[ktaylora]

The faith part comes from interpreting the economic results of capitalism. Do you accept it as a useful economic system given all the problems you see with it? Are you willing to entertain the possibility of alternatives? If not, why?

[eeZah7Ux]

It takes a lot of faith to overlook the many impending environmental disasters.

Many also cling to the false dichotomy between capitalism and "soviet russia / north korea / venezuela"

[WalterBright]

> It takes a lot of faith to overlook the many impending environmental disasters.

Capitalism is the only hope of fending off environmental disaster, because it is the only system capable of producing the surplus needed to deal with it. When people are starving, they lose all interest in anything but their next meal, regardless of how they get it.

For example, the US was the first to clean up its waterways, and this is because the surplus generated by capitalism made it fairly easy.

[dieterrams2]

You’re crediting capitalism with solving the very problems it created.

[megaman821]

What economic system produces no waste or pollution?

[WalterBright]

All human societies produce pollution, going back to the very beginning. In fact, archaeologists love to study ancient trash heaps.

[eeZah7Ux]

The amount of pollution per person varies wildly. Some societies were perfectly sustainable.

Among the most capitalistic and consumerist societies (e.g. US) the pollution is staggering.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_consumption

[WalterBright]

> The faith part comes from interpreting the economic results of capitalism

Interpreting results comes from evidence, not faith. One constructs a theory based on evidence. One tests the theory by seeing if future evidence behaves like the theory suggests.

Religion isn't like that, it does not predict things in a way that is testable. Creationism, for example, makes zero predictions and so is not at all testable, making it a faith, not science.

> Do you accept it as a useful economic system given all the problems you see with it?

Yes. Without question. Look around you - all the goodies you have were created by capitalism.

> Are you willing to entertain the possibility of alternatives? If not, why?

All the alternatives proposed have a historical record of being worse, often far worse.

[toastal]

The weren't created by capitalism, these things we have were often created by workers--who are often exploited under capitalism, because like the review states, because capitalism is value the wrong things like profits and abundance over societal well-being. Profits are just easier to measure even if they're not a useful measure of good.

[WalterBright]

In the US, you and other exploited workers are free to quit your jobs and start your own workers' cooperatives and produce whatever you like and share the results.