Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 7: The question of the futureChapter 7: The question of the futureThe system that makes waste of people and their environments is now making wasteof itself. The competition between cities for investment in conspicuous consumptionhas excluded investment in waste and in the poor. Landfills and incinerators representlarge investments but these are investments which destroy local property values. Thepresence of poor people is likewise destructive of value in the consumption city. Thepolitics of this economy is therefore to expel both poor people and waste to the citymargins – within reach but out of sight. The making of poverty and the making of wasteare necessarily complimentary and those made poor must live in the environmentalwaste lands created by capital.The system that created this is now coming to an end. Previous groundWork reportshave warned of the impending economic crisis and noted the irony that global recessionis now the best hope for a credible reduction in carbon emissions sufficient to avertcatastrophic climate change – or for Northern countries simply to meet their Kyotocommitments. It presents also the best hope for a genuine reduction in waste. Thepoint is not to celebrate recession, but to note that the economic order of capitalism isby definition unsustainable.Commenting on the present crisis, sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein observesthat ‘recession’ is too coy a word: “We are already at the beginning of a full-blownworldwide depression with extensive unemployment almost everywhere” [2008]. Thisis not a pretty prospect. Capitalism in chaotic decline is unlikely to be less viciousthan capitalism booming. However, Wallerstein sees “a new order” emerging from theturbulence over the next 20 to 50 years.This will not be a capitalist system but it may be far worse (even morepolarizing and hierarchical) or much better (relatively democratic andrelatively egalitarian) than such a system. The choice of a new system is themajor worldwide political struggle of our times.Wasting the Nation - groundWork - 179 -