this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
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It was great for a while, lifted billions out of poverty, gave us cures to diseases, air conditioning, internet, etc. But I definitely feel like we need to rethink it now. We need to protect the institutions that allow for innovation, entrepreneurialism, and capitalism, yes, because innovation is essential. But we also need to figure out how to help the tens of millions of people capitalism is leaving in the dust. Idk how to do that though.
Socialism
I hear what you’re trying to say but capitalism isn’t what lifted people out of poverty, it was a strengthened central government willing to tax corporations and the rich to spread the wealth being generated by labor to create a middle class. Stronger regulations and higher taxes bred an amazing increase in quality of life for the Boomer generation.
The super rich and their willing accomplices on the Right have waged a war on government protections for the middle class because it fetters capitalism and the consolidation of wealth and power. Without a government that is willing to work for the good of the people or unions that actually protect the labor class it’s clear that capitalism alone has not been a force for good for the common individual.
By the way, don’t ignore that a lot of the conveniences and leaps in innovation that we take for granted as corporate innovations came from government agencies (e.g. NASA) or government research/funding (e.g. vaccines). Corporations just take what we already paid for through taxes and sell it back to us again at a mark up. Yay capitalism…?