We all suffer when harmful industries define progress

What is progress? It depends who you ask

Image by retrorocket licenced through Shutterstock.

What you perceive as progress depends on your perspective. To the logger, progress is cleared land, but to the conservationist it is trees standing tall. The logger is not wrong to want a job that suits their skills and enables them to provide for their family. And the conservationist is not wrong to want to conserve the environment for future generations.

This tug-of-war between self-interest and the public interest is ever present, and maintaining balance is key to everyone not falling over. We know this because we’ve tried the extremes of both.

Communism’s popularity surged during the 19th and 20th centuries as people rallied against the injustices and inequalities of capitalist systems.

Communists rode waves of public discontent with elites who benefited while many were left behind, impoverished and forgotten. They promised to serve the public interest by redistributing wealth and giving power back to the people.

Needless to say communism did not live up to its promise. Wealth was transferred from an elite capitalist few to a revolutionary communist few who simply formed a new elite. The masses continued to suffer, and for many that suffering became even greater.

Many have learned the hard way that communism fails as a political and economic system; politically, because the concentration of power and lack of political pluralism and competition limits accountability and transparency, giving rise to authoritarianism; economically, because state control of production and distribution and the absence of free market competition stifles entrepreneurship, innovation and productivity.

To work well, political and economic systems must be built on an understanding of human behaviour, incentivise the better angels of our nature, and put guardrails in place to prevent its worst excesses — think things like progressive taxation, the separation of powers, a free media and markets, and strong democratic institutions. These are the things that have enabled liberal democracies to thrive with capitalist economies.

It is often said that capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty and underpinned…