Crisis. It is interesting that at the top of the blog is his apparent motto: “Always plan for the Worst Case Hypothesis”.
That is a really good way to make sure nothing ever happens because we won’t be able to do anything for fear that some worst case hypothesis will come true. That is a ticket to doom. It is the opposite of wisdom.
Wisdom is picking up your load and bearing it into an uncertain future with the knowledge that there will be suffering and eventually you will die. While you’re here, at least you can try to do something meaningful to make your miserable existence worthwhile … or something like that.
In the mean time we should be cognizant of the fact that capitalism has brought us as close to an earthly paradise as we have ever been. With every passing year, fewer people in the world suffer extreme poverty. Why? Mostly because of the wealth enabled by fossil fuels.
I don’t know about you, but when I look out my front window I see a clean suburban environment which supports a vast array of plants, birds, and mammals, not the least of which is a skunk whom I haven’t seen yet. 🙂
Close your eyes and envision Monbiot: that’s your skunk!
That crisis is actually identical to the whole CO2 debate. If we really needed to scrub CO2 out of Earths atmosphere the hard sciences could make it happen and for less than the whole emissions control path. Make no mistake the whole CO2 crisis is simply an excuse to push a left agenda it really has nothing to do with removing CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Sounds like pumped-up Pompeo in Houston this week.
China has reduced poverty by 800 million in 10 years, with less poor than the good ol’ USA today with 4 times the population, an unparalleled record.
How is that possible? Simple – they applied FDR’s New Deal, China style (Confucius) on a massive scale. Two China premiers have said this – which is why Trump can do a deal, if the pompous warriors get out of the way.
It is time for the USA to get onboard this new paradigm – the worn-out old tattered memes are yawn inspiring.
One system rewards you for your economic activity. The other system rewards you for your political beliefs.
The first system says you can have all the food you are willing to work for.
The second system says you can’t have food because that means someone else will have to go without.
Old Chinese proverb. Food on table, many problems. No food on table, only 1 problem.
One really irritating thing is that the the slack-jawed lefties who read the Grauniad literally worship the ground from which this idiot Moonbat spouts his preposterous ramblings. They have ABSOLUTE belief.
They have the same sort of glassy-eyed stare and rictus grin as you see on those JW’s who come knocking. 100% impenetrable belief. I suppose one might as well just ignore them, as best as one can.
George has confused work and inheritance.
The right to property was not a right of inheritance. You are not born with a piece of land for your use.
What the right to property means is that you are allowed to own land.
This is a big deal. Not so long ago the average peasant was not allowed to own land. They were serfs. The noble was the land owner. Chances are good your ancestors didn’t own the land they farmed.
Even today in countries like China you are not allowed to own land. All land must be leased from the government.
And those that talk about slavery and white privilege are displaying an ignorance of history.
The landless serfs of feudal times were no different than slaves to their feudal lord. The idea that a serf would get a vote to choose their lord would have been no different than a pig voting to choose their farmer.
Yet this system governed Europe for hundreds of years until the serfs eventually won their freedom. And it was these events that in large part eventually led to a general outlawing of slavery worldwide.
The system that George envisions seems very much like a return to feudalism, with the loss of hard fought freedoms.
“Every generation shall have an equal right to the enjoyment of natural wealth.”
and
“no renewable resource should be used beyond its rate of replenishment.”
So at one generation, of say 10 billion people, each person has a right to 1 ten-billionth of the renewable amount of resources. A somewhat later generation, of say 20 billion people, will then have a right to half that amount per person. And since they claim there are limits to growth, that pie is not going to get bigger. The individual share is going to go down, since population is still going up.
The individual share is going to go down, since population is still going up.
≠=====((
Interesting observation. By reducing the individual share this means each new person born is infringing on the rights of the existing people.
So under George’s rules, we can’t allow anyone to be born unless someone first dies.
So in the end, it comes down to population control. And the temptation for people to increase their share by making sure that population decreases.
I know several countries that have nukes that dispute the claim that you have any right to our countries resources. You are welcome to come and try and take them.
The Climate Finance Partnership was created in 2018 in order to propel forward the New Climate Economy. Both being key vehicles to unlock 100 trillion dollars from pension funds to invest in (privatize) the Global South while simultaneously implementing the economic valuation and payment for environmental services hidden within the Sustainable Development Goals.
The privatization of nature will transform global finance. Those most responsible for the destruction will be assigned as the new “stewards of global natural capital.”
Social capital will also be valued and monatized to offset companies negative natural capital through resource consumption. Only those ( corporate and individual) with access to social credit will be able to consume resources without paying a heavy tax.
The youth are being duped to get the oligarchs who operate via large foundations what they want. From artist Hiroyuki Hamada:
“What’s infuriating about manipulations by Non Profit Industrial Complex is that they harvest good will of the people, especially young people. They target those who were not given skills and knowledge to truly think for themselves by institutions which are designed to serve the ruling class. Capitalism operates systematically and structurally like a cage to raise domesticated animals. Those organizations and their projects which operate under false slogans of humanity in order to prop up the hierarchy of money and violence are fast becoming some of the most crucial elements of the invisible cage of corporatism, colonialism and militarism.”
Oligarchs are salivating over the global waves of youth mobilization demanding action on climate change.
The link between most, if not all of the NGOs, institutions, and high-level individuals behind the Climate Change Movement is the shared desire for carbon markets and/or the implementation of payments for ecosystem services (PES). The money for multi-billion-dollar corporations – to create privatized services and industries, under the guise of environmental protection, is going to be PAID FOR BY THE PUBLIC – BUT THE PUBLIC WILL NOT OWN THEM .
Once you remove the incentive for people to work harder for greater reward, you remove the incentive to work and the result is poverty.
Hmm… How about “No. Non-existent hypothetical people don’t have the same rights as the living.”?
I think I’ll go with my version.
Marxism and Malthusianism are deadly wrong because both of them blatantly ignore human ingenuity.
Despite its flaws, capitalism collapses only in the Chicken Little minds of Marxists. Conversely, Marxism has proved to collapse everywhere it has been applied.
In the same vein, the resources of the Earth are lacking only in the blindly retrograde minds of the Malthusians.
Marxism and Malthusianism are religiously embraced by people who can’t neither grasp reality nor project themselves into the future and who fall into dystopia which they want to impose to other.
“The children on climate strike are right: their lives should not be sacrificed to satisfy our greed”
No, our lives should not be sacrificed to satisfy their greed. See, two can play that game.
Moonbat is an idiot. Enough said.
NO that isn’t enough said. The Guardian is a worthless rag not even suited for lining parakeet cages. Now between us we have said enough.
Well, if future generations not yet born have the same rights as those living now, then . . .
. . . we should never do deficit spending, and
. . . abortion should be outlawed.
Outlaw any form of birth control also, including sterilization procedures like vasectomies and tube-tying.
Because denying future generations their opportunity to be born would be just as bad, if not worse, as killing them.
Monbiot has devolved into a profoundly shallow reactionary hysterical parody of a thoughtful person.
The utter lack of climate crisis has driven him delusional.
His rejection of the facts of the success of our current economic system has led him to embrace death and destruction. His ideas, if implemented as he wishes them, would kill billions of people.
Those born in the future would live brutish short desperate lives.
It is long past pushback and exposure of this deceitful misanthropic blowhard. The ideas he champions ate more than merely wrong.
What is infuriating about Monbiot is not his idealism and passion for a particular brand of politics and society.
He shares that characteristic with most of us , albeit with a different outlook.
No what is almost inadmissible is his ignorance. Despite a good education and access to all the archive material of a major news company he does not seem to be aware that what he proposes has been in operation , in the most “capitalist” of countries , for generations .
It was the US , in its most capitalist and expansionist phase that first started the idea of National Parks , free of development for present and future generations to enjoy. An example that spread throughout the western world and regions formerly part of European empires.
Most countries have game and wild life protection policies that constrain development- except of course when the “planet saving” renewable technologies are concerned .
The children of the future will never see a live bald eagle in the wild in the US or a hen harrier in Norfolk marshes thanks to the policies supported by Monbiot .
It is in the wonderfully socialist Norway that there is a determination to rid the seas of the remaining sea mammals. If you are ever in China at a major tourist centre like the Terracotta Army , there is a large market outside and hunters displaying the carcasses of the mammals shot . I am sure that I saw the fur of snow leopards displayed there. This is communist China , where future generations will never see a snow leopard again (not that they are easy to see now admittedly).
It is not the “capitalist ” countries where heritage is lost to future generations , but the socialist or communist societies , where development takes priority .
Despite a good education
George has a religious belief
They say Charles (the Halfwit) had the best education money can buy.
He believes in all kinds of loony things. Access to a good education is no guarantee of outcome.
One. Could wish that the delusional Monbiot was part of the great unborn.
“… We need a new human right for future generations…” Except we reserve the right to abort them. It is so progressive of the Guardian to lay full righteous claim to speak for the unborn today, yet last yesterday and tomorrow they will return to defending a “woman’s right to control her body” and have taxpayer funded abortion upon demand. How progressive.
Mombiot is obviously barmy. The fact he is a Guardian journalist with ideas so flawed he could only present then via the Guardian should surprise no one.
I wake up every day confident the Wirld is a better place for humanity thanks to fossil fuels that it was before real cheap energy was available.
I also rest easy not having any worries about climate change, or any worries about bogus CO2 worried.
I actually feel sorry for the ignorant greens who suffer dread about everything and never have chance to relax and enjoy living.
funny..Ive never thought we were born with any “rights”
we land/get used to who/ where/ and the circumstances we find ourselves in and adapt or fail, rights have little to do with it. you dont have the right to decent parents a house or land or anything else some get it some get it all and the majority get very little , and learn to make do.
is banning any advice on NOT having kids you dont want/cant feed or house well/ really wise
ie usa policy on any OS aid being provided ONLY on the grounds of no birth control help or meds given?
entire slums in usa and elsewhere populated by people who would have better off NOTbeing and if decent affordable options were available wouldnt have been.
its cute how blokes get so antsy about a womens right to decide if she wants the burden of pregnancy birth and reponsibilty for 18+yrs cos being honest she is the mug who most often bears that cost.
if not her alone then her and the entire society that ends up paying forsupporting the kids.
chicago and harlem in usa spring to mind useless breathers who cant even speak the language of the land,
every nations got similar places some worse some marginally better, but all are a drain on the society