Innovation driven by capitalist competition that accelerates the “treadmill of production,” overconsuming resources and destroying the environment

In this modern dynamic world, innovation coupled with entrepreneurship plays an important part in the field of economic development. In the view of Joseph Alois Schumpeter, "carrying out innovations is the only function which is fundamental in history" (Sledzic p. 89). The historical development of industrialisation was the outcome of growing capital due to the greater prosperity of the western nations. Technological change and innovations were perceived as the guarantee for 'social welfare in general (Gries et al. 2017 in Sazarukki). The capital was used to replace labour with technology for increased production. This increase in industrialisation led to a substantial increase in demand for natural resources. New technologies were being used in introducing these nova industrial processes, which required more energy. With the passage of time, innovations started to swarm upon modern societies, and there began a capitalistic marathon to grab consumers to achieve materialistic gains by providing them with innovative industrial processes and productions. The consequences of these kinds of developments were hazardous in their effect. These activities not only brought about a sudden decrease in natural resources but also polluted the environment on the whole. The modern industrial revolutions generated a new political-economic system labelled as the "treadmill of production" (Schnaiberg 1980b; Schnaiberg & Gould 1994). This political-economic system runs over the rail of expanding industrial production and increasing consumption, as well as the politicised public confluence of private capital, labour, and governments, which is involved in promoting this goal. A remarkable increase in production generated opportunities for further employment, and the service sector seemed to grow more rapidly. Finally, states and their government apparatus increasingly shared a stake and created possibilities to expand the private sector in economic terms. Following these interests and beliefs, private capital, labour, and state interests represented a powerful political force, accelerating the treadmill of industrial production. This industrial process demanded raw material inputs extracted from the ecosystem and added wastes as the by-products of outputs to the ecosystems (pp. 5-6). Thus greater mechanisation resulted in creating more pollution problems. Moreover, intensive capital requires greater material input and demands more energy to run machinery, so a higher level of withdrawal from ecosystems is required. Industrial factories use more chemicals in the production process, adding pollution to the ecosystem. This article manipulates the innovation theory of Joseph. A. Schumpeter, describes the production process under the guise of economic well-being and environmental sociologist Allan Schnaiberg’s theory of treadmill of production forms the argument that production process and overconsumption contribute to environmental pollution and instabilities. The treadmill or production process consists of Stakeholders (workers and citizens) and shareholders (investors and managers). They keep themselves indulged in this process of the treadmill and continue contributing to environmental pollution.