#Capitalism - key 'features':
- Hugely inefficient.
- Relies on an #poverty to motivate workers.
- Distributes profits inequitably. See wealth #inequality
- Ignores 'externalities' - see #ClimateCrisis, #pollution, #ecosystem collapse.
- Inherently colonialist. See #blm, #slavery, #Indigenous rights, #gender inequality.
@Irreverent_B This sort of rhetoric is, in my opinion, unhelpful. First of all it personifies an economic system, then blames it for a whole lot of things that a) occurred in just about every society regardless of economic system and b) do not even follow from actual data.
Capitalism simply means that all individuals own the product of their labour (which is their capital). Slavery (and serfdom) is a quality of feudal and other older economic systems which was progressively abolished as societies became more capitalist (did it not occur to you that most of the colonization and trans-atlantic slave trade was done by nations that were absolutist monarchies at the time?). Also calling capitalism inefficent belies the fact that the most developed economies, where people enjoy the highest living standards are some of the most capitalist countries in the world and that all examples of centrally planned economies throughout history have led to devastating famines and a host of other problems. Finally, capitalism does not ignore externalities, humans do, and have done so, in every type of economic system that has ever existed.
"Capitalism simply means that all individuals own the product of their labour" ... no, no, no. Utterly fucking wrong. I won't bother reading the rest. I scanned "capitalism does not ignore externalities" .. so, so full of bull are ye.
"In our current model of capitalism, carbon emissions and environmental harm resulting from business operations are externalities that can be largely ignored by businesses and investors."
~ published 2020 by the well-known bastion of Marxism, Forbes.
You're seriously not doing well for a "lifelong learner".
@Irreverent_B I didnt say that we dont currently ignore externalities in western societies, I said that humans have a long tradition of doing just that going back thousands of years and in all parts of the world, regardless of economic system.
@Irreverent_B Again, I said that you cannot personify an idea. It's humans doing the exploiting and the ignoring of externalities within societies that are to various degrees, capitalist. And are you really of the mind that people in Western style democracies are being, on the whole, being exploited more nowadays than in say, Stalinist Russia, or serfs under the old feudal lords, or the slaves of the Roman empire? We can say that all exploitation is wrong, but we should acknowledge progress that has been made.
> acknowledge progress that has been made.
🤣
I've no time for those so blind they cannot see.
@Clementulus @Irreverent_B This economic system is the one causing emissions. Regardless of your view of humanity, it is not their tendency to ignore but rate of profits to fall under capitalism that will cause the climate collapse. If people are ignoring something to their own detriment, that's capitalism. For example, you ignoring it.
@Clementulus
While individuals in a capitalist system may technically own the product of their labour, the reality is that this ownership is mostly limited, and exploitation is the norm.
> "I didnt say that we dont currently ignore externalities in western societies".
No, you wrote:
> "capitalism does not ignore externalities".
Stated as fact. It's not true.