Gorbachev on Socialism

Mikhail Gorbachev’s column on the synthesis of capitalism and socialism (“Settled Down, Socialism Settles In,” Commentary, Feb. 24) was an interesting analysis. But like so many other discourses by social and economic pundits from varying political perspectives, he misses the essential underlying point. As long as we base our economic affairs on any variation of a supply-and-demand system (read that short-term supply and greedy demand), we are doomed to long-term economic and ecological collapse.

All of the social and financial ills catalogued by various doomsayers (overpopulation, ozone depletion, bank failures, pollution, rising crime rates, our deteriorating infrastructure, and on and on) are aggravated by one basic fact. We are engaged in a worldwide expansionistic, materialistic binge that digs us deeper and deeper into debt--personally, institutionally, nationally and internationally--while at the same time consuming the Earth’s limited finite resources with little or no consideration of the ultimate consequences.

The distinction between capitalism and socialism is essentially a debate about who does the planning, to what market forces do we respond, who gets the government support and who reaps the materialistic benefits and profits. But no one is addressing the fundamental issues. How much world debt can our economic house of cards tolerate? How long can we continue to squander our planet’s finite resources? How many more people can we add to the planet’s carrying capacity?

As long as we keep living beyond our planetary resources, it matters little whether we call ourselves communists, capitalists, socialists, Republicans or Democrats; we all lose in the long run. Expansionistic economic policies of previous centuries no longer apply to today’s global conditions.

DONALD N. WOOD, Calabasas