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Capitalism: The great western experiment that has proven the most humane, peaceful and fair of all government models.

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Capitalism's love of efficiency (lemy.lol)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Resources are expensive, so the fewer you need to produce a good, the cheaper the good. Thus capitalism naturally strives to use as little as possible.

Efficiency here is more dollars out per dollar put in, but because resources such as land, raw goods, time, and labor (especially unpleasant labor, since it costs more) all cost money, it ends up pushing for using as little as those as possible.

There's another positive outcomes of this drive toward efficiency as well though, it encourages recycling. Garbage is an extremely cheap resource, since not many people want it, and if you can figure out a way to utilize it, you're making a product from very cheap resources, and can make a cheap product.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Okay, but when political power becomes captured by the extremely wealthy elite, capitalism becomes oligarchy: A system of exploitation that no longer produces measurable efficiency and benefit to society as a whole, but is more oriented to protect the elite and their interests, including further concentrating wealth and political power.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Which is why I'd be very strongly against people seizing political power to protect their own personal interests. The wealthy buying/bribing the government to bring legislation in their favor is an anti-capitalist thing though. Capitalists don't want that.

You could argue capitalism inevitably brings about a system where the government is controlled by the elite, but I suspect that happens in systems where the government controls resource acquisition and distribution much faster. In that case, the elite starts out as the government and is immediately difficult to wrangle control from, but in capitalism, the elite have to bribe and siphon control from the government before an entrepreneur upstages them and takes their place.

[–] hglman 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Capitalists don’t want that.

Lol, this is pure delusion. Capitalists are those greedy enough to exploit others. They don't believe in some grand system. They believe in self-enrichment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

bad wording, apologies. The wealthy absolutely want that, people who believe in and want capitalism don't.

I'd also say capitalists want competition, but of course wealthy CEOs don't. The word is used for two different things I guess (or I'm using it incorrectly).

[–] CheddahBiscuit 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know this is a Pro Capitalism community and I will respect your views. I do have to say though, super PACs and political lobbying is essentially buying/bribing the government.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

oh absolutely. 100%