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Climate change, sea level rising, populations moving to an already overpopulated land mass, wars, pandemics... Capitalism is killing us slowly but surely. And "soon" is a figure of speech, it might take a while but compared to humanity span it's soon enough. Some might survive, but on the long term humanity is running head first into a wall. We might have the time to change course and only get a few bruises, but the no return point is way past.
Well like everything, capitalism too has its downsides and there's plenty to improve on, but it's quite difficult to see how ending capitalism and replacing it with what ever you think it should be replaced with would end stuff like wars or pandemics. Ending capitalism would definitely end certains issues caused by it, but along would come a set of new issues we're probably not having to deal with now.
No I think you don't understand. Capitalism allows rich people to get richer by exploiting the resources of the earth at the expand of the climate and poor people altogether. It's not something that can be improved, it's something that needs to be stopped ASAP.
And there isn't ONE solution to "replace" capitalism, like communism or socialism or whatever, it's all about solutions to each problems : ban private jets, yacht, and stuff like that ; taxing the rich to stop them hoarding all the wealth, more carbon taxes to force companies into being more eco friendly, banning stuff made by slavery, children, and underpaid workers in far countries, favor locally grown goods, raise the minimum wage, etc.
It's gonna be hard for everyone but it's the only way to stop fucking everything up. Capitalism is a cancer that needs to be removed or it will grow until it kill its host. Only the rich will survive, all of us will die slowly.
You first say it's not something that can be improved and then you list a bunch of ways to improve it. This is exactly my point.
If you want, but we need to get rid of the capital, stock markets, and all other stuff defining capitalism for this shit to work. Capitalism is based on infinite growth, it's not sustainable.
..and replace them with what? I mean, it's a nice fantasy that's there's abundance of everything, nothing costs anything and we're all just dancing in a circle singing kumbaya happily ever after. However, if you really want to live in a world like that, then you need to come up with some system of economy to produce this abundance. Now you're just listing things you want to get rid of but you're giving none and I literally mean zero suggestions how to get there.
What abundance are you talking about ? That's exactly the problem with capitalism, thinking that resources never end. I'm talking about tightening our belts here, not abundance. And have you seen the wealth some people are hoarding like dragons ? Redistribute some of this, use it towards local sustainable resources and renewable energies.
Even in the ideal world you're imagining, things have to come from somewhere. Food needs to be grown, houses need to be built, energy has to be produced, and a whole lot of different kinds of items need to be manufactured. None of this happens unless there are motivated people doing it, at least not until we automate literally everything. You can't just abolish the entire system this is all built on and expect that to resolve all the underlying issues. Capitalism as it's currently practiced no doubt has its flaws, but of all the economic systems we've tried so far, it seems to be the least bad one. That doesn't mean you can't address the flaws in it, but I'm not sure the nuclear option is the correct way to go here.
I feel like when most people say "end capitalism," they don't actually mean it literally but have a much more nuanced view they just don't express very well. Alternatively, some might even be falling into monothink and just believe that one thing is the cause of all issues, sometimes even losing focus from the actual problem and putting all their effort into just hating the people thought to be at fault.