[Graeme]

Russia: Why We Are Leaving Our Country Behind

The issue of massive Russian emigration is more than a century old. In the past, several waves of emigration deprived the country of millions of qualified workers, scientists and writers. Emigration from Russia has never stopped since then. Even with the improving economic situation in recent years, a good number of Russians still dream about leaving the country.

Russian newspaper Novaya gazeta reported [ru] that in a recent poll, 22 percent of adults (mainly businessmen and students) had expressed their willingness to leave Russia for good. The newspaper also cited an “official number” of 1.3 million scientists and engineers who left the country in “recent years.”

“Russia is evil”

“Russia is evil in its pure unalloyed form,” began the blog post of well-known Russian author and now emigrant Yuri Nesternko who got political asylum in the United States. Written at the end of 2010, Nesterenko's now famous article [ru] called “Exodus” struck close to the hearts of many Russian bloggers.

Having quickly become a must-read for pro- and anti-emigration factions alike, Nesterenko's post is a cry of frustration of someone who tried to live in Russia but could never bear its realities.

globalvoicesonline

[americandream]

Russia: Why We Are Leaving Our Country Behind

The issue of massive Russian emigration is more than a century old. In the past, several waves of emigration deprived the country of millions of qualified workers, scientists and writers. Emigration from Russia has never stopped since then. Even with the improving economic situation in recent years, a good number of Russians still dream about leaving the country.

Russian newspaper Novaya gazeta reported [ru] that in a recent poll, 22 percent of adults (mainly businessmen and students) had expressed their willingness to leave Russia for good. The newspaper also cited an “official number” of 1.3 million scientists and engineers who left the country in “recent years.”

“Russia is evil”

“Russia is evil in its pure unalloyed form,” began the blog post of well-known Russian author and now emigrant Yuri Nesternko who got political asylum in the United States. Written at the end of 2010, Nesterenko's now famous article [ru] called “Exodus” struck close to the hearts of many Russian bloggers.

Having quickly become a must-read for pro- and anti-emigration factions alike, Nesterenko's post is a cry of frustration of someone who tried to live in Russia but could never bear its realities.

globalvoicesonline

The Russian Federation will be broken up. The capitalist cannot abide anything that reminds him of the socialist threat. Now it's evil (whatever that means! Chavez is probably the devil and Castro his father. )

In the meantime, algae will save the markets.

[prajeshbhat]

Leaving your home land in search of a better life is nothing new. That's basically how america was formed. Emigration rates in Russia are extreme. But now people are talking about leaving USA too. Here is an article from Orlov Blog.:
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2010/11/americathe-grim-truth.html

America—The Grim Truth


Americans, I have some bad news for you:

You have the worst quality of life in the developed world—by a wide margin.

If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average Australian or Singaporean taxi driver has a much better standard of living than the typical American white-collar worker.

I know this because I am an American, and I escaped from the prison you call home.

I have lived all around the world, in wealthy countries and poor ones, and there is only one country I would never consider living in again: The United States of America. The mere thought of it fills me with dread.

Consider this: you are the only people in the developed world without a single-payer health system. Everyone in Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand has a single-payer system. If they get sick, they can devote all their energies to getting well. If you get sick, you have to battle two things at once: your illness and the fear of financial ruin. Millions of Americans go bankrupt every year due to medical bills, and tens of thousands die each year because they have no insurance or insufficient insurance. And don’t believe for a second that rot about America having the world’s best medical care or the shortest waiting lists: I’ve been to hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Singapore, and Thailand, and every one was better than the “good” hospital I used to go to back home. The waits were shorter, the facilities more comfortable, and the doctors just as good.

This is ironic, because you need a good health system more than anyone else in the world. Why? Because your lifestyle is almost designed to make you sick.

Let’s start with your diet: Much of the beef you eat has been exposed to fecal matter in processing. Your chicken is contaminated with salmonella. Your stock animals and poultry are pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics. In most other countries, the government would act to protect consumers from this sort of thing; in the United States, the government is bought off by industry to prevent any effective regulations or inspections. In a few years, the majority of all the produce for sale in the United States will be from genetically modified crops, thanks to the cozy relationship between Monsanto Corporation and the United States government. Worse still, due to the vast quantities of high-fructose corn syrup Americans consume, fully one-third of children born in the United States today will be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives.

Of course, it’s not just the food that’s killing you, it’s the drugs. If you show any sign of life when you’re young, they’ll put you on Ritalin. Then, when you get old enough to take a good look around, you’ll get depressed, so they’ll give you Prozac. If you’re a man, this will render you chemically impotent, so you’ll need Viagra to get it up. Meanwhile, your steady diet of trans-fat-laden food is guaranteed to give you high cholesterol, so you’ll get a prescription for Lipitor. Finally, at the end of the day, you’ll lay awake at night worrying about losing your health plan, so you’ll need Lunesta to go to sleep.

With a diet guaranteed to make you sick and a health system designed to make sure you stay that way, what you really need is a long vacation somewhere. Unfortunately, you probably can’t take one. I’ll let you in on little secret: if you go to the beaches of Thailand, the mountains of Nepal, or the coral reefs of Australia, you’ll probably be the only American in sight. And you’ll be surrounded crowds of happy Germans, French, Italians, Israelis, Scandinavians and wealthy Asians. Why? Because they’re paid well enough to afford to visit these places AND they can take vacations long enough to do so. Even if you could scrape together enough money to go to one of these incredible places, by the time you recovered from your jetlag, it would time to get on a plane and rush back to your job.

If you think I’m making this up, check the stats on average annual vacation days by country:

Finland: 44
Italy: 42
France: 39
Germany: 35
UK: 25
Japan: 18
USA: 12

The fact is, they work you like dogs in the United States. This should come as no surprise: the United States never got away from the plantation/sweat shop labor model and any real labor movement was brutally suppressed. Unless you happen to be a member of the ownership class, your options are pretty much limited to barely surviving on service-sector wages or playing musical chairs for a spot in a cubicle (a spot that will be outsourced to India next week anyway). The very best you can hope for is to get a professional degree and then milk the system for a slice of the middle-class pie. And even those who claw their way into the middle class are but one illness or job loss away from poverty. Your jobs aren’t secure. Your company has no loyalty to you. They’ll play you off against your coworkers for as long as it suits them, then they’ll get rid of you.

Of course, you don’t have any choice in the matter: the system is designed this way. In most countries in the developed world, higher education is either free or heavily subsidized; in the United States, a university degree can set you back over US$100,000. Thus, you enter the working world with a crushing debt. Forget about taking a year off to travel the world and find yourself – you’ve got to start working or watch your credit rating plummet.

If you’re “lucky,” you might even land a job good enough to qualify you for a home loan. And then you’ll spend half your working life just paying the interest on the loan – welcome to the world of American debt slavery. America has the illusion of great wealth because there’s a lot of “stuff” around, but who really owns it? In real terms, the average American is poorer than the poorest ghetto dweller in Manila, because at least they have no debts. If they want to pack up and leave, they can; if you want to leave, you can’t, because you’ve got debts to pay.

All this begs the question: Why would anyone put up with this? Ask any American and you’ll get the same answer: because America is the freest country on earth. If you believe this, I’ve got some more bad news for you: America is actually among the least free countries on earth. Your piss is tested, your emails and phone calls are monitored, your medical records are gathered, and you are never more than one stray comment away from writhing on the ground with two Taser prongs in your ass.

And that’s just physical freedom. Mentally, you are truly imprisoned. You don’t even know the degree to which you are tormented by fears of medical bankruptcy, job loss, homelessness and violent crime because you’ve never lived in a country where there is no need to worry about such things.

But it goes much deeper than mere surveillance and anxiety. The fact is, you are not free because your country has been taken over and occupied by another government. Fully 70% of your tax dollars go to the Pentagon, and the Pentagon is the real government of the United States. You are required under pain of death to pay taxes to this occupying government. If you’re from the less fortunate classes, you are also required to serve and die in their endless wars, or send your sons and daughters to do so. You have no choice in the matter: there is a socioeconomic draft system in the United States that provides a steady stream of cannon fodder for the military.

If you call a life of surveillance, anxiety and ceaseless toil in the service of a government you didn’t elect “freedom,” then you and I have a very different idea of what that word means.

If there was some chance that the country could be changed, there might be reason for hope. But can you honestly look around and conclude that anything is going to change? Where would the change come from? The people? Take a good look at your compatriots: the working class in the United States has been brutally propagandized by jackals like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. Members of the working class have been taught to lick the boots of their masters and then bend over for another kick in the ass. They’ve got these people so well trained that they’ll take up arms against the other half of the working class as soon as their masters give the word.

If the people cannot make a change, how about the media? Not a chance. From Fox News to the New York Times, the mass media in the United States is nothing but the public relations wing of the corporatocracy, primarily the military industrial complex. At least the citizens of the former Soviet Union knew that their news was bullshit. In America, you grow up thinking you’ve got a free media, which makes the propaganda doubly effective. If you don’t think American media is mere corporate propaganda, ask yourself the following question: have you ever heard a major American news outlet suggest that the country could fund a single-payer health system by cutting military spending?

If change can’t come from the people or the media, the only other potential source of change would be the politicians. Unfortunately, the American political process is among the most corrupt in the world. In every country on earth, one expects politicians to take bribes from the rich. But this generally happens in secret, behind the closed doors of their elite clubs. In the United States, this sort of political corruption is done in broad daylight, as part of legal, accepted, standard operating procedure. In the United States, they merely call these bribes campaign donations, political action committees and lobbyists. One can no more expect the politicians to change this system than one can expect a man to take an axe and chop his own legs out from underneath him.

No, the United States of America is not going to change for the better. The only change will be for the worse. And when I say worse, I mean much worse. As we speak, the economic system that sustained the country during the post-war years is collapsing. The United States maxed out its “credit card” sometime in 2008 and now its lenders, starting with China, are in the process of laying the foundations for a new monetary system to replace the Anglo-American “petro-dollar” system. As soon as there is a viable alternative to the US dollar, the greenback will sink like a stone.

While the United States was running up crushing levels of debt, it was also busy shipping its manufacturing jobs and white-collar jobs overseas, and letting its infrastructure fall to pieces. Meanwhile, Asian and European countries were investing in education, infrastructure and raw materials. Even if the United States tried to rebuild a real economy (as opposed to a service/financial economy) do think American workers would ever be able to compete with the workers of China or Europe? Have you ever seen a Japanese or German factory? Have you ever met a Singaporean or Chinese worker?

There are only two possible futures facing the United States, and neither one is pretty. The best case is a slow but orderly decline – essentially a continuation of what’s been happening for the last two decades. Wages will drop, unemployment will rise, Medicare and Social Security benefits will be slashed, the currency will decline in value, and the disparity of wealth will spiral out of control until the United States starts to resemble Mexico or the Philippines – tiny islands of wealth surrounded by great poverty (the country is already halfway there).

Equally likely is a sudden collapse, perhaps brought about by a rapid flight from the US dollar by creditor nations like China, Japan, Korea and the OPEC nations. A related possibility would be a default by the United States government on its vast debt. One look at the financial balance sheet of the US government should convince you how likely this is: governmental spending is skyrocketing and tax receipts are plummeting – something has to give. If either of these scenarios plays out, the resulting depression will make the present recession look like a walk in the park.

Whether the collapse is gradual or gut-wrenchingly sudden, the results will be chaos, civil strife and fascism. Let’s face it: the United States is like the former Yugoslavia – a collection of mutually antagonistic cultures united in name only. You’ve got your own version of the Taliban: right-wing Christian fundamentalists who actively loathe the idea of secular Constitutional government. You’ve got a vast intellectual underclass that has spent the last few decades soaking up Fox News and talk radio propaganda, eager to blame the collapse on Democrats, gays and immigrants. You’ve got a ruthless ownership class that will use all the means at its disposal to protect its wealth from the starving masses.

On top of all that you’ve got vast factory farms, sprawling suburbs and a truck-based shipping system, all of it entirely dependent on oil that is about to become completely unaffordable. And you’ve got guns. Lots of guns. In short: the United States is about to become a very unwholesome place to be.

Right now, the government is building fences and walls along its northern and southern borders. Right now, the government is working on a national ID system (soon to be fitted with biometric features). Right now, the government is building a surveillance state so extensive that they will be able to follow your every move, online, in the street and across borders. If you think this is just to protect you from “terrorists,” then you’re sadly mistaken. Once the shit really hits the fan, do you really think you’ll just be able to jump into the old station wagon, drive across the Canadian border and spend the rest of your days fishing and drinking Molson? No, the government is going to lock the place down. They don’t want their tax base escaping. They don’t want their “recruits” escaping. They don’t want YOU escaping.

I am not writing this to scare you. I write this to you as a friend. If you are able to read and understand what I’ve written here, then you are a member of a small minority in the United States. You are a minority in a country that has no place for you.

So what should you do?

You should leave the United States of America.

If you’re young, you’ve got plenty of choices: you can teach English in the Middle East, Asia or Europe. Or you can go to university or graduate school abroad and start building skills that will qualify you for a work visa. If you’ve already got some real work skills, you can apply to emigrate to any number of countries as a skilled immigrant. If you are older and you’ve got some savings, you can retire to a place like Costa Rica or the Philippines. If you can’t qualify for a work, student or retirement visa, don’t let that stop you – travel on a tourist visa to a country that appeals to you and talk to the expats you meet there. Whatever you do, go speak to an immigration lawyer as soon as you can. Find out exactly how to get on a path that will lead to permanent residence and eventually citizenship in the country of your choice.

You will not be alone. There are millions of Americans just like me living outside the United States. Living lives much more fulfilling, peaceful, free and abundant than we ever could have attained back home. Some of us happened upon these lives by accident – we tried a year abroad and found that we liked it – others made a conscious decision to pack up and leave for good. You’ll find us in Canada, all over Europe, in many parts of Asia, in Australia and New Zealand, and in most other countries of the globe. Do we miss our friends and family? Yes. Do we occasionally miss aspects of our former country? Yes. Do we plan on ever living again in the United States? Never. And those of us with permanent residence or citizenship can sponsor family members from back home for long-term visas in our adopted countries.

In closing, I want to remind you of something: unless you are an American Indian or a descendant of slaves, at some point your ancestors chose to leave their homeland in search of a better life. They weren’t traitors and they weren’t bad people, they just wanted a better life for themselves and their families. Isn’t it time that you continue their journey?

[Graeme]

Prajeshbhat. Excellent post. You talk about emigrating from America, health care, vacations, employment, privacy, the economy, freedom to travel. All of these are political issues. Obviously those people who want to emigrate, believe that life in the country they are going to will be better, and they think that their political system cannot be changed. Is the latter really true? Is there an overriding issue that will compel people to move? Employment? Corruption? Healthcare? Despair?

[Sixstrings]

I think Russians are still emigrating because they have such a long generational memory of being cut off from the world. What I find interesting is that Russians make such darn good capitalists. I've known a few Russian / Ukrainian immigrants.. not a one of them was liberal. All were very consumerist, Republican, entrepreneurial. And happy as a pig in a poke to be in America.

Look at EnergyUnlimited.. bless his Polish heart, he's like an Ayn Rand. So many years of communism flipped these folks to the opposite extreme.

[prajeshbhat]

Prajeshbhat. Excellent post. You talk about emigrating from America, health care, vacations, employment, privacy, the economy, freedom to travel. All of these are political issues. Obviously those people who want to emigrate, believe that life in the country they are going to will be better, and they think that their political system cannot be changed. Is the latter really true? Is there an overriding issue that will compel people to move? Employment? Corruption? Healthcare? Despair?

Everyone will not leave. But certainly a lot of well educated people are looking for employment abroad. And I am not talking about London or Paris or Sydney. Nowadays it is Bangalore or Beijing or Buenos Aires.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12098123/ns/business-personal_finance/t/americans-seeking-jobs-booming-bangalore/#.Tl8I3Wqvdsg

Healthcare? Not so sure. Retirees may leave for Europe so that they have access to good healthcare in their retirement years. But I don't think young people will leave for Healthcare alone. Although I have read about small American firms that are relocating to Europe because employees in Europe have better healthcare (who wants sick employees worried to death about their healthcare expenditure?).

Corruption? I guess every country has corrupt politicians. Corruption is not a 21st century invention. But what we've seen in Washington and Wall Street in the past one decade is unprecedented. People rant about a few thousand or even a few million dollars that the third world politicians ask in bribes. But Donald Rumsfeld admitted that $2.3 trillion went missing from Pentagon and nobody bats an eyelid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rRqeJcuK-A&feature=related

Despair? I think that is still a few decades away. That usually happens in third world countries and dictatorial regimes. But yes. Intolerable cruelty from the government and rich elites is a reason for people to flee.

[argyle]

@ prajeshbhat : nice post!

[Sixstrings]

Leaving your home land in search of a better life is nothing new. That's basically how america was formed. Emigration rates in Russia are extreme. But now people are talking about leaving USA too. Here is an article from Orlov Blog.:
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2010/11/americathe-grim-truth.html

Americans, I have some bad news for you:

You have the worst quality of life in the developed world—by a wide margin.

This is why I started a thread about emigrating.. not me personally, but in general, I think at this point a fresh bright eyed college grad would serve himself and his descendants well by just moving to Australia and never looking back. Let the oligarchs and Republican fundamentalist whackjobs have the place.

[radon]

Russia is one of the biggest immigration recipients in the world, by the way.

With regard to the OP's article - this is nothing new. That kind of people often play the "evil Russia" card to get attention, salary or grants. Everyone should be tired of them by now.

Interestingly, one of the recent emigration trends in Russia is the Russian Far East retirees moving to China where the Russian state pensions can afford them decent living. Plus they may have rental income from their principal residence in Russia. China is just so much cheaper. So far.

[Serial_Worrier]

This is why I started a thread about emigrating.. not me personally, but in general, I think at this point a fresh bright eyed college grad would serve himself and his descendants well by just moving to Australia and never looking back. Let the oligarchs and Republican fundamentalist whackjobs have the place.

Australia is already in severe water shortage. I can't see them taking in millions of Americans.

[Serial_Worrier]

Look at EnergyUnlimited.. bless his Polish heart, he's like an Ayn Rand. So many years of communism flipped these folks to the opposite extreme.

That's because those folks know what real communism is. Spoiled brats like yourself want to try some out. Why don't you just move to North Korea to get the pure, unadulterated form of it?

[americandream]

I think Russians are still emigrating because they have such a long generational memory of being cut off from the world. What I find interesting is that Russians make such darn good capitalists. I've known a few Russian / Ukrainian immigrants.. not a one of them was liberal. All were very consumerist, Republican, entrepreneurial. And happy as a pig in a poke to be in America.

Look at EnergyUnlimited.. bless his Polish heart, he's like an Ayn Rand. So many years of communism flipped these folks to the opposite extreme.

The experiences in Afghanistan were the final nail in the coffin of internationalism for them. The Islamic terrorists took to the communists with a real zeal (led by bin Laden of the rich Saudi corrupt family very friendly with Bush variety.) I have met a good few Russians who (unlike energy unlimited) believe that Communism was superior culturally, intellectually and on so many levels as they were largely more self disciplined and less barbaric/selfish/greedy/decadent but almost all to a man also believed that we aren't ready for it (may never be). Islam and its popularity amongst the labouring muslim classes for one and of course, the popularity of other forms of godliness elsewhere amongst workers including their own Orthodoxicism as well as the snake charming (speaking in tongues) brand of fundamentalism prevalent amongst many of the poor in America.

There was a very strong element of reaction in the communist states. Right from the word go. Which is why it will never work where there is surplus. If there is the capacity to make a fast buck, a trader will rise up to fill that vacant space...another reason why so many billionaires/millionaires flourished with Russian state property which was essentially stolen.

[Timo]

ad, well thought-out post. The problems that "communist" countries have had have much less to do with the application of that particular economic model, and much more to do with the political imposition of that model on their entire populations. It's important to distinguish between the two. Russia aside, i think a very good example to look at is Cuba. Sure, Castro has held the population in a political stanglehold since the beginning, and my point has absolutely nothing to do with human rights violations and the elimination of political freedoms there, but economically, they've been forced into a self-sustaining culture for the past 50 years. Their economy has survived to the degree necessary to support its population without producing excess surpluses of commodities (except maybe cigars). Zero illiteracy. 100% health care coverage (not the best tech, but still 100% coverage). Don't think that i'm singing the Cuban National Anthem, but it is a very good example of how a communistic model can work. Heck, look at China, for that matter. Communist? Yes. World's largest economy? Almost. I guess my point is that every single economic and political "ism" out there is not perfect. The achilles heel of every system out there is that they're all run by humans. 'Nuff said.

[americandream]

ad, well thought-out post. The problems that "communist" countries have had have much less to do with the application of that particular economic model, and much more to do with the political imposition of that model on their entire populations. It's important to distinguish between the two. Russia aside, i think a very good example to look at is Cuba. Sure, Castro has held the population in a political stanglehold since the beginning, and my point has absolutely nothing to do with human rights violations and the elimination of political freedoms there, but economically, they've been forced into a self-sustaining culture for the past 50 years. Their economy has survived to the degree necessary to support its population without producing excess surpluses of commodities (except maybe cigars). Zero illiteracy. 100% health care coverage (not the best tech, but still 100% coverage). Don't think that i'm singing the Cuban National Anthem, but it is a very good example of how a communistic model can work. Heck, look at China, for that matter. Communist? Yes. World's largest economy? Almost. I guess my point is that every single economic and political "ism" out there is not perfect. The achilles heel of every system out there is that they're all run by humans. 'Nuff said.

True Timo. Marx was a curious character. Interpretations of his works are so off the mark by many who call themselves Marxists or leftists, it's hard to know where to start. He viewed the bourgeoisie and the rise of capitalism as a positive development on our previous endeavours where harsh brutality and lack of innovation had kept us in a cultural aspic. However, he also noted that the very innovation and radical political bent of the bourgeoisie (who after all toppled the narrow hereditary privilege of the nobility) would also work against them to render them reactionary as they essentially rose to impose a new order of entrenched privilege. WITHIN this he noted that the conditions would arise for labour to transform its world, an innovative world, to the advantage of the common. Of course, he also noted that there was an equal likelihood that there wold be a reversion to a crude barbarism. His point however, was that these transitions would be organic and natural. Any attempt to impose communism WOULD FAIL for not being dialectic in its flow. There a certain elegance in the notion that systems transition to their antithetical forms, and of course the example of fuedalism's transition to capital in Europe offers a good example. However, we must never forget that the antithesis of ordered bourgeoisie individualism is either of a collective variety or a complete breakdown in that order. It all depends on the political consciousness that emerges and that process is supremely democratic. A paradox indeed.

[Timo]

No offense ad, but that is precisely how i remember Marx being explained to me back in high school government class. What was true then is still true today. At least i think it's true. I did go to public school.

[americandream]

No offense ad, but that is precisely how i remember Marx being explained to me back in high school government class. What was true then is still true today. At least i think it's true. I did go to public school.

You're very fortunate. The thinking by and large about Marxism is that it has an ethical bias which is where it has failed to reach out to the masses. Whereas it is nothing of the sort. The whole basis behind Marx's objectivism was to explain the likely direction of capital given the sorts of tendencies that MUST arise when material conditions follow a particular path.

If society can at some stage learn to debate capitalism clinically and dispassionately without falling into distractions such as the rights and wrongs of what capitalists do, we will have taken a huge step forward to resolving they crisis of the way we use and abuse resources, including our planet.

[kublikhan]

I have met a good few Russians who (unlike energy unlimited) believe that Communism was superior culturally, intellectually and on so many levels as they were largely more self disciplined and less barbaric/selfish/greedy/decadent but almost all to a man also believed that we aren't ready for it (may never be).

I have constantly pointed out in my numerous posts on here over the years that communism cannot be imposed. It will rise organically (or not as the case may be.)

If society can at some stage learn to debate capitalism clinically and dispassionately without falling into distractions such as the rights and wrongs of what capitalists do, we will have taken a huge step forward to resolving they crisis of the way we use and abuse resources, including our planet.

If humanity will never be ready for communism, yet we are abusing our resources and planet under capitalism, what sort of economic system would you impose(or reform) if you were given the power to do so?

[americandream]

I have met a good few Russians who (unlike energy unlimited) believe that Communism was superior culturally, intellectually and on so many levels as they were largely more self disciplined and less barbaric/selfish/greedy/decadent but almost all to a man also believed that we aren't ready for it (may never be).

I have constantly pointed out in my numerous posts on here over the years that communism cannot be imposed. It will rise organically (or not as the case may be.)

If society can at some stage learn to debate capitalism clinically and dispassionately without falling into distractions such as the rights and wrongs of what capitalists do, we will have taken a huge step forward to resolving they crisis of the way we use and abuse resources, including our planet.

If humanity will never be ready for communism, yet we are abusing our resources and planet under capitalism, what sort of economic system would you impose(or reform) if you were given the power to do so?

I would first remove JIT consumerism. Modernity has been a real advance for humankind, but to then transform it into conveyeyor belt consumerism of our finite resources is plain old dumb. One would have to be an utter idiot to believe that we could deeply extend this model into China and India let alone the rest of the world.

As for recycling resources already in the JIT cycle, introducing renewable energy and thereby turning capitalism into a closed loop. Where I ask would there be the profit for the capitalist in both assembling a product for exchange and then dismantling it for recycling let alone the profit or lack of it in a unit of renewable energy compared to oil, as renewables are presently configured? The sums don't add up.

Should we instead socialise the cost of recycling and renewables development. Where would that money come from given the pressures currently in place for maximising said profit by removing taxes? As the number of capitalists increase along with the consumer base, the pool of profits will initially plateau before falling so the pressure for tax reductions will be relentless.

The only way that capital can be made sustainable is, and I repeat this many times on here:

Viable mining of other planets (this could give rise to the sorts of surpluses that enable us to socialise recycling and pollution and fine tune renewables).

I don't see this happening for a long while as the sheer magnitude of the space fleet technology will require some other form of propulsion and more robust rocket fabrication than we at present are capable of. Resourcing will eventually be a problem even in a non capital modernity, so we need to buy some time to research this issue and for that, we need to use whats left wisely, without substantially damaging a civilised standard of living.

With this will have to go a global culture that elevates our thinking beyond short term gain. Religion has to go as it inculcates the sort of reasoning that then falls foul to simplistic solutions. (Look at some of the posts on here.)

We cannot do this in the nation state model or even in globalised capitalism. It has to be a global effort which is a not JIT modernity, one designed to advance the existing modernity and the sum of humanity with a view to one day being able to leave our planet...that will be on the cards in due course no matter what and has to be a Manhattan scale project.