Perverted Economics

You never see any mention of it in the media, but it seems to me there's an economic disaster out there facing western capitalism. Many countries, particularly in Europe, are in a precarious position. A foolish following of the principles of free trade, as promoted by the multinationals, has seriously perverted their industrial and agricultural base. Many cannot, in fact, feed themselves and most have such specialised factories and farms that a large part of the goods in their shops come partially or wholly from other countries.

Their internal economies are so unbalanced that they could go into a tailspin if their normal trading patterns are disrupted. Foreign and civil wars, mass migrations, harvest failures, financial turmoil, political upheaval, epidemics, blockades, boycotts, sanctions any or all could produce a sequence of disasters.

An economy can only weather an international crisis if it is not reliant on imported goods. That is, it is safe only if the bulk of its essential goods and materials are produced internally. Of course, the economies could survive provided that arrangements have been put in place so alternative goods and materials can be quickly and easily produced.

And have they? Are there arrangements for alternative sources of food, of power, of equipment? And are they feasible? The answer sadly is no, they have not. It will take them many months if not years to organise alternative production and supply.

I say them, but it is probably not going to be the same “them” that will have to deal with the crisis. Western “democratic” political parties are not capable of decisive action. They are not programmed for it. They cannot adapt. They are simply electoral machines responding to capitalist pressure groups.

So who will take charge? Once upon a time it might have been Marxist and Trotskyist parties that could have stepped into the breach. Today their time appears to have passed. Now it is the neo-fascists who are lurking in the wings. I wonder how they will cope. After all, aside from mass exterminations and total war, Hitler and Mussolini did drag their economies out of the depths of the great depression.

Ireland, where I live, could be one of the survivor nations. It has a food surplus. It gets much of its power from peat furnaces and hydroelectricity. It has a food processing capacity and remnants of a clothing industry. All of these are indeed dependant on machinery that will wear out or break down and need replacement. But they might have three or four years grace before new parts become a problem. And they might in that time have redirected some of the unemployed labour from luxury exports into producing machinery and machine tools.

Others such as Germany and Britain would not have any such period of grace. They would be facing starvation well before the year is out. Mind you, they could try to solve the problem by invading neighbouring countries. A neo-fascist British government could occupy southern Ireland and neo-nazis could feed their people with food from an occupied France.