Can environmental problems be subject to economic calculations?

Abstract

Environmental critiques of unsustainable development are not novel formulations, but rediscoveries of traditional socialist critiques of the capitalist economic system. While the necessity for economic calculations is not in doubt, these should not be undertaken within a capitalist system that divorces the economic from the social, but in a framework that identifies needs prior to production, recognizes the multidimensional nature of humankind, and operates on a global scale.