Capitalism only works in theory. While it might sound good in principle, the realities of human nature make it impractical as a way to organize an economic system.
Capitalism is the most successful system we’ve tried.
Or, at least, of those that we can remember we’ve tried—- where our memory consists strictly of… the set of written artifacts that have survived all the way until today. Subject to interpretation, and with a built-in bias for the more recent.
What percent of all human organizational structures in history exists in that memory? How many exist in dig sites buried beneath the oceans, where the coastlines once stood? How many were written down on something temporary, such as, say, paper, and were destroyed before we could read them?
I think this is why people feel strongly that there could be a better approach. We haven’t explored much of the space at all. Though any unexplored option would be very risky to try at scale, of course, and perhaps there lies the rub.
We never tried capitalism, its been feudalism all along since the founding if you look closely.
Not saying that its not been successful, you just have to think for who?
Human nature is often contradictory, and is in no way universal across humanity. No system of organizing humanity will fit neatly with human nature. No economic system, religion, moral system, government, educational model, language, and so on, will ever work well universally. So this leaves us all with a series of tradeoffs and concessions. Capitalism has one set of tradeoffs, feudalism had another, socialism a third.
We might disagree on the relative importance of the concessions required, but I hope we can all agree that there is simply no perfect system (yet).
Capitalism DOES work to generate more wealth than any other system. But if profit is your ONLY motive it causes you to treat humans very badly, as the flat out murder of strikers in the past have shown us. Capitalism needs to be tempered by requirements for employees to be treated like actual human beings. EU countries are a good example of this. Capitalism is also very good at concentrating wealth, which is bad for society in the long term as you end up with small numbers of incredibly rich people hiding away from the vast number of desperate poor people. The solution to this problem is extremely progressive income taxes and a 100% estate tax on anything over $100 million. Taxing people after they are dead is the fairest possible time to do so.
I find it remarkable to note that not a single person, since, well, recorded history on the subject, has ever matched criticism of capitalism with a viable, well-tested and proven alternative. Perfect it is not. And yet, no other system in human history has elevated more people out of poverty than capitalism.
Poverty in terms of what? Needs of the body are met for many (though generally with cheap, ugly, and/or low quality products lacking craftsmanship) but needs of the soul are at an all time low. Just judge from the present mental health crisis—likely the worst in human history—which is largely fueled by disconnection which is an inherent feature of capitalism.
The “poverty” narrative a lie, a rehashing of the old “savages” narrative. It goes hand in hand with this idea that "poor" countries need the western world’s help. No they don’t. Has forced indebtedness helped them? No. And most of their people did not even get a say in the matter of becoming indebted. Advertising of nonprofits and the like is still littered with posters of white men kissing little black babies. It’s quite strange.
In fact, America as a culture is quite new and though it has many good qualities, seeds which can be watered to make for a better future, at present it has become especially barbaric, which is of course not news. These other “impoverished” countries generally have much more historic and developed cultures, ways of handling themselves, etc.
Also, it’s not like “capitalism” was proven and tested before “it” came to be. It has been an incredibly complex process. And it’s not that “it” even will be replaced at some single moment. It’s always a process, and this particular process is already underway.
Yeah, it's fairly obvious from the fossil records that all humans were using cash back in the tribal nomadic days hundreds of thousands of years ago. There literally has never been any other ways humans have organized other than wage labor.
Do not reply in bad faith. You know the person you are replying to was not saying that capitalism is the only system to ever exist. They were saying that, despite its numerous flaws, it appears to be the most successful system we’ve tried.
I'm not replying in bad faith. It is very obvious that capitalism has always been with us and always will be. If you observe birds long enough, you'll start to see them exchange tokens with each other, but results like that rarely get published
This is a “no true Scotsman” argument. Any counterexample with a proposed alternative will be criticised as either not viable, untested or unproven and yet pretty much every nation on earth has a system which includes some legal limits on the powers of corporations in order to protect people. Noone just does completely unfettered capitalism. The importance of this principle goes back all the way to the birth of capitalism with Smith’s “Theory of Moral Sentiments”. The important question is how to strike the right balance of protection of workers vs growth and dynamism in the economy.
Notwithstanding that, the social problems arising from extreme inequality (with its roots in a type of capitalism that lacks empathy for people) are very real. I see them all the time in homeless people living beside the freeway when I visit LA or under the underpasses in SF. Here in the UK there is a growing group of working people who have had to choose between heating and eating this winter[1]. I’m not sure they feel like they have been elevated out of poverty.
Wow big claims, all the benefit comes from the socialist policies in this feudalist system.
All poverty elevating concepts come from there since capitalist is all about greed and progress without caring for human lives.
Don't forget to blink once in a while, might not be seeing things clearly.
This is odd phrasing because usually capitalism is sold as the pragmatist solution, imperfect by design but stable and “good enough”
Usually “only works in theory” is applied to the other economic systems which tend to sell high on the idea of equality, but devolve into the same problems of haves and have-nots.
Or, at least, of those that we can remember we’ve tried—- where our memory consists strictly of… the set of written artifacts that have survived all the way until today. Subject to interpretation, and with a built-in bias for the more recent.
What percent of all human organizational structures in history exists in that memory? How many exist in dig sites buried beneath the oceans, where the coastlines once stood? How many were written down on something temporary, such as, say, paper, and were destroyed before we could read them?
I think this is why people feel strongly that there could be a better approach. We haven’t explored much of the space at all. Though any unexplored option would be very risky to try at scale, of course, and perhaps there lies the rub.