A nightmare scenario
But if it isn't possible any more to increase my
capital
with further growth, I can still increase it by
acquiring
the capital that my neighbour has already accumulated.
Of course this has always happened but it was
not so obvious, because at the same time there
was the creation of new capital from the continuous
growth that confused the picture.
If further growth is no
longer possible,
the only way to increase my
capital is
to grab capital from someone
else.
That's why it was so important to note,
that ever fewer people possess
ever more capital.
This new phenomenon that shows
how close we are to the end, it has
become evident lately.
Have you ever played the entertaining game
Monopoly?
It could be found everywhere
and many people played
it in the evening with friends.
And it was not only a
fun pastime for people to spend
an enjoyable evening.
It was something much more serious.
It was the transfer of the basic principles
of our system to the level of a game.
At the beginning of the game all players start
from
the same economic position
(do you remember this with the equal
opportunities?)
and begin to build virtual houses and hotels,
where the other players, when they land on that square,
have to pay rent.
Gradually all the economic power is concentrated
in
one single player who finally owns
all the money, all the houses, all the hotels.
― And
after that?
What after that? There is no afterwards.
The absolute ruler has no reason to continue to
build.
The investment is no longer profitable.
The game is over.
This is the stage
we have reached now with
the global economy.
Since the magic recipe "growth"
obviously
cannot work anymore,
the "need for
the multiplication of capital"
(something like the need for animal
reproduction)
is
perverted into self-destructive cannibalism.
And this is not simply limited to the owners of
capital
or the companies in one line of business or in one area
which are "bought out" or "merged"
every day.
This now covers the entire planet.
This is globalization.
Globalization of the economy.
Giant amounts of capital move uncontrolled across
the globe at the
speed of the Internet, like robber bands with the sole
purpose of absorbing
any economies in different countries through the fall
of the local
stock exchanges or the overthrow of their currency
rates.
There is no longer any
way
of increasing capital
except by looting.
We have seen this in the events of recent years,
and we will see it to a more frightening extent in the
coming years.
We have seen the plundering of the economically
weaker countries.
Soon it will be the turn of the stronger ones.
And I do not think anyone wants to claim
that all this has nothingto do
• with the general decline,
• with the plundering of the natural
resources of the earth,
• with the imposition of the will of the powerful
through "humanitarian bombing", or
• with the corruption into which
the world is sinking, as in a marsh.
The end is coming.
It's coming with an ever
increasing velocity.
The curve in Figure 3 confirms with
the undeniable validity of mathematics,
the inevitable future of our system
and its impending collapse.