MIM Notes 188 June 15 1999

CLINTON TAPS ECO-IMPERIALIST FOR CABINET POST

by HC49

Lawrence Summers was recently nominated to replace Robert Rubin as 
U.$. Treasury secretary. Rubin resigned on May 12, because "he had 
finally had enough of the high-powered world of global finance." 
President Clinton said Summers "would take up where Rubin had left 
off" and was "more than ready for the job."(1)

Earlier this decade, Lawrence Summers was the chief economist of 
the U.S.-controlled World Bank. In that role, he wrote an internal 
memo which was leaked to the press. This memo revealed the dumping 
of imperialist-country waste on neocolonized land to be conscious 
imperialist strategy. It also revealed the crass nature of the 
reasoning behind production for profit. It read:

"Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging 
more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Less-Developed 
Countries]? I can think of three reasons:

"(1) The measurement of the costs of health-impairing pollution 
depends on the forgone earnings from increased morbidity and 
mortality. From this point of view a given amount of health-
impairing pollution should be done in the country with the lowest 
cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I think the 
economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-
wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.

"(2) The costs of pollution are likely to be non-linear as the 
initial increments of pollution probably have very low cost. I've 
always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly 
under-polluted; their air quality is probably vastly inefficiently 
low compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City. Only the lamentable 
fact that so much pollution is generated by non-tradable 
industries (transport, electrical generation) and that the unit 
costs of solid waste are so high prevent world-welfare-enhancing 
trade in air pollution and waste.

"(3) The demand for a clean environment for aesthetic and health 
reasons is likely to have very high income-elasticity. The concern 
over an agent that causes a one-in-a-million change in the odds of 
prostate cancer is obviously going to be much higher in a country 
where people survive to get prostate cancer than in a country 
where under-5 mortality is 200 per thousand. Also, much of the 
concern over industrial atmospheric discharge is about visibility-
impairing particulates. These discharges may have very little 
direct health impact. Clearly trade in goods that embody aesthetic 
pollution concerns could be welfare-enhancing. While production is 
mobile the consumption of pretty air is a non-tradable.

"The problem with the arguments against all of these proposals for 
more pollution in LDCs (intrinsic rights to certain goods, moral 
reasons, social concerns, lack of adequate markets, etc.) could be 
turned around and used more or less effectively against every Bank 
proposal for liberalisation."(2) 

The reformist consciousness-raising approach to the question of 
the environment fails to address the problem that it is material 
interest, not a lack of consciousness, which causes imperialists 
to carve up the planet and its resources. Lawrence Summers was 
aware of the "moral reasons [and] social concerns" against his 
proposals, but this didn't stop him from proposing them.

Capitalism is the root cause of the world's environmental 
problems. As long as society is organized for private profit 
instead of for human needs, people like Summers will be rewarded 
with career advancement for their anti-social rantings. 
Environmental solutions which leave capitalism intact cannot be 
expected to resolve the problem of environmental degradation. 
Anti-imperialist revolution with a socialist perspective is needed 
throughout the world to rid the world of the root causes of 
pollution and over-consumption.

However, even more than that is needed. The people who make the 
anti-imperialist and socialist revolutions must also struggle to 
ensure that revolutionary environmentalism is incorporated into 
the struggle. Maoist China and the revolutionary movement led by 
the Communist Party of the Philippines serve as models in this 
regard.

Notes:

1. "Rubin Quits U.S. Treasury, Summers Gets Job", Reuters, 13 May 
1999.

2. The Economist, 8 February 1992, p. 66. The Economist's response 
was similarly disturbing: "The language is crass, even for an 
internal memo. But look at it another way: Mr. Summers is asking 
questions that the World Bank would rather ignore - and, on the 
economics, his points are hard to answer. The Bank should make 
this debate public."

Article edited by MC206.