A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

market calculations. And this is precisely the second aspect of capitalist
logic, after the growth of the rate of profitability. It is not capital that is
having to deal with the negative effects, but local societies and individuals.
This has always been the strategy of capital, even in the countries
of the centre, with no concern for the fate of the working classes, or for
the peoples in the peripheries under colonialism. There is no concern,
either, for nature and the way of life of local populations. It is for all these
reasons that the food crisis, in both its conjunctural and structural aspects,
is directly linked to the logic of capitalism.
The energy crisis
Let us now look at the energy crisis. This goes well beyond the present
explosion in the price of oil and forms part of the drying-up of natural resources,
which are being over-exploited by the capitalist development
model. One thing is clear: humanity has to change the sources of its energy
in the coming 50 years, moving from fossil fuels to other sources
of energy. The irrational use of energy and the squandering of natural
resources, have become especially evident since the Second World War
and in particular during the recent era of the Washington Consensus,
i.e. the generalized liberalization of the economy which is the hallmark
of the neoliberal epoch of capitalism.
The individual consumption (in housing and transport) that is typical of
this model is voracious in its energy requirements. And yet the liberalization
of foreign trade is causing more than 60 per cent of our merchandise
to cross the oceans, with all that this entails in terms of energy use
and the contamination of the seas. Each day, more than 22,000 ships of
over 300 tonnes, are navigating the seas (M. Ruiz de Elvira, 2010). This
traffic ensures a desirable exchange of goods, but it is also perpetuating
the principle of unequal exchange with the peripheral countries that produce
raw materials and agricultural commodities. It enables, too, the utilization
of ‘comparative advantage’ to the maximum. Products can be
sold cheaper, in spite of having to travel thousands of kilometres, because
the workers are more heavily exploited and because laws to protect
the ecology are non-existent or too timid.
19