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Jason Hickel

@jasonhickel

Apr 18

People often assume that capitalism is defined by "markets and trade". But markets and trade existed for thousands of years before capitalism. Capitalism is only 500 years old. So what is distinctive about this economic system? Three things (well, more, but three for now):

1. First, and most importantly, it is defined by enclosure and artificial scarcity. The origins of capitalism lie in a systematic effort by elites to restrict people's access to commons and independent subsistence, in order to render them reliant on wage labour for survival.

Over the past 500 years, this has taken the form of privatization of commons, forced dispossession, destruction of subsistence economies and - particularly in the colonies - taxing people in a currency they do not have in order to induce them to seek wages in that currency.

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Jason Hickel

@jasonhickel

Apr 7

I'm excited to announce this new paper we have out in The Lancet Planetary Health.

We quantified national responsibility for ecological breakdown for the first time. Results and interactive graphics are in the thread below: 🧵 thelancet.com/journals/lanpl…

We found that high-income nations are responsible for 74% of global excess resource use over the period 1970-2017; in other words, resource use in excess of sustainable fair-shares. This is a major driver of ecosystem damage and biodiversity loss.

The USA is the biggest culprit, responsible for 27% of global overshoot, followed by the EU plus the UK, (25%). Other rich countries are collectively responsible for much of the rest.

China is responsible for 15%. And the rest of the global South is responsible for only 8%.

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Jason Hickel

@jasonhickel

Apr 4

Climate breakdown is a consequence of atmospheric colonisation – and its consequences are playing out along colonial lines. There is a straightforward case for reparations here.

My latest in Al Jazeera, with key points in the thread below. 🧵aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/…

The countries of the global North (Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Japan) are responsible for *92%* of total emissions in excess of the planetary boundary - in other words, the emissions that are causing climate breakdown.

Meanwhile, the Global South – the entire continents of Asia, Africa and Latin America – are responsible for only 8% of excess emissions.

And the majority of Southern countries are still well within their fair shares of the boundary, including India, Indonesia and Nigeria.

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Jason Hickel

@jasonhickel

Mar 23

William and Kate arrived in Jamaica only to be rejected by political leaders, professors and activists who have now demanded that the UK apologize and pay reparations for mass enslavement, human trafficking and colonization. aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/22…

“During her 70 years on the throne, your grandmother has done nothing to redress and atone for the suffering of our ancestors that took place during her reign and/or during the entire period of British trafficking of Africans, enslavement, indentureship and colonialization."

"We are of the view that an apology for British crimes against humanity... is necessary to begin a process of healing, forgiveness, reconciliation and compensation."

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Jason Hickel

@jasonhickel

Mar 20

There is an extraordinary paradox at the heart of capitalist growth in rich economies, which is important to understand. Here's how it works:🧵

First, capital seeks to privatize and enclose key goods that we need in order to live - healthcare, housing, energy, transport, etc - making these things increasingly expensive for us to access. This is done *explicitly* in the name of growth.

Remember, GDP only measures things with market prices. When you push a public good into the market, GDP goes up. So privatizing healthcare systems, privatizing public housing stock, all of this is great for "growth"...

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Jason Hickel

@jasonhickel

Mar 13

Socialists who align with growthism should remember what GDP measures: not use-value, nor livelihoods, nor provisioning, but exchange-value. It is a metric devised by capitalists to serve the interests of capitalism. John Smith nails it in "Imperialism in the 21st Century":

GDP growth makes little sense as an indicator for anyone who claims socialist values. Socialist policies focused on use-value, care, public provisioning, and decommodification would improve social outcomes but could very well reduce GDP growth.

GDP measures things with market prices. If you decommodify healthcare, education, energy, housing etc, GDP goes down. That means you need less income to survive, and do not need to render your labour to capital to produce things you do not need in order to access things you do.

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