Inspired by a comment on Reddit - Using Capitalism as a Solar Punk Advantage (Seriously!)

The original post that inspired this piece was removed by the moderators of the Solarpunk subreddit.  In a nutshell it was a comment about how many in the Solarpunk community are simply not grounded in reality.   

Or at least that was the way I interpreted it.   The original poster could have simply been trolling the group, but before I get into the meat of this opinion piece I need to take a moment and introduce those that are unsure of what Solarpunk is to some of the concepts of it.

Solarpunk is a literary and artistic movement primarily but has grown into a movement that strives for the integration of community, technology and nature.  It's a hopeful future that imagines renewable energy as our primary sources of power; this includes geothermal, wave energy and other sources as well as solar and wind power.  

What I love about the movement is that it encourages action through a variety of means and understands that change, real change, requires actions that are based in the communities themselves.  That there is simply not a "one size fits all solution."

What I dislike about it is that sometimes it is not dealing with the reality of the world that we have now.  

Solarpunk leans toward socialism and anarchy politically and economically and these are terms that scare older folks and I think are generally misunderstood by many who claim to practice them.   Anarchist philosophy for example is a collection of ideas that is as deep and wide as the ocean.   Because of the variety of concepts and ideas that fall under the "Anarchist" umbrella, I'm not going to go into any details here.   To give a broad overview of it however I highly recommend this YouTube video. 

Because of this there is no simple definition of what Anarchy is; and that has lead to confusion even among Anarchists.  This has lead to Anarchists often being portrayed as violent or believing that it's "every man for themselves."   This is far from the truth and Anarchy does have some creative solutions to the world's issues that should be explored.

Socialism is another often misunderstood concept that has a lot of branches and ideas.  Socialism, in some form, is practiced not only the United States (Medicare, Farm Subsidies, Unions) but by many of our allies; and a combination of both Socialism and Capitalism has been highly successful around the world.  This form of socialism has been referred to as Social Democracy and is best known through various forms of universal healthcare, education or pensions for workers upon retirement.

As the image below shows; the markets are free to interact normally as they would in a Capitalist economy but the Government still provides public welfare and regulates the markets to keep some of the more nastier parts of Capitalism (like exploitation of the worker) in check.

Capitalism works if we want to admit it or not; however it has tended to exploit the weak, nature and natural resources.  Which is one of the many reasons that I believe it should be regulated but that's another story.   None of these systems is perfect and all of them have their pros and cons and I could spend years discussing them...but I'm not.

Capitalism in one form or another is the economic plan that we are stuck with.  It's not going to be replaced tomorrow by some magical change of heart nor will we be sitting around the fire signing "Kumbaya My Lord" anytime in the future.

Utopia's are all well in good in fiction, but the day to day struggle to build a better world is always an ongoing one and understanding how those systems work and can be manipulated helps in building a better world.

If capitalism has a weakness, and a strength that can be manipulated, it's the famed Invisible Hand.  Basically the Invisible Hand is a metaphor for the unseen and various forces that run the economy. Or to put it another way, the Invisible Hand basically is the belief that through individual self interest and freedom of production and consumption the best interests of society will be served. 

Let's use a real world example, such as the growth of vegetarianism, to show how Capitalism can be manipulated to create a better world.  

Since 2020, roughly 10 - 15% of all Americans are identifying as vegan/vegetarian.   In the 1990's it was less than 5%.  Many people are eating anywhere from 3 - 9 vegetarian dishes a week without identifying as vegetarian, they just want to cut down on their meat consumption.

So what changed? The biggest change was a growing recognition that human activity was affecting global warming.  One of the ways to take direct action was to become a vegan/vegetarian.  Concerns about animal welfare, factory farming practices and genetically modified food, as well as the lock down due to Covid all affected how the average American viewed food.

This change in diet has affected how food is served in the US.  At one time it was near impossible to find any vegan/vegetarian dishes on a local menu.  Today, it's rare not to find at least a few items on a menu clearly marked as such.

The global vegetarian market is expected to grow by 10.8 Billion dollars.  The plant based meat market is worth 1.4 billion dollars today.  This market has experienced rapid growth in just the last few years.

Now how has this helped society?  The growth of plant based diets have cut back on groundwater use, soil degradation, CO2 production and a host of other things which have improved our overall condition.

In other words the demand for vegan/vegetarian products has served two purposes.  The individual's self interest for better health or environmental protection lead to the expansion of new markets which in turn lead to reductions in CO2 production as plant based food replaced animal products.  

The demand for hybrid and electric cars by consumers concerned about high gas prices, the environment and global warming has resulted in new products, research into alternative fuels and how to obtain  higher gas mileage as well as new electric vehicles.  The same could be said for green power like wind and solar.  

Yes, there are still problems as lithium and cobalt mining are energy intensive and can be environmentally destructive.  Once again though, if the public - acting in their interests - demand regulations for this type of mining, then the environmental damage can be kept at a minimum.  

In other words the Invisible Hand is at the mercy of the collective self interest.  If you want a better world then you demand products that are easy to fix and maintain so they last longer.   You demand simple recycling procedures.  You put your money where your mouth is and the markets will respond in turn and create these products for you.

Again, I'm not a fan of Capitalism and am all too familiar with its exploitation of both humans and nature.  However we have to be realists.  This is the system we have.  We can work using our collective self interest to create a better world and the markets will respond to that.

Capitalism and Solarpunk ethos can indeed work together.  We, as a collective of self - interested humans, just have to be smart about how we use that power of the invisible hand.