[Marxism] A modest proposal [was: RE: The Earth as a whole]

[Barry Brooks]

Aaron Aarons wrote:
>> Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:54:51 -0500
>> From: "Ruthless Critic of All that Exists" <ok.president+marxml at gmail.com>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 9:42 PM, Joaquin Bustelo <jbustelo at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> What it CANNOT survive is the ecological footprint of the much less than one
>>> billion denizens of the white countries.
>> Then, by this logic, immigration into these countries from the third
>> world should be halted, as, within two or three generations,  the
>> immigrants' consumption approaches that of the denizens of these
>> countries...
> 
> This, of course, was the logic of the anti-immigration activists who tried to take over the Sierra Club a few years ago. It's based on the idea that residents of the imperialist countries will continue to consume at the same high rate relative to residents of the imperialized countries. But our job, or at least one of our major jobs, is to change that. One part of changing that is to stop the "immigration" of goods and resources into the United States and other imperialist centers.
> 
> I think it's also important, though, to recognize and deal with the inequality WITHIN countries. Given the fact that most people live in poor countries, the number of rich chupaplanetas ;-) in the latter may already be larger than the number in the U.S., if not in the imperialist countries as a whole. People in the richest 10% or so of the world's population are the problem wherever they live.
> 


High consumption and excess population are both problems. The
question of which is worse is worse than useless.

Our extreme concentration of wealth, the distribution problem, is
unfair, cruel, and worst of all it makes economic growth necessary
since displaced workers are still wage dependent. Planet plunder is
justified because we need to make jobs.

I guess we can just ignore that it is possible to provide luxury with
low consumption in a SSE. I don't know why THE main answer has few friends.

Barry