It is becoming increasingly obvious that free-market capitalism is a lame duck and the danger increases daily of it irrevocably wrecking the planet.

When Karl Marx wrote his Communist Manifesto in 1848 he argued that capitalism, having replaced feudalism, was merely a transitional stage on the path to communism.

It was left to George Orwell in his brilliant 1942 story ‘Animal Farm’ to expose communism and show just how awful a ‘revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat’ would become. But Orwell had no love of capitalism.

Now in 2008, the capitalists (including ‘communist’ China) are in control of nearly the entire world’s economy and we teeter on the edge of economic and environmental collapse. Yet the words ‘socialism’ and ‘state control’ still send a shiver up what passes for a spine in our current politicians.

Nevertheless, governments are expected to do something about global warming and climate change. They know that market forces will not reduce carbon emissions because unless consumers can identify and boycott ‘bad emitters’, or investors have the altruism to avoid trading in ‘dirty’ commodities, the market will carry on regardless.

It’s up to us to give our governments the courage to apply some ‘state control’ to the energy and environment sectors. Think compulsory seatbelts, not driving when drunk, health regulations or smoking in restaurants.

Rules and regulations abound. Most people support the government’s right to impose restrictions on personal or corporate behaviour if it’s in the perceived public interest.

So let’s not be suckered by any bleating from the corporate sector about the carbon tax. A corporation cannot be hurt, only people can. To say that a carbon tax is ‘changing the ground rules’, which therefore gives a corporation a claim for compensation, is avaricious bulldust.

Michael Costa, for one, says quite often that the NSW coal-fired power station operators should be handed public money to cover the cost of meeting tougher emission standards.
Every industry and its dog have been in to warn Penny Wong of the dire consequences of not protecting their particular enterprise from carbon tax pain.

“It’s not our fault,” seems to be the common cry. “It’s you mob who are making the new rules, so you should pay.” Sock it to ’em, I reckon – bring on the state control.

We’ve changed the composition and function of the planet’s atmosphere through a hapless combination of dwindling vegetation and ever-increasing carbon dioxide production and it’s a serious challenge for humanity.

It doesn’t matter what the captains of industry think. They and their investors have more than enough time to restructure their portfolios.

“I vote and I shop,” might make a fair bumper sticker for the future. If we want to keep the power of the state to a bare minimum, it’s up to us to vote for, and give our business to, only those people or organizations that ‘get it’.