| > I don't view this as a particularly useful way to view things, though Well you are also happy to ignore the coercive nature of capitalism - i.e. “advertising” - and the fact that it simply externalizes all real costs - i.e. “most efficient” claims that make no sense - so I’m not sure your world view is really cogent. For example, people want blueberries. The blueberry producer in Vancouver has packaging facilities on Vancouver island. They ship a bunch of blueberries away from where they were grown to put them in plastic containers, wasting energy and generating pollution. How exactly is the consumer at fault for the inefficiencies inherent in capitalist supply chains? (In place of inefficiency, directly swap “duplication” if it is illustrative) > capitalism is really efficient at delivering what end-customers want I strongly disagree, and once again find it to be a self fulfilling prophecy because you have been wholly consumed by capitalist propaganda. For example, see my point about duplicated supply chains; generalize it easily to duplicated work, wasted man hours on marketing and doing research identical to that being done at your competitors, etc.. Finally, realize you are subscribing to the capitalist view of “want” and “end customer” with your language, and arguing capitalism is “the most efficient economic system” might as well put you on Fox News. It’s propaganda. No other economic system has ever existed in a time of such geographic stability, technical prowess, and abundant healthy layout as now, so the point is completely facile. You must understand, your own point acknowledges this huge hole in capitalism wrt externalities and the massive hidden costs of something, and additionally ignores the role of government and regulatory capture. Even with your kid gloves naive treatment of the situation, you STILL are forced to admit capitalism only aligns with consumer interest on specific goods sold at specific prices. If the price was true - i.e. included and covered all costs to keep a steady climate state, for an easy target - I highly doubt capitalism would be delivering value. In its pure lust for profit, and I do mean pure, it has destroyed our globe, created class inequality greater than seen in monarchies, and completely subverted global power structures. This is efficient, but not as an economic system or a method of creating goods for people. |