| What exactly am I wrong about? That capitalism only helps others to the extent that the “help” further concentrates capital? That very often capitalism produces horrible incentives and things like regulatory capture? That very often labor and resources are exploited by Capital in very detrimental ways? Ie, soda companies extracting water for export while local water supplies dry up? That the World Bank essentially shifts definitions of poverty to fit its agenda (what exactly do you mean by poverty? And why are developed counties seeing an increase of people living at or near the poverty line?) I acknowledge that capitalism is part of our evolution as a species, but moving people from extreme poverty to a bit less extreme poverty (plus fancy definition shifting) really should not be our end game. Also unclear when you mean “broadly accepted”? Do you mean the majority of the world practices it? Do you mean the majority of the world has spent time studying economics and history and politics and arrived at a conclusion that Capitialism is working to lift people out of poverty? Do you mean people have been indoctorinated by capitalist power hierarchies and are willing to repeat pro-capitalist narratives? It’s unclear to me what you mean by “broadly accepted”, but it seems clear that it is important to you that you (and others) hold and express opinions that are “broadly accepted” (whatever that means). It’s unclear how to evaluate your claim on broad acceptance, but I looked at Quora to see what answer would democratically rise to the top and found at least the top 2 answers in alignment with my perspective. https://www.quora.com/Has-capitalism-really-lifted-people-ou... |
You're not displaying any willingness to study the basics of the 350 years of scholarship that supports the position that you so strongly disagree with. Believe it or not, I do actually understand the objections to this narrative (and while there are compelling points raised, I just don't think they're powerful enough to overturn the fundamentals), because understanding things means studying both sides in good faith. Factual knowledge does not "democratically rise to the top" of Quora. It's an interesting platform for surfacing alternative points of view and anecdotes, but we're some distance from actual knowledge.