Unregulated Capitalism is a vicious cycle

Capitalism is primarily the generation of surplus in the economy by the various industries and simultaneously taking measures that its consumption is happening by the people, domestic or international. It has certainly improved the lifestyle of the people materially but it can’t be said whether people are happier or not. Development is a subjective factor and to different people, it means differently. It is formed by the historical background, culture, and tradition of the people as such. For example in Bhutan where Buddhism is followed; the country is a net carbon negative emitter. But how is it related to capitalism? It surely is. Bhutan is one of the developing countries of the world and the promotion to manufacturing industries is one of the means to fast achieve the GDP growth and hence the economy. However, to manufacture is to exploit the natural resources – do mining and extract minerals, cut trees and utilize to make an end product, acquire land and build infrastructure, make dams on the rivers and hamper the natural flows and so on. It also means that there is waste generation and at the same time, it has to be disposed of. In today’s world, it is one of the most challenging tasks and we are ending up polluting the land – by dumping waste and it in turns leaches into the ground to pollute the water aquifers, oceans – the figures are exhilarating and shock giving – it has been severely harming the marine ecosystem, there is the increased ratio of the dead zone where supposedly no life exists. Waste disposal is also into the air as there is an increased proportion of greenhouse gases, Particulate Matter particles, etc. into the atmosphere.

So at one end, we are increasingly consuming the resources and on the other hand, we are not concerned for our larger home – the Earth. Profit making is the sole objective of the capitalists. There is a complete absence of the accountability part. The result is that India is fast depleting its once rich natural resources. The air is increasingly toxic, the water has almost become a commodity and is fast depleting both qualitatively and quantitatively and the ‘common’ land has been severely reduced.

Equitable development and regulated capitalism is the way forward. Besides, the government should be increasingly welfare oriented and imbibe the factor of happiness into policymaking. The hampering of the natural resources should be reversed and the products have to be measured in terms of its input to output ratio. Not only should the renewable sources of energy be promoted but as well the measures like cycling to commute etc. good practices need to be promoted.

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