Originally posted by
[email protected] 15, 2007 03:43 am
Do capitalists in power encourage population growth? In their own ways of course that would be unapparent to those who don't look carefully. But if it would be to their advantage, why wouldn't they?
Capitalists do not encourage population growth. Only fascists have done this so far, but not the capitalists themselves.
It's not in the advantages for anyone today. When you say capitalists, then I think you mean global population growth. We already have enough.
More People=More Market. Even though it would be hell for the majority of people on the planet, I think it could only benefit wealthy capitalists.
If you say market, then this must be labor market because most people are not consumers but laborers.
When there is more of a demand for food, then there is more money flowing for agricultural companies. When there is a higher demand for clothing with more people on the planet, production of such clothing would stimulate Global Capital.
This sounds malthusian. During the 18th century there was, in some regions like the Low Countries, Northern France and England, a population growth because of more agricultural produce. The population growth made it necessairy to keep this produce at the same level.
Yet, most of these people who were born during this growth became workers in facotries (or manufactures in France). they needed the surplus badly because they didn't produce food for themselves. Yet nobody invested in agriculture. But the only place where they did was England. Why? Because on the Continent the aristicracy was in power and formed a social barrier to keep their privilieges safe. In England this barrier had already been broken during the so called Glorious Revolution.
So, you have to look to capitalism today and ask yourself if capitalists will invest or not in agriculture when the population grows. I think not, because - for instance - in Africa you see that although the population grows steadily, nobody invests in these small farmers and no one even thinks to make profit out of it. The multinaltionals in the third world are already profitable, as there is lots of cheap labor fleeing the countryside. Would capitalists like to invest in agriculture when they already make enough prodit from their compagnies where thousands of poor black workers work for low wages? It's a social barrier, and to brake this is not a bourgeois revolution, the bourgeoisie is far to weak over there, it's a socialists revolution.
As I said before, overpopulation would be terrible for most people on the earth because of less resources to go around
It's not the population that spoils our resources, it's capitalism. People always want to make sure resources are not depleted to ensure their children's future. Capitalists want to make sure that their profits rise.
If the population in the West would grow rapidly, I think the living standards would go down as it's already hard for many workers to keep social security healthy with all these people getting old and having to live from a pension. [The capitalists pay less for social security today than when they did 10 years ago. Half of the national produced wealth goes back to the capitalists, not the state, social security or the people! If the population in Europe grows, I don't think the capies would say: "hey, we will help you out".
I already hear leftists say: they steal most of the wealth i produce for them, so I don't want to work and live from social security. It is true that you do not get a loan according to even half of what you workerd for in many cases. Yet, that does not mean you have to put more pressure on social security.]