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Sawing off the branch you're sitting on: Capitalism is killing itself, Economist Martin Summers

537 views · Published 8 November 2014 · 1:12 · Indexed 6 November 2026

Channel: Public Enquiry · 2014 · News & Politics

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Marx was fond of quoting Sir William Petty (1623-1687)—the founder of English political economy—to the effect of “land is the mother of wealth while labor is its father.” Capitalist production as it develops assaults not only labor—the working class—but also the “land”—that is nature itself.
“Let us not, Frederick Engels wrote in “Dialectics of Nature,” “flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human conquest over nature. For each such conquest takes its revenge on us.”

Marx showed that the tendency of the rate of profit to fall is rooted in the rising organic composition of capital. While the main cause of this rise is the growing role of machinery, the value of raw and auxiliary materials also plays an important role in the determination of the organic composition of capital. Like fixed capital, raw and auxiliary materials form part of the constant capital. The more that mines, oil wells, natural gas fields and so on are depleted—all other things remaining equal—the higher will be the value of these commodities and the higher will be the organic composition.

Even if the supplies of these raw materials are not exhausted, any rise in their values increases the organic composition, and all other things remaining equal will lower the rate of profit—with all the consequences that I explored above.

For example, the capitalist media is not only concerned about the possibilities of “peak oil” but also the end of “cheap” oil and cheap energy in general. Even if oil production can increase—for example, by exploiting so-called heavy oil deposits—the value of a given unit of energy derived from this more costly fuel will mean a higher organic composition of capital, since energy in one form or another is an “auxiliary material” in every branch of production. A rise in the value of energy means, all other things remaining equal, a higher organic composition and a lower rate of profit. This is why the struggle for cheap sources of raw materials is so important for the capitalists.

http://critiqueofcrisistheory.wordpress.com/historical-materialism-and-the-inevitable-end-of-capitalism/factors-that-limit-the-life-span-of-the-capitalist-system/

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