Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Chapter 4: The toxic cradle of productionConspicuous consumptionAs organisms, people constantly draw materials from <strong>the</strong>ir environment. At <strong>the</strong> mostbasic physical level, this amounts to 800 kg per year in <strong>the</strong> form of food, water andair, according to Sachs. Early hunter-ga<strong>the</strong>rers using basic clothing, tools and shelteradded a few kilograms to this amount. The first major change came with settled peasantagriculture which, as it exists today for possibly half of humanity, requires <strong>the</strong> use ofbetween 2 and 5 tonnes of raw material per person per year. Industrialisation wroughta far greater change. Europe, for example, uses between 40 and 70 tonnes per personper year, excluding air and water, mainly for “installations run by organizations atvarious levels of <strong>the</strong> system: high-rise buildings, steel plants, supermarkets, swimmingbaths, airports, armoured vehicles and so on” [2005: 36].‘Per person’ is thus a little misleading. The institutions of capital and state consumemore than ‘consumers’. It is not just <strong>the</strong> goods on <strong>the</strong> shelf, but <strong>the</strong> shelf itself, <strong>the</strong>shopping mall, <strong>the</strong> city that sustains <strong>the</strong> mall, <strong>the</strong> machinery of manufacture and <strong>the</strong>infrastructure of energy and transport and, finally, <strong>the</strong> extravagance of arms. On arms,<strong>the</strong> Pentagon’s budget for <strong>the</strong> coming year is $700 billion, equal to <strong>the</strong> Treasury’s fund tobailout <strong>the</strong> finance system 60 and more than <strong>the</strong> rest of <strong>the</strong> world’s military expenditure.$100 billion of <strong>the</strong> Pentagon’s stash is for laying waste to Iraq and Afghanistan while<strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r $600 represents its normal operational budget. In South Africa, <strong>the</strong> armsdeal remains shrouded in secrecy and scandal, but <strong>the</strong> state’s intention to use <strong>the</strong> stateowned arms corporation Denel as a vehicle for ‘strategic’ investments is explicit.Or take <strong>the</strong> city. It is not incidental that <strong>the</strong> financial crisis is connected to <strong>the</strong>contemporary process of urbanisation through <strong>the</strong> so called ‘sub-prime’ mortgagedefaults, argues geographer David Harvey [2008]. Historically, grandiose urbandevelopment has repeatedly been used to absorb surplus capital when over accumulationthreatens profits. Over <strong>the</strong> last decade or so, this process has gone global reflecting <strong>the</strong>globalisation of finance capital. The urbanisation of China has dwarfed everythingelse, but property markets have boomed across <strong>the</strong> world accompanied by frenzieddemolition and construction. From <strong>the</strong> towers of Dubai to <strong>the</strong> golf estates of <strong>the</strong>Western Cape, it has been marked by competitive conspicuous consumption. And, asnoted in The groundWork Report 2006, this investment has been focused in enclavesto <strong>the</strong> exclusion of <strong>the</strong> poor who are driven to <strong>the</strong> urban peripheries to make way for<strong>the</strong> high value investments of ‘world class’ cities.60 James Carroll, Making some sense of $700b, New York Times, October 6, 2008.<strong>Wasting</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Nation</strong> - groundWork - 87 -