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guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
Thu Sep 7, 2017, 02:42 PM Sep 2017

The flooded landscape of 21st century capitalism

Some questions from the article:

1) IS THERE reason to believe that global warming made Hurricane Harvey more intense than it would have been?

2) HOW DID capitalist development in Houston make the effects of the storm even worse? Also, there are more than 1,000 people dead in in South Asia--why are the floods like those in Bangladesh, India and Nepal also more deadly?

3) DID GOVERNMENT administrators in Houston know this disaster could happen, but didn't do anything about it because of the cost or pressure from real estate interests?

THE IMPORTANT thing to remember is that this disaster didn't start last week--it happened over decades. That's the real problem.
Last December, there was an article about Houston published by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune called "Boomtown, Floodtown." They document, going back to the 1930s, how flooding has taken place in Houston as a byproduct of development.





To read more:

https://socialistworker.org/2017/09/06/the-flooded-landscape-of-capitalism

Capitalism is all about maximizing profit. If capitalists can avoid the costs of doing business and push those costs on to taxpayers, they will do so. And we will all pay for the externalizing of liabilities in increased spending on disaster relief and remediation.


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guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
2. And capitalists see the bottom picture as "progress" rather than destruction.
Thu Sep 7, 2017, 02:50 PM
Sep 2017

Any unregulated system will allow fro this type of thing. Houston is built on a flood plain and experiences constant large folds. Texas is, in my view, one of the closest things to a Libertarian state that exists in the US.

 

disalitervisum

(470 posts)
3. Disaster capitalism as described by Naomi Klein
Thu Sep 7, 2017, 03:12 PM
Sep 2017

in her book, "The Shock Doctrine. Both artificially induced and natural disasters are used to implement unregulated free-market policies. This is what destroyed progressive society in Latin America starting in the 70's with Chile and continuing to this day in the United States.

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
8. Yes, the dreaded "s" word.
Fri Sep 8, 2017, 06:52 PM
Sep 2017

I find it interesting how workers can defend capitalists. As if there could be any commonality of interest or desires.

socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
11. That's one of the biggest propaganda victories of the bourgeoisie..........
Sun Sep 10, 2017, 11:33 AM
Sep 2017

Convincing workers that they have anything in common with the owners as far as economic interests go.

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
12. Agreed. Even on this site there are some who defend exploitation by the owners and call it the
Sun Sep 10, 2017, 11:51 AM
Sep 2017

inevitable workings of capitalism. But they also have the mainstream, corporate owned media on their side in this.

jalan48

(13,915 posts)
9. Which is why the "jobs and growth" argument is a dead end for humans.
Fri Sep 8, 2017, 06:55 PM
Sep 2017

We need to make a serious change to the current paradigm.

guillaumeb

(42,641 posts)
10. Unregulated growth is called "cancer" when it occurs in an organism.
Fri Sep 8, 2017, 06:57 PM
Sep 2017

And, as some commenters have observed, this seems to be the cancerous stage of capitalism.

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