Is Capitalism Sustainable?

There are two basic stimuli for the American businessman, risk and reward. This basic dichotomy runs the American economy. If risk outweighs reward, nothing happens. If reward outweighs risk then anything can happen. These two stimuli produce all motivations for American business. It is the basis of capitalism.

And Americans are trained from an early age to be capitalists. However, after two centuries of intense grooming into capitalists, the American public finds itself at a crossroad. For the first time ever, America can see the consequences of its capitalist ideals. America and her leaders have taken note of the shocking data pouring in. Al Gore presented alarming data in his film, "An Inconvenient Truth", about the capacity of the planet to sustain the global economy. Indeed, he shows quite clearly that the planet's current ecology can not continue to sustain the increasing demands of the current economy. But what lies at the root of the problem? It all goes back to the capitalist motivations of risk and reward.

Behind the idea of risk and reward there is an ugly vice, an inherent greed. When a man goes to market he brings along this vice. "He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." Greed creates capitalism. This Greed is the fuel in the American engine that produces growth, expansion and forward movement.

What a powerful fuel it is! It gave rise to one of the most powerful empires in the history of mankind. Yet, greed existed long before Americans did. So why was greed such an effective stimulant in the twentieth century? It was coupled with petroleum. Oil coupled with greed seemed to be a perfect match. One complimented the other so perfectly. Oil was cheap and very useful, thus it became the vehicle in which American greed expanded the economy.

Since the introduction of oil as a fuel source in the industrial revolution the economy has grown at a mindboggling pace. The rise of the automobile, and its industry, is an example of this amazing growth facilitated by petroleum. In less than 100 years the automobile went from a strange oddity to a fact of life. An entire sector of the American economy had grown out of this oil intensive product. Huge profits were made, and this is only one sector of the economy that grew out of oil usage. There were hundreds of other applications for oil. The economic rewards for using oil seemed limitless.

Indeed they were limitless, because nobody could see the risks associated with the use of petroleum products. The changes, that burning petroleum produce, are so gradual that nobody noticed. Bit by bit Americans began poisoning the environment. The rest of the world saw the huge economic advantages that America was gaining and weren't shy in keeping up. Day by day, the air quality became poorer and poorer across the world, and nobody noticed or didn't care. Thus nobody saw the potential risks involved with continued irresponsible use of oil.

So the problem continued to grow until late in the twentieth century when the greenhouse gas effect was measured scientifically. Since then, many people have advocated that the world population, especially Americans, need to slow down the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Not the least of which is Al Gore. He showed the effects that the greenhouse gases are having on the ecosystem in an attempt to encourage the reduction of these harmful byproducts being emitted. And anybody can see that this frivolous use of gas is not sustainable.

Ecologically, the planet can not endure significant increases in temperature. Plants will wilt. Animals will die. Oceans will rise. Fires will flare. Tempests will rage. The current world economy is putting terrible strains on the planet. Yet, we continue to pollute air, water, and soil. Who can say where the breaking point is? When do we make the planet, our only home, uninhabitable? It is often taken for granted that the ecosystem is very fragile, and that we depend upon it.

Just as fragile and necessary for our survival as the ecosystem is the economy. Unfortunately, it is addicted to oil. The world can not stop burning fossil fuels cold turkey. The world would go through withdrawals. Yet economically it is impossible to continue burning fossil fuels indefinitely. Petroleum is a finite resource. It can not be replaced very easily. And as supply decreases the price will continue to increase. There will come a point when one of three things will happen: First, it could be impossible to obtain gasoline. And therefore nobody can use it. Second, gasoline could be very expensive, however the demand will continue. Thus only the very rich would use gas. Third, the demand for gasoline could drop so that the market continues to achieve equilibrium at a reasonable price. In any scenario the market will not allow indefinite use of this resource as it is currently being used. The economic rewards for using greenhouse gas producing fuels are disappearing.

These increasing ecological risks have raised many important issues. For example, global warming is no longer a political issue, it is a moral issue. It isn't exactly ethical to pollute the atmosphere for any sort of gain, be it emotional, financial, social, or any other reason. The pile of evidences of the moral pitfalls becomes greater and greater with each passing day. In recent years these risks have gained ground on the old economic rewards.

In fact the risks not only are surpassing the old rewards, but produced many new rewards of their own. These new rewards are based on an ecological moral consciousness. Businesses are developing new environmentally friendly technologies which can replace older polluting technologies. For example, there are electric cars that can travel up to 50 miles, at normal driving speeds, without using any gasoline. These cars can be charged through the use of solar panels placed on top of a garage. If this technology becomes main stream car emissions there would be a significant reduction of pollutants that cause the greenhouse effect. And this technology is not alone; there are many other examples of green-technology being developed.

Green-technologies are the future, but they are not the present simply because the motivations are not strong enough to support these advancements. The economic rewards for using petroleum based fuels are still superior to the ecological risks. However there are huge profits to be made in the green-technology industry. This industry will continue to become more and more attractive. Therefore greed will continue to run its course, until the invisible hand moves the market to produce more and more green-technologies.

The invisible hand will eventually guide American greed towards this end. However the invisible hand is guided by each individual's contribution to the overall sentiment of the market. Therefore the more educated the public is on certain issues such as global warming, the better the market can react and steer itself. Therefore the material that Al Gore presented in "An Inconvenient Truth" is completely relevant, because it educates the public of the risks associated with continuing to follow the same path, as well as showing many of the rewards that can be gained through conscious change, thus stimulating the invisible hand to move the market.

Works Cited
Chancey, Mike. So You Want to Build an Electric Car. 29 December 2007. 4 February 2009 .

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations. New York: Penguin Classics, 1999.