We need to stop feeding the beast

The need for mass consumption is the Achilles' Heel of modern capitalism.

Last week, I had the slightly insane idea of summarizing 12 years of climate lectures into one presentation. I ended up with 80 slides, with an additional 60+ backup slides. Surprisingly, the presentation was very well received.

The starting point – as always – was the Keeling curve, which shows that the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is rising faster than ever before. In other words, three decades of UN-led climate negotiations have gotten us nowhere.

The complete and utter failure of global climate politics poses three questions:

1. How dangerous is it?

2. Why did we fail?

3. What do we do now?

Since most of my readers will know the answer to the first question, I want to focus on the other two. Answering the second question requires us to accept that we have been lied to and brainwashed by the ruling class for at least five decades, especially with regards to the economy. As it turns out, sustainable growth was simply a new name for the perpetual motion machine, but nobody dared admit it. We were essentially being told the lies we wanted to hear.

So, what do we do now? The first part of that question is simple: Global Climate Compensation (which coincidentally is the title of this blog). The introduction of global carbon tax with an equitable redistribution scheme would not only lead to rapid decarbonization but would also solve the problem of global poverty. If you do not believe me, just listen to the words of Darren Woods, the CEO of ExxonMobil:

Honestly, I do not think the oil industry would mind a carbon tax if properly implemented. Furthermore, as 80% of the world’s population would benefit from the redistribution scheme, the main opposition will come from consumers and oligarchs in the Global North. This is the problem with the polluter pays principle: if implemented, it means that the polluters (i.e., consumers in rich countries) will have to pay.

Today, we are facing the same problem as Germany and Italy did in the 1930s: when times get rough, the capitalists will always side with the fascists. They are prepared to do anything to prevent their wealth from being redistributed, including limiting education, banning science, censoring media, interfering with elections, or committing bloody murder.

In contrast to the 1930s, modern capitalism has an Achilles’ Heel that can be exploited to get out of this mess. As J. K. Galbraith, Daniel Boorstein, and Guy Debord pointed out more than half a century ago, the whole point of capitalism and industrialization is to enable mass production. The problem is that mass production requires mass consumption and that people’s actual needs are limited. In other words, today’s capitalist are dependent on us buying things we do not need, as Toni Morrison realized in 2006.

She is absolutely right. Consumer spending accounts for 50-60% of total GDP in many developed countries. To maintain this level of consumption, people need to be enticed into buying a lot of stuff they do not need, which is why the most powerful companies today are advertising firms, such as Alphabet, Meta, or X.

I reserved the domain www.consumer-strike.org when Trump was first elected. Today, an increasing number of people seem to realize the need for it:

Are You a Consumer or a Person?

Boycott tomorrow!

The price of a product is the sum of many parts. You pay for materials, energy, labor, and development costs. However, in an affluent capitalist society, you also pay capital costs to investors, marketing costs to advertising companies such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X, and transaction costs to VISA, Mastercard, or American Express.

It is almost impossible to spend money today without Trump and his minions profiting one way or another. Fortunately, the opposite is also true: if enough people reduce their spending, our financial system would collapse.

How to implement a consumer strike? One of the simplest methods is to cancel your credit cards. This has immediate benefits:

1. You do a lot less unnecessary shopping online.

2. You never get another credit card invoice at the end of the month.

3. The subscriptions you signed up for online without needing them are cancelled.

So stop shopping! It will save you money, protect the environment, and make Trump and Musk miserable.