this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2024
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Capitalism has lead to a lot of nice things (the average person today lives better than a medieval king did) but that doesn't mean it's perfect or can't be changed. Governments ensure people can use roads for free, provide education, pay retirement pensions, and fund all kinds of other social programs. There's minimum wage, industry regulations, health and safety regulations. None of these things are really "capitalist" but they exist in capitalist societies anyways.
I think it's possible to keep modifying what capitalism is until we have a system that does work for everyone.
Capitalism was better for more workers in 1950s America compared to now, but America was at the height of its overseas power and the country was competing against communism. But capitalism never stopped sucking. Let the capitalists earn their own wealth.
Also the huge huge benefits ww2 had on American
You think capitalism created minimum wage? You think it created regulations???? No, that was political reform and legislation. And capitalism today has people pissing in bottles because they can't go to the bathroom because that would hurt the captial.
No I don't think capitalism created minimum wage. I think capitalism created factories and advanced technology. Minimum wage and regulations came from the people demanding rights. The workers in France and Norway are not pissing in bottles like the workers in America. France and Norway are still capitalist countries, their workers just have more rights and protections because they demanded that from their governments.
My point was capitalism isn't inherently a flawed idea nor is any other economic system. Regardless of what system is chosen, the people need to have rights. Economic systems don't address that; governments do.
American workers being mistreated is a failure in the American government, not capitalism. Nearly all countries on Earth are capitalist, and there are many where the workers are very happy and healthy.
Capitalism didn't create factories or advanced technology. It grew alongside them, yes, but did not itself create them. At the end of the day, Engineers designed them and workers built them, not one person owning tools.
France and Norway are seeing rising disparity as Capitalism reaches a later stage. The workers have more power than in, say, the US, but not enough to stop or reverse disparity from increasing.
Capitalism is inherently flawed. From the fundamental exploitation within, to the Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall, to the tie with Imperialism, Capitalism naturally gets worse over time. "Enshittification."
American workers being mistreated by Capitalism because the Capitalists are strong enough to manipulate government in their favor is a fault of Capitalism. Even the happier Capitalist countries like the Nordic Countries are seeing increased rates of disparity and sliding protections. Competition pushes for this increased exploitation.
Minimum wage is usually not a good thing. When you set a minimum wage, you essentially disbar people who cannot reach that wage level from the workforce completely. It hurts the weakest people of the community the worst (they are the ones who become unemployable), and doesn't matter for the strongest at all (they are always above the minimum wage level).
Living costs is the actual problem there, and that can be fixed by lightening up the governments: e.g. freeing up zoning permits and lower taxation of things essential to the poor.
This is actually an entirely-debunked far-right talking point. Minimum wages help everyone.
Giving capitalism credit for any forward progress in society that happened to occur after it started is absurd. It slows progress, this is a well known fact. If we're living better than medieval kings now, I wonder how much better we'd be without that crap
Opinions are one thing, but claiming an untruth to be a fact is just not ok. Data shows clearly that capitalism has been one of the most rapid sources of growth everywhere where it has been applied.
It could have some other problems when paired with weak governments (corporatism & external costs are poorly solved, for instance), but lack of progress is clearly not one of them.
Capitalism has led directly to advances in medicine and cures and there is no question about that. For all its faults the greed for money has no doubt led to faster advances.
Real socialism just won't work for people. We are too corrupt and would just find ways to take advantage of it for personal gain. Some form of greed needs to be worked into the system to promote advancement and satiate the need for greed.
Capitalism didn't lead to any of those things, and actively works against them.
Additionally, you're ignoring increasing rates of disparity due to Capitalism reaching greater and greater stages, and simply think band-aids can fix everything. It can't, the system itself is broken.