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Capitalism, Cooperation and The Anthropocene. Joshua Farley Community Development and Applied Economics Gund Institute for Ecological Economics University of Vermont. Economies as Evolutionary Systems. Hunter gatherer economies (pleistocene) Accumulation = death
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Capitalism, Cooperation and The Anthropocene Joshua Farley Community Development and Applied Economics Gund Institute for Ecological Economics University of Vermont
Economies as Evolutionary Systems • Hunter gatherer economies (pleistocene) • Accumulation = death • Agricultural economies (Holocene) • Property rights, division of labor, political hierarchy • Population density, knowledge, and rate of change
Economies as Evolutionary Systems • Industrial economics (Dawn of anthropocene) • Fossil fuels, non-renewables • Competition • Growth • Financial economics (anthropocene) • Profound change in our lifetimes • Price from negative to positive feedback loops • Redistribution
Societal Challenges in the Anthropocene Just and sustainable degrowth
Societal Challenges in the Anthropocene Marginal market costs (Market supply curve) Poor people have no demand
Market Solutions • Competition, self-interest and choice • Preference satisfaction • Internalize externalities • Make prices reflect full costs • Creates incentives for innovation and substitution • Preferences weighted by purchasing power • Americans spend 6% of income on food for home consumption; ~1% on raw food • Many Africans spend 75%; ~ 50% on raw food • What happens when prices double? • Prioritize preferences or physiological need?
Prisoner’s Dilemmas • Global Climate Change • Natural resource depletion/biodiversity loss (finite raw material sources, finite services) • Innovation in the information age • Cooperation is best solution
Can People Cooperate? • Stupid question • Are people good or evil? • Characteristics of an evil person • Characteristics of a good person • Economics, money and cooperationBauman Y, Rose E. Selection or indoctrination: Why do economics students donate less than the rest? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 2011;79(3):318-327.; Frank RH, Gilovich T, Regan DT. Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation? Journal of Economic Perspectives. 1993;7(2):159-171.; Kirchgässner G. (Why) are economists different? European Journal of Political Economy. 2005;21(3):543-562; Vohs KD, Mead NL, Goode MR. The Psychological Consequences of Money. Science. 2006 November 17, 2006;314(5802):1154-1156.
Evolution of Cooperation • Genetic • Multi-level selection • Distribution of pro-social behavior • Bacteria, slime-molds, insects, fish, humans (super cooperators) • Oxytocin • Detecting cheaters • Cultural • Altruistic punishment • Punishing non-punishers • Group identity
Economics of Cooperation • Peak oil, food supply and pandemics • Values maximized at price of zero • Competitive markets create scarcity (production and consumption) • “Energy transitions produce cultural transitions” • Myxococcus xanthus, Dictyostelium discoideum and the human predicament • “Struggle for energy causes violent conflict” • Cooperation for energy ends violent conflict
Institutions for Cooperation • Institutions can make generous people act selfishly, or selfish people act generously • Reciprocity or payments? • Social norms: glorify greed or punish it?
Conclusions • Markets emerged simultaneously with fossil fuels • Nature of ‘scarce’ resources has changed from rival, excludable to non-rival and/or non-excludable • Cannot transform physical characteristics of resources to fit market model • Must transform economic system to resource characteristics, human behavior • Prisoner’s dilemmas • Physiological necessities • Cooperation and common ownership