Unthinking Majority wrote:Capitalism literally works on the idea that a group of 10 or 100 or 1000 private individuals can come together peacefully and voluntarily and cooperate on a project together to create something for mutual benefit, and then take what they create and find another party that is willing to peacefully exchange their money for that good/service for mutual benefit of both parties so that both are better off than before the transaction.
Capitalism can also create greed, selfishness, exploitation, and violence. So if we take that greed, selfishness, exploitation, and violence and add it to the cooperation, ingenuity, and industriousness well voila you have a system that reflects much of the human condition. Which I imagine is why it is so productive and robust.
So what's missing? I don't know, love? Not to say that a better system can be discovered that incorporates more love and generosity. We shall see I guess.
Well, that is your version of what you think capitalism does. Not mine and not what capitalism actually states it does.
It is much simpler. And simple is better in every way.
Capitalism is this:
Definition of capitalism
: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined
by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.
That is the first problem. The private decision is the leading core when it is practiced in a democratic governance framework.
Yes, you have inclusion. I won't even get into why the USA does not allow popular votes to determine who leads in a democratic representative democracy or makes up different types of citizenships in order to bypass constitutional requirements. Which is a big problem and is imbalanced. But setting aside that problem? The issue is about why are private decisions important in capitalism. What if you open up the decision-making process to the public? You get democratized economic results. Everyone that works at an enterprise gets a voice and vote. And the salaries, benefits, and support are all predicated on a concept that is not about ranking, hierarchy, or power positions of who is management and who has the right to take home pay based on position and profit motive rights. It becomes what the group in its entirety is negotiating with outside the organization in order to benefit the entire organization as a whole. It eliminates the few with exaggerated rights versus the many with too few benefits and too few rights.
One gets also to what is considered enough. Are there limits to what is enough in terms of pay, of workloads, of expectations, rights and responsibilities? Part of the problem with capitalism in my opinion is the idea of unlimited wealth, unlimited resources, unlimited ability to grow and expand and extract and profit. It does require an investment in a lot of growth, expansion of market shares, more and more and more. Without analyzing if the growth is sustainable or not. If the resources are being managed with care and forethought and with a long term ability to replenish itself or not. And the case of unfettered capitalism? It is the source of environmental degradation, global world poverty, imbalances between classes of people, military spending, the arms race, the CO2 poisoning of the atmosphere, the droughts, the storms and the very real possibility of mass extinction events coming our way.
Small and sustainable business models are a totally different paradigm of trade and it has nothing to do with corporate monopolies. At the same time there are advantages to chain businesses because they are consistent in delivery and give a reliable form of service. But do the owners and corporate shareholders have to be the ones benefitting from a position of passive investment and who are not the workers? Why does that have to be the rule?
Do you see what I mean UM about the inability of people to see the forest for the trees? Look for something that is workable for the MAJORITY of people laboring. Not for a tiny group of fewer than 2700 people in a world with 8 billion humans.
Avoiding extinction events for humans has to do with rethinking why the system is structured for a world with other human conditions that are not about unlimited resources being used and abused without caps, limits, or forethought for the smallest group of extremely powerful individuals. It does not work UM. Because it has led to this crisis.
And remember that crisis in Mandarin Chinese? It is both danger and opportunity. The danger part has to do with a big and huge crash that causes mass suffering. And an opportunity to TRANSFORM what no longer works into something that does work.
The Chinese are doing state capitalism. What is that?
an economic system in which private capitalism is modified by a varying degree of government ownership and control It has made Chinese economic growth enormous. It will hit a roadblock. And that is a lack of rights of ordinary workers within that framework. Democratizing it all and all of the wealth being managed directly by all of the workers. The Communist party is supposed to be giving the complete power to all the workers. And respecting worker rights. Communism is supposed to be shrinking government because of the satisfaction of the workers and them being able to rule themselves without a central authority. Instead they got very elitist billionaires. The PRC government answers to that have been to knock down tens or dozens of them at a time via government authority.
They should not be authoritarians, exclusive options in China. But they are. In the USA though no one government can go and literally defrock a billionaire and force it with government power to dissolve and desist and decease. The corporations run the government and are their servants. The model is not good. The Chinese model is defective as well. State capitalism is not communist and it is an uneasy marriage between private capitalism and public authorities. But the government has the upper whip hand in the PRC model of it. The USA is the corporate and the bankers and the law uphold the billionaire class and fuck the working people and popular votes. That spells fascism UM. It does.
The private stuff has to go. That is certain. In both systems. And they need to open up the power structure for both systems. And it better be highly democratic and highly human rights oriented, and highly respectful of the living standards and needs of the MAJORITY and not the minority of elites. That has to be the future. Otherwise you will get the lack of restraint shown towards the natural world and the poisons that are happening all the time.
The Bonobos are being pressured because the Chinese are acquiring the creatures and paying for them with their prosperity and elitist tastes. They are pursuing state capitalism without the true mission of what the entire political philosophy is about. Reducing the need for government because the vast majority of people's needs are met and they are free and without a need to have additional authority in their lives from the government.
Freedom. Work. Responsibility and it is and should be predicated on respecting life-affirming nature. Plant life, animal life, precious minerals, precious building materials, and water, air, and land that is life-sustaining.
One thing we are truly having to accept in the future that is heading our way soon? LIMITS. To our wants and our desires for growth and profiteering and profit centered philosophies. Profit is not sacred. What is sacred is our relationship to nature and to living within natural law. The pandemic sure could teach that. Respect what nature is capable of doing. We don't rule the planet. The planet rules us. Make nature and human needs of society for a dignified life all the center of policy in political life. Not some idea of unlimited control and unlimited greed.
If we can get there? We got a fighting chance for surviving the long centuries to come when the planet is going to be busy making sure the accelerated climate adjustments don't make it impossible to adapt with sufficient speed. The only thing working in our favor is our amazing history of cooperation and of adaptation. And our ability to help each other. You know that old cliche saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
Human beings are going to have to do that. But love and understanding and respect and mutual cooperation are the concepts that we need to tap in our biological programming. The Selfish greedy beast part needs to be caged. That is the truth.