Chapter 3.5.

Chapter 3: The Relationship between the Environment and the Economy

3.5. Dialectic between Environment and Economy 　

Traditional environmental and economic theory has been based on the "compatibility of the environment and the economy" as a perspective when attempting to resolve the conflicting and contradictory relationship between the environment and the economy. This is a simple and safe motto that has been widely used, but it is in fact an empty theory. 　

The reason why it is an empty theory is that modern economic activities since the Industrial Revolution, which work on the natural environment and are promoted even if they sometimes destroy it, have to stand in constant conflict and tension with the natural environment. 　 

In the framework of classical economics, the environment is regarded as an external condition of the economy, and environmental destruction is regarded as an external diseconomical event. Then, policy technologies such as emissions trading and environmental taxes (carbon tax) are used to internalize the external diseconomies and alleviate the conflict between the economy and the environment. 　

Compared to the supremacy of economic theory, which underestimates external diseconomies and seeks to protect the superiority of economic activities, this direction is a conscientious attempt to dialectically sublate the economic-environmental antagonism. However, it is impossible to completely internalize the external condition of the environment, which is governed by natural laws, into an economy, and it must always remain an incomplete internalization, which is only partial as a dialectic. 　

Let us change the premise of separating the economy and the environment into an internal/external relationship and assume that human economic activity is just one of the activities carried out within the great condition of the environment. However, this assumption does not automatically eliminate the antagonistic relationship between the environment and the economy. 　

Economic activities motivated by human desires can easily go out beyond the environmental conditions. The destruction of the environment since the Industrial Revolution may be interpreted as such a "phenomenon of environmental externalization of the economy. To overcome such a situation, it is necessary to keep the economy inside the environment. 　

In this respect, economic activity before the industrial revolution was inefficient and undeveloped, relying on human power, and as a result economic activity was inevitably limited to environmental conditions. However, since the Industrial Revolution, the economy has surpassed the environment due to the rapid increase in productivity thanks to the expansionary technological development.

If it is neither possible nor appropriate to reverse the externalization of the economy to the pre-industrial stage of development, the only way to solve this problem is to introduce an environmentally planned economy. An environmentally planned economy, especially an "ecologically sustainable planned economy," is a technique for keeping economic activities within environmental standards, both quantitatively and qualitatively. 　

The environment and the economy are in a perfect dialectical relationship, and economic planning guided by rigorous environmental criteria is the guarantee of that perfection. Conversely, through economic planning, the opposition between the environment and the economy is completely sublated and resolved.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 3.4.

Chapter 3: The Relationship between the Environment and the Economy

3.4. Environment planned economy model

In order to overcome the limitations of classical environmental economics theory, we must move away from the adherence to the market economy assumed by classical environmental economics and shift to a planned economy. However, it is necessary to distinguish between three different models of planned economies: the equilibrium planned economy, the development planned economy, and the environmental planned economy. 　

The first model, the equilibrium planned economy, is a model in which economic activities are developed according to a supply-demand plan for the entire society, aiming to correct the structural distortions caused by the instability of business cycles, inequality in the distribution of goods, and uneven distribution of wealth resulting from the capitalist economy (broadly speaking, a market economy). It is also the most basic form of a planned economy. 　

Such a model is at the base of all planned economy models, but a model to which the objective of increasing productive capacity is added is the development planned economy model. This model is based on a precise economic development plan, and is the model consistently pursued by the former Soviet Union in its attempt to increase productive forces in opposition to capitalism. 　　

The planned economy model of development was similar to the capitalist market economy model in that it aimed to increase productive forces, a rival model if you will, but as is well known, it failed to last for 100 years in the former Soviet Union and allied countries that followed it. 　

This model, having forgotten the equilibrium planned economy model on which it was based, became obsessed with competitive economic development with the capitalist system, which resulted in environmental destruction that outstripped capitalism, and was also defeated in its ultimate goal of increasing productive capacity. 　

What should be newly constructed now as a planned economic model to guarantee ecological sustainability is not such an unsustainable planned economic model of development, but an environmental planned economic model. To divide the terminology here, an environmental planned economy is an "environmental planned-economy" and not an "environmentally-planned economy" model. 　　

This distinction may appear to be a play on words, but it represents a significant substantive difference. As will be discussed in the next section, the formal distinction is that the "environmental planned- economy" refers to a planned economic model that is combined with an environmental component and has environmental protection as its ultimate objective, not to an economy that is externally accompanied by an environmental protection plan. 　

The latter term, "environmentally-planned economy," refers to an economic system that externally incorporates environmental protection programs, as in the case of the United Nations Environment Programme, which is an international organization. Therefore, a market economy with environmental protection programs is also possible. 　

In fact, the current market economy system, which incorporates various environmental measures, can be said to be oriented toward such an "environmentally-programed economy," but it cannot truly guarantee ecological sustainability. 　　

This is where the "environmental planned economy" model comes in, which, while based on the equilibrium planned economy model is a model that has parted company with the development planned economy model of the former Soviet Union and has set environmental protection as its objective rather than economic development. 　

In more detail, the "sustainable planned economy," which is the title of this series, is not limited to the "environmentally conservative planned economy" in which individual environmental conservation measures are reflected in economic planning, but applies environmental criteria from an ecological standpoint to the entire economy.　

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.