Capitalism's crises have hurt humanity six times recently. Now we need a world government
New book by José Tapia analyses how we should work to avoid another crisis and continue to hurt the planet and its people.
“The internal dynamics of capitalism will continue generating economic crises and ecological destruction, stoking mass poverty, social unrest, and mass migrations. It looks quite clear that all these processes in the absence of a world government significantly increase the risk of a world war. Thus the choice is not between this system and a modification of it that is more stable and efficient, but between this system and another system that must necessarily be very different in order to at least allow a significant portion of the 8 billion human inhabitants of our planet to live in peace with themselves and with nature. “ José Tapia
Writing on his blog, economist Michael Roberts explains that the current system we live with drives environmental destruction and poverty. Reviewing the book “Six Crises of the World Economy” by Tapia, he explains that Tapia uses world systems theory, propounded by Immanuel Wallenstein and others. The view here is that we should not consider the nature of economic crises in capitalist production and investment at the level of the national economy, but instead from the dynamics of global production, investment and trade. As Tapia puts it: “the world economy, not national economies, is the major unit to be analysed when trying to understand the economic reality of our time, particularly the reality of crises.”
The book is rather expensive, but the review of the book can be found on Michael Robert’s blog and is rather comprehensive and an excellent introduction to Tapia’s ideas.
Tapia’s book collects and expounds on the evidence ( supporting Marx’s view) that crises are endemic to capitalism and are now generalised through the world.
Read more on Michael Roberts blog.
A culture of peace - the project we promote - will need a rethinking of the way the economy works.