Capitalism,
Cooperation and The
Anthropocene
Joshua Farley
Community Development and Applied Economics
Gund Institute for Ecological Economics
University of Vermont
Economies as Evolutionary
Systems
 Hunter gatherer economies (pleistocene)
 Accumulation = death
 Agricultural economies (Holocene)
 Property rights, division of labor, political hierarchy
 Population density, knowledge, and rate of change
Economies as Evolutionary
Systems
 Industrial economics (Dawn of anthropocene)
 Fossil fuels, non-renewables
 Competition
 Growth
 Financial economics (anthropocene)
 Profound change in our lifetimes
 Price from negative to positive feedback loops
 Redistribution
Societal Challenges in the
Anthropocene
Just and sustainable degrowth
Societal Challenges in the
Anthropocene
Marginal market costs
(Market supply curve)
Poor people have no
demand
Market Solutions
 Competition, self-interest and choice
 Preference satisfaction
 Internalize externalities
 Make prices reflect full costs
 Creates incentives for innovation and substitution
 Preferences weighted by purchasing power
 Americans spend 6% of income on food for home consumption;
~1% on raw food
 Many Africans spend 75%; ~ 50% on raw food
 What happens when prices double?
 Prioritize preferences or physiological need?
‘Externalities’ and the
Anthropocene
Prisoner’s Dilemmas
 Global Climate Change
 Natural resource depletion/biodiversity loss
(finite raw material sources, finite services)
 Innovation in the information age
 Cooperation is best solution
Can People Cooperate?
 Stupid question
 Are people good or evil?
 Characteristics of an evil person
 Characteristics of a good person
 Economics, money and cooperation
Bauman Y, Rose E. Selection or indoctrination: Why do economics students donate less than the rest? Journal of Economic
Behavior & Organization. 2011;79(3):318-327.; Frank RH, Gilovich T, Regan DT. Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation?
Journal of Economic Perspectives. 1993;7(2):159-171.; Kirchgässner G. (Why) are economists different? European Journal of
Political Economy. 2005;21(3):543-562; Vohs KD, Mead NL, Goode MR. The Psychological Consequences of Money. Science.
2006 November 17, 2006;314(5802):1154-1156.
Evolution of Cooperation
 Genetic
 Multi-level selection
 Distribution of pro-social behavior
 Bacteria, slime-molds, insects, fish, humans (super
cooperators)
 Oxytocin
 Detecting cheaters
 Cultural
 Altruistic punishment
 Punishing non-punishers
 Group identity
Economics of Cooperation
 Peak oil, food supply and pandemics
 Values maximized at price of zero
 Competitive markets create scarcity (production and
consumption)
 “Energy transitions produce cultural transitions”
 Myxococcus xanthus, Dictyostelium discoideum and the
human predicament
 “Struggle for energy causes violent conflict”
 Cooperation for energy ends violent conflict
Institutions for Cooperation
 Institutions can make generous people act
selfishly, or selfish people act generously
 Reciprocity or payments?
 Social norms: glorify greed or punish it?
Conclusions
 Markets emerged simultaneously with fossil fuels
 Nature of ‘scarce’ resources has changed from rival,
excludable to non-rival and/or non-excludable
 Cannot transform physical characteristics of resources to
fit market model
 Must transform economic system to resource
characteristics, human behavior
 Prisoner’s dilemmas
 Physiological necessities
 Cooperation and common ownership