Profit and acceptable rate of growth
by David Haenke

Part 3 of Ecological Economics and Bioregionalism, a cornerstone document for creating a regenerative economy.


Since most economic rhetoric of both the socialist and
capitalist varieties is now meaningless and confusing, much
of it must be dispensed with, or subjected to basic re-definition
through ecology. "Profit" and "growth" are in particular need of
re-evaluation.

Ecologically, all of nature works on a "profit" basis, where
the "profit"--solar surplus--comes from organisms and ecosystems
creating new biological wealth by taking in some form of solar-
derived energy or matter, and using this gain for their benefit,
which they then return to the Earth for redistribution when
they die. Similarly, all human economic enterprises, whether
they be state, private, and all forms in between, also must
create some margin of surplus (which may or may not be called
"profit," and which always comes from biological solar surplus or
other Earth resources) in order to survive.

From the working principles of ecology, we must translate a
new description of the solar-based surplus that is created by any
viable economic enterprise (or any living thing, for that matter)
and how that process fits into the ecosystems in which the enter-
prise is based. For the purpose of discussion, I suggest that
one percent would be a sustainable profit margin and growth rate
for any economic enterprise, corporation, or aggregate economy
complying reasonably to an ecological audit. One percent is the
rate of efficiency by which the process of photosynthesis can fix
solar energy and convert it to biomass. The capacity of photosynthetic
fixation and transformation of solar energy into utilizable biomass is
the basic enabling process of life, and therefore of all natural and human
economies. I suggest that a directly solar-driven one percent is
a rate of growth and "profit" that is sustainable on Earth.

Of course over time even 1% could get out of hand, and thus this contingency
needs be addressed as ecological rules currently require that all entities
on Earth must have reasonable life spans, give up what they
have accumulated in their lifetimes, and this includes corporations. The legal
fiction of corporate immortality has got to be ended. Corporations must
have a reasonable chartered life span, at the end of which, in order to be
re-chartered, they must pass an ecological audit to justify their continued
existence appropriate to whatever current ecological/social contexts
obtain at that time relative to the consensus of what constitutes a healthy
equilibrium.