The Paradox of Capitalism

Capitalism is just making a pile for oneself, as large as one needs or wants. The greatest paradox of that, or irony, is that the world environment is being destroyed as an unintended consequence of about 8 billion people taking what they can from that which no one owns (the world).

Ownership of something means exclusive use of it, or right to say what may be done with it (property). Private properties are capital, and people are concerned with and care most about their own capital.

Aristotle commented that public properties- the commons- are the worst looked after. The world is generally regarded as a commons subdivided with millions of exclusive use areas of private interests, though public lands are regulated too (and sometimes exploited destructively). 

Exclusive use of ownership is requisite for careful management of capital resources. One cannot construct a well-designed structure or infrastructure for example, or formulate a special use plan for real estate, without ownership. Farmers could not plan their planting cycles, or have a reason to invest in capital farm equipment for example, if they did not own the land, or at least have exclusive use of it through rental agreement. If the land were a commons and some one else decided to graze their cattle on the crops grown, or have a heavy metal rock festival, the crop loss could be complete.

There is no question that intelligent individuals can determine for-themselves best how to manage their own capital interests as opposed to bureaucratic, indirect management of other people’s interests. Since no one owns the world, and the individual capital interests are private and necessarily detached from inter-capital management and land use coordinated efforts, the well-being of the world environment is in serious decline.

The remedy might be for one individual to own the world. One might say that God owns the world. Most of humanity don’t recognize that nor their proper role as stewards. So the default evolution may be dystopian. Probably that would be an A.I. that would decide following science fiction protocols well established, that humanity is a viral plague on the ecosphere, yet it has, for itself, as an A.I., no need for an ecosphere with life in it, except for computer maintenance engineers to serve it.