I think Capitalism is reaching a dead end, just as Feudalism had. We will need a completely different approach, specifically designed to bring prosperity and political agency to every person. A rebuilt constitution that isn’t just about political rules, but also economic.
These times will either cause Americans to show the way forward to the globe, or be a disastrous example to avoid repeating. Either way, the American Experiment is reaching a crescendo.
I’d say the main issue isn’t capitalism per se, it’s unfettered capitalism with no guardrails in place. In a social democracy Bernie style, the economic system is still capitalistic - he’s always said so - but with a number of constraints that distribute wealth equitably and that prevents the accumulation of power in very few hands.
The individualistic nature of humans make fully “communist” type systems oppressive and unrealistic, IMO. You need to give so much power to those enforcing this kind of system that they systematically end up using it to feed their own personal greed for wealth and power.
But a social democrat system still allows for individual freedoms and self interest - it’s just not so deeply “savage” that limitless money can be converted to limitless power to change rules to make it easier to accumulate limitless money.
Capitalism, like cancer, will always try to grow and grow at the expense of anything else, even the survival of its host.
You can try to put rails on it, but capitalists will spend 100% of their effort using every bit of extra wealth they accumulate trying to take down that system.
Yes you’d buy some time, but the disease would still be there. Think about what kind of government you would need to have to keep capitalism under control at large scale: China seems to be able to pull it off. Is that the kind of government we want?
There’s nothing inherently noble about letting private dictators run swaths of the economy. Workers can and should run the economy. We don’t need to slow down the cancer we need to cut it out.
i think you’re not wrong for thinking that, hell, it does look like it; But i don’t think capitalism is going to end just yet. The Americans have showed to all the world what hyper capitalism is and how it can poison and kill a nation. The fact that we don’t know yet of a system to replace the current doesn’t give me much hope that we are going to try out anytime soon. What i think might actually happen is that a social democracy might become the way forward is many places (as it already is in some countries today); For some people in the capitalist elite this might actually be a good compromise of keeping the status-quo and changing up the system.
Who knows, maybe after social democracy thrives there might actually be a new system coming.
Wouldn’t a lot of our problems go away if worker owned cooperatives became the only legal form of corporation, combined with the abolishment of shareholder investment?
I don’t think the entire system needs to be changed. Just tax appropriately and get rid of free externalities. Companies should pay for pollution or other environmental effects they produce and should be taxed incrementally.
Otherwise you have corporations making millions because of an unfair advantage which is eventually paid by the user or governments.
I think Capitalism is reaching a dead end, just as Feudalism had. We will need a completely different approach, specifically designed to bring prosperity and political agency to every person. A rebuilt constitution that isn’t just about political rules, but also economic.
These times will either cause Americans to show the way forward to the globe, or be a disastrous example to avoid repeating. Either way, the American Experiment is reaching a crescendo.
I’d say the main issue isn’t capitalism per se, it’s unfettered capitalism with no guardrails in place. In a social democracy Bernie style, the economic system is still capitalistic - he’s always said so - but with a number of constraints that distribute wealth equitably and that prevents the accumulation of power in very few hands.
The individualistic nature of humans make fully “communist” type systems oppressive and unrealistic, IMO. You need to give so much power to those enforcing this kind of system that they systematically end up using it to feed their own personal greed for wealth and power.
But a social democrat system still allows for individual freedoms and self interest - it’s just not so deeply “savage” that limitless money can be converted to limitless power to change rules to make it easier to accumulate limitless money.
Capitalism, like cancer, will always try to grow and grow at the expense of anything else, even the survival of its host.
You can try to put rails on it, but capitalists will spend 100% of their effort using every bit of extra wealth they accumulate trying to take down that system.
Yes you’d buy some time, but the disease would still be there. Think about what kind of government you would need to have to keep capitalism under control at large scale: China seems to be able to pull it off. Is that the kind of government we want?
There’s nothing inherently noble about letting private dictators run swaths of the economy. Workers can and should run the economy. We don’t need to slow down the cancer we need to cut it out.
i think you’re not wrong for thinking that, hell, it does look like it; But i don’t think capitalism is going to end just yet. The Americans have showed to all the world what hyper capitalism is and how it can poison and kill a nation. The fact that we don’t know yet of a system to replace the current doesn’t give me much hope that we are going to try out anytime soon. What i think might actually happen is that a social democracy might become the way forward is many places (as it already is in some countries today); For some people in the capitalist elite this might actually be a good compromise of keeping the status-quo and changing up the system.
Who knows, maybe after social democracy thrives there might actually be a new system coming.
Wouldn’t a lot of our problems go away if worker owned cooperatives became the only legal form of corporation, combined with the abolishment of shareholder investment?
I don’t think the entire system needs to be changed. Just tax appropriately and get rid of free externalities. Companies should pay for pollution or other environmental effects they produce and should be taxed incrementally.
Otherwise you have corporations making millions because of an unfair advantage which is eventually paid by the user or governments.