Em tempos de pura e dura intoxicação ideológica em torno da crise, das suas causas e responsabilidades, não devemos desperdiçar nenhuma oportunidade para conhecer o trabalho de economistas e professores que, pelo mundo fora, a maior parte das vezes fora dos grandes holofotes mediáticos, dão firme combate às mistificações e sofismas dominantes.
É o caso do sítio norte-americano saborosamente intitulado Post-Austistic Economics Review (nome escolhido a dedo para sublinhar o corte - ou autismo - entre os cursos de Economia e a realidade) que publica regularmente uma newsletter, de cujo nº 53 de Março deste ano destaco desde já o seguinte artigo de Richard Smith
Beyond growth or beyond capitalism?
Resumo do artigo:: Recent publications have revived interest in Herman Daly’s proposal for a Steady-State Economy. This paper argues, first, that the idea of a steady-state capitalism is based on untenable assumptions, starting with the assumption that growth is optional rather than built-into capitalism. I argue that irresistible and relentless pressures for growth are functions of the day-to-day requirements of capitalist reproduction in a competitive market, incumbent upon all but a few businesses, and that such pressures would prevail in any conceivable capitalism. Secondly, this paper takes issue with Professor Daly’s thesis, which also underpins his SSE model, that capitalist efficiency and resource allocation is the best we can come up with. I argue that this belief is misplaced and incompatible with an ecological economy, and therefore it undermines Daly’s own environmental goals. I conclude that since capitalist growth cannot be stopped, or even slowed, and since the market-driven growth is driving us toward collapse, ecological economists should abandon the fantasy of a steady-state capitalism and get on with the project figuring out what a post–capitalist economic democracy could look like.
