this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
1044 points (81.0% liked)
Memes
45759 readers
1218 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The thing is that capitalism isn't "good" at anything; all value is produced by workers. Fast fashion is an environmental nightmare, development of tech is in the interest of capital (automation shouldn't be a threat to workers), most entertainment is constrained by the diktats of massive corporations, the vast majority of snacks are either unhealthy or extremely overpriced, and workers (particularly in the Global South) are being abused in all four cases
Capitalism is definitely good at some things. Specifically generating wealth. If you're a developing country you want to use capitalism because it will grow your economy as fast as possible. I think once a county has built enough wealth, they should switch to a blended system.
Capital doesn't generate wealth. Labor generates wealth. Capital takes an oversized percentage of that wealth because the kind of financing that Capital provides requires Capital to be in charge.
The only reason a developing country would want capitalism to generate wealth is because the established capitalist order will blockade or otherwise decimate any country which tries to step out of line. We've seen it time and again throughout modern history. Planned economies work for developing countries. They work so well that capitalist countries will band together in order to isolate those economies from the world out of fear of contagion. This was, for example, a key reason capitalist countries tried to contain and isolate the USSR and China, before both started embracing liberalization policies.
No, if you're a developing country, you want a planned economy. The only reason to allow private capital would be to gain access to foreign technology and to stave off imperialism until you're capable of self-defense
Why's that bad? Value has to be produced somehow, either by people or machines.
Depends on the automation. Automation can unlock workers to perform more meaningful tasks. Throughout history machines have taken over people's jobs to increase productivity, but said machines have spawned jobs.
capitalism doesn't make us any better at producing anything. in many ways it makes us worse. under capitalism, automation means people will lose their jobs.