Asklemmy

Pure capitalism allows many to abuse the system and that results in what we have today here in the us. Overtime politicians have continued to do patchwork to simply get by for the next one to take over and scrap whatever agenda the previous one had in play. Which makes the problems worst and in turn takes longer to address.

We need both legislation and accountability for alot of things but it seems to be impossible to get both of those things. Hell, I dont care that your rich. Just dont bring everyone down with you when you take that one gamble and it causes everything to crash!

Capitalism is literally making our environment uninhabitable.

I have always believed that the majority of the world's problems stem from almost all of the world's countries rely on a private bank to print and regulate their money. Those banks aren't capitalistic, but I bet the people behind them are the richest in the world.

In a nutshell:

Capitalism in theory is an ok idea. Capitalism left unchecked and largely unregulated (as is the case in america) evolves into a monster that controls government and the people in order to feed and sustain life. Or rather, companies do this.

Sell things, make money. Pay labor a small amount to make more things. Labor complains, company buys good PR. Labor complains, company fires workers and hires more, buys more PR. Workers die, company sued, company buys good laywers, company pays small fine. Product is discovered as dangerous, company buys better science in the form of funding biased research. People start grassroots campaign to prevent product from being sold, company buys lobbyists to prevent grassroots campaign from working. Competitor starts doing better than company so company buys competitor, company now doubles in size and profit, can do twice the damage dealt previously.

"Corporations are people, my friend" but they cannot vote. Company is founded in delaware like many other companies. Delaware now considering allowing corporations the right to vote as citizens would". Company loves this as it would save them money on lobbying.

Company buys town, citizens move there and work for company in exchange for goods at the company store. Company store is the only store in town and they just raised their prices again for the third time in a month. Company considering statehood as next possible growth opportunity.

Labor has less money and is increasingly overworked. Half of labor thinks the other half is lazy and that company will promote them because they feel they work harder than the other half. Promotions happen, but the increase barely keeps up with the cost of living. Technology improves, productivity soars, wages stagnate, CEO income compounds.

Election season rolls around, a "CEO" type "business tycoon" is an option. The half of labor who think they will be promoted support the business tycoon candidate because they read reports of how much money he compounds. "My wages stagnated under the last guy, but this guy's income compounds, exponentially! He surely knows how to save our country!" Business tycoon is elected and runs the country like a business, cutting costs where it helps anyone other than his own interests. Services people relied on are cut, people take on more stress and less income, the president denies all blame.

Rinse, repeat.

Capitalism is built on the exploitation of others. Slavery, Homelessness, and Pollution are all side effects of a profit driven market without restrictions.

I think that I hear the argument against capitalism the most from people who reference unskilled labor. Sure, the person working in a warehouse is getting screwed wage-wise because the company is greedy and they doesn't have a unique skill set. But the guy in the office that is maintaining a proprietary piece of software has the leverage to demand a higher wage. I think when it comes down to it, capitalism is just another version of the economic "game". I prefer this game to socialism (or really any other economic philosophy) as I know how to work the current system better. Don't want to get screwed in your career? Specialize! I understand a lot of people don't want to hear this as it puts the impetus on us instead of the rich,, but that's how the system works (for now). I will always be on-board with people wanting to better themselves and their situation (especially at the expense of the rich) but getting something for nothing just isn't realistic without massive mobilization of the lowest wage earners. Not to mention the hurdles in our government.

People have different definitions of capitalism, and cound different side effects into that definition.

While you are correct in your claims, it does look like you are not seeing negative effects it has on society and economy.

Similar thing happens with the other side, they usually put criminal activities (like corporations poisoning people) into definition of capitalism or they directly blame it for that kind effect on humans.

I think that is just not really accepting the nature of humans.

Shit will happen in every *isam and each one will be good for something.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't challenge everything that we see as bad, and there is no need to make those classifications.

It is like politics, looks like you can not be for lower taxes and support same sex marriage at the same time, even thou there are people with those options.

Pure capitalism favors the wealthy and the unscrupulous. That is if there are no laws in place protecting peoples rights then the business owners have little incentive to treat there employees well (they will trade short term profits over long term stability.

On the flip side a pure communist system favors the lazy since there is little to no reward for doing more than the minimum. That is to say the status quo is unchanging.

This is why we have government, to correct the selfish nature of capitalism, while hopefully still retaining the innovation and drive that it produces (winner take all is a strong motivator).

This only works in the long term if government is fair and balanced, looking out both for the interests of business and society (the poor, the environment, the common spaces, etc). And where an idea like socialism actually strikes a good balance between both extremes.

The idea that the markets will sort themselves out is a fever dream thought up by the right. The markets will quickly consolidate into monopolies and then exploit there power. It is only fair competition that produces benefits. And that is an unstable balance that must be carefully maintained by outside forces (government).