this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
805 points (90.5% liked)
Political Memes
5355 readers
2191 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I mean, it does work Just not nearly as well as its proponents claim.
It works really well…. Just only for a handful of people…
Turns out, as in basically everything else in existence, you have to strike a balance and can't just go YOLO on maxing out 1 economic philosophy, food, workout routine, recreational activity, work task, air conditioner knob direction, component of air, fundamental force, universal constant..
But somehow capitalism is the magic fix for all of society and any considering any sort of nuance/tweaking is far-left communist radicalism despite the fact that nobody actually supports getting rid of all regulations and everyone inherently understands that that would be a disaster.
Yeah, it has its strengths, but I don't think it's good for us long term.
I prefer to think of it as a transitory stage. I don't know what comes next, but I sure as shit know that this ain't the peak of human civilization.
If we're following the star trek timeline we're fucked. The period from the late 2020s until we made contact with the vulcans in 2063 in the star trek timeline is pretty much just war and oppression.
So we're on trend then.
hard times (ww2) create strong men (quasi-socialists, social democrats)
strong men create good times (post-war boom, worker's rights laws and unions)
good times create weak men (baby boomers).
weak men create hard times (60% of americans live paycheck-to-paycheck)
I see it as a stepping stone to the inevitable (socialism). But I would not want socialism now.
Capitalism seems to drive innovation too, which with climate change humanity needs pretty desperately.
I'm giving it 100 years. I think at that point capitalism will have done its job. We'll all be free of many ailments and the world will be connected. Some resolution for climate change will be in effect, and we can take a breather, start transitioning to UBI and then eventually to full socialism. That will bring better social order and welfare and we'll be in good shape.
oil companies were suppressing information and reseach on climate change because they were maximizing shareholder value.
Yes, capitalism creates incentives - that's my point. Thanks for proving my point.
Just because some follow a bad incentive doesn't mean it isn't worth the other good incentives produced.
Further, disinformation is its own class of problems we need to solve. You could have a socialist government and still lots of disinformation. So that's not really unique to capitalism at all.
And the bad incentives are the crux of the problem.
Waxing philosophical about letting the extreme negative happen just because of what might come from that great pile of captured capital will lead to species extinction, not evolution.
capitalism is literally the reason we might not even get another 100 years with society as we know it, so you might want to factor that into your considerations
I think the effect of capitalism on innovation is overstated, honestly. The SovUnion was quite productive scientifically, for all of its other faults and horrors.
I think you're right. I wonder if it'll take 100 years though. It would be cool to see it in our lifetime.
At the least we need a revival of social democracy. Reaganite neoliberalism since the 80s has done incredible damage to the West.
I'd say it works flawlessly. I mean yes, millions die each year from starvation, preventable diseases or equally preventable wars,... buuut it allows a small group of people a life of luxury and excess putting Louis the 14. to shame.
What i'm trying to say is capitalism is a system which maximizes exploitation of people and environment. You could say it is efficient but not fair. Some people value efficiency over fairness, and in capitalism their voices are amplyfied by their ability to influence the media.