The Revolutionary Socialist Network, Workers
Viewing growth and accumulation as an end causes a litany of impacts
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- , as demonstrated by the massive increase in migratory flows, the
Viewing growth and accumulation as an end causes a litany of impactsPadilla ’21 [Luis-Alberto; 2021; president of the board of the Guatemalan International Relations & Peace Research Institute (IRIPAZ), member of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA), former Secretary General of the Latin American Council on Peace Research (CLAIP), Director of the Diplomatic Academy, Former Vice Minister, former ambassador in Chile, former permanent representative to the United Nations at the Vienna International Centre, former ambassador to Austria, former ambassador to the Russian Federation, former ambassador to the Netherlands, permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, and professor of the Seminar of World Geopolitics at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the Catholic University Rafael Landivar (URL) of Guatemala; Sustainable Development in the Anthropocene, “The Technological Paradigm,” Ch. 3.7, p. 122-123] SPark Thus, if the ways in which a capitalist economy functions can be explained by a competitive desire to maintain an economic activity whose purposes (apart from the accumulation of capital and the distribution of profits to the shareholders of large companies) are not known, there is a clear necessity to reform the current world economy, which will be discussed further on in this book. For instance, if we selected some figures from world economic data and tried using them to assess global economic growth (guided by competitiveness and capital accumulation) using the classic category of the increase in per capita income at national level and on a global scale,15 according to experts we would find that personal income has increased from US $3,305 in 1960 to US $9,472 per capita in 2010 to reach US $14,000 in 2017 (Sachs 2017). From an axiological point of view (implicitly because economy technocrats do not base their decisions on ethical judgements), this would be considered something ‘good’ or ‘positive’. However, that would be an erroneous and incomplete (reductionist) perception because from the perspective of natural ecosystems or social welfare, in a world where nature is affected by waste and pollution as well as concentration of wealth with the consequent inequality, the increase in growth (GDP) and per capita income does not appear to have those positive connotations. This is because poverty and inequality result in a permanent social crisis at world level, as demonstrated by the massive increase in migratory flows, the proliferation of armed conflict, the intensification in the number of refugees and social turmoil, the surge of terrorism, organized crime and the like.16 It is clear from the pie chart of the World Bank regard Download 2.09 Mb. Share with your friends:
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