Great article, I do think it is important to set the definitions in the beginning as you did! However, I do kindly disagree on your view of free-markets, cryptos and the use of clean energy.
Yes, in our current system, often we tend to support short term investments. This means that every clean energy solution should keep this in mind! If you make it cheaper to store energy, make it possible for people to make more revenue by selling the energy they produce and make it simple to use, the market will answer favourably.
Of course it is easier said than done but if we take a look at a few companies:
Energiestro : a French startup has been able to store energy at a fraction of the cost of lithium batteries using kinetic energy to store the surplus produced by solar panels and concrete:
Crypto-energy companies such as Power Ledger or Vlux are seeking to create microgrids where communities will be able to trade energy. Therefore avoiding the 6% loss you mentioned above and make more bang for the buck on the sell side and a better bargain on the buy side.
Moreover, although extremely late, many countries - especially islands i.e. the most vulnerable ones - are investing hefty amounts to go 100% renewable. So, yes our focus on short term profit is a huge hindrance but that doesn't mean that switching to clean energy is out of reach - we (just) have to make it profitable.
Other than that, I can't wait for the whole series!
if you dont understand what im talking about this short book goes over it in detail with statistics and historical examples, although it is a little old and the system has become more complex since then.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/
I will give it a try because I like to understand different point of views. However, I believe capitalism has its benefits and that there is a reason there hasn't been a viable communist / marxist regime per se - at least not that I know of.
Also, capitalism as we know it is facing a sea-change as the profit margins that we know are being attacked by different startups and technologies - such as blockchain.
"wow thats a really bad idea. This will just lead to increased electricity production and market crashes." not so sure about that, it will increase renewable energy production that will be cheaper than today's price. it will change the current way we do things and might even shake the foundations of our current system but capitalism can adapt!
I will post something - today or tomorrow - about the Blokchain technology's potential benefits.
Thanks for the reply, keep up the good work!
"Also, capitalism as we know it is facing a sea-change as the profit margins that we know are being attacked by different startups and technologies - such as blockchain."
capitalism must always search for new markets to stay in existence. Blockchains are based on the concept of exchange of money and not of production. Human labor is what produces all value, and all profits can only come from what is taken from the labor of workers. Every increase in profit is making that slice even thinner. Markets collapse when that slice gets too small, for either side.
super profits are based on using imperialism to force extremely low wages on people in one part of the world, for the needed profit to keep investment alive, and then moving that profit to the "first world" in an effort to keep a supply of workers that are also able to spend their wages to keep the economy going.
(It also makes imperialism easier, when you have raw resources and more complicated production separate)
"communist / marxist regime per se - at least not that I know of."
Based on what you said there, I don't think you have an understanding of what communism or marxism are. Marxism is a set of economic theories mainly based on understanding capitalism, and not a system itself. (It is a system in the negative sense, as it seeks to abolish what exists today.)
Communism is worker control of the means of production. I have a feeling most places you are thinking of, like Soviet Russia, were based on the ideals of what I would call "state socialism". The idea that using capitalist political structures will allow communists to keep power over the capitalists (sounds like a real smart idea, lol).
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-anarchy-works
actually there have been a ton that work.
If it didn't work why would the US try its hardest to intervene with every country that tried it?
That's one of the easiest red-flags for people to be able to spot. If you're looking for something that works, look through the miles-long lists of things the government has made illegal.
"Crypto-energy companies such as Power Ledger or Vlux are seeking to create microgrids where communities will be able to trade energy. "
wow thats a really bad idea. This will just lead to increased electricity production and market crashes. There is a reason the gov takes control of specific markets. The gov controlling capitalism is the reason capitalism still exist today.
Super-profits are needed to keep capitalism from collapse, that is what monopolies serve to do (especially the ones based on imperialism). The most powerful force under capitalism is investment, and through that the accumulation of capital. Anything that effects this accumulation must be controlled for a country to succeed under capitalism, because it is based on contradictions that will lead it to destroy itself.
imperalism is the highest stage of capitalism.
Capitalism cannot function without sufficient inefficiency and profit margins.
Capital accumulation means that short-term profit will eventually control all of markets under all but t he most extreme conditions. It's not just a "focus" its the literal base of capitalism