Do You Believe Capitalism Is Inherently Evil?

[WhiteSteve]

No, not inherently evil. I think it gives humans the wrong priorities. Pursuit of prosperity isn’t really something I respect. And more than that, I believe the existence of the human is meant to be much more primitive than what we see today. The short explanation I have time for right now basically boils down to “just because you can accomplish something impressive doesn’t mean it’s a good thing to do.” Humans are an animal that has overstepped their boundaries in terms of population and artificially dominating the planet. Like I enjoy cars and air conditioning and modern medicine, but when I think long and hard about it, I keep coming back to “this is the whole problem with earth.” So I’m not really rooting for humanity to prosper, like 2/3 of us ideally need to be wiped out to restore natural balance. Obviously it’s tough to make that happen ethically, but I’m just saying, that’s the fix we need. Essentially, I believe we have all these social problems because it is WILDLY unnatural to have an organized cooperative society at all, let alone to the current degree. Or maybe not quite “not at all”, but nothing large. Very small tribes feel like it would be correct. But large nations with economies and militaries and everything else that comes with it... I see that as the biggest misstep by any species in the history of earth. Humans are obsessed with controlling their outcomes, but the reality is that we’re on a ride, man, we have no entitlements to positive outcomes of any sort, or even survival. I believe this is right, it just happens to be uncomfortable for us, and therefore, we refuse to entertain the idea. But I bet if you got all the animals of the world together for a meeting, most of them would probably decide humans are the ones fucking up and needing to alter their behavior. Earth doesn’t revolve around humanity, I feel like we’ve completely lost sight of that.

Anyway, that’s more my “big picture” position, just so you understand why my answer is never going to come with the best interests of humans in mind, since we simply don’t deserve that, not in a punitive sense, just in the sense that humans are no more important than ants to the survival of earth, so we shouldn’t give ourselves preferential treatment. In the smaller picture where we’ve acknowledged that humans have fucked up and are the worst pest species the planet has probably ever seen, and where we’ve resigned ourselves to being governed by other members of our species who are no better than any of the rest of us... well, here we are. I’d say my biggest beef with capitalism is that it attempts to unrealistically walk the middle of the road, and I think walking in the middle of any road is usually an ill-fated plan. I don’t think the idea of a “society” really jives with the idea of anything that could be described as “individualist.” I think we’re naturally meant to be individualists, but without a society to back us up, true lone wolves. We’d live in the wild like we’re supposed to, and we’d survive or perish based on our own strengths and weaknesses, and the weak will die off as intended. The other option, however unnatural, is organized society, and I don’t really have high hopes for any organized society unless it’s truly and purely collectivist in nature. Now, I don’t believe that’s what’s been accomplished in scenarios close to that, but that’s a human problem, that’s people seeking control of a group of people, which you can’t accomplish in a true and pure inidividualist society.

[joeldalton]

Anyone who loves socialism should go live in Venezuela for 6 months.

[RolandCuthbert]

It seems to be me that you will go to any lengths to post thread after nonsensical thread from multiple accounts all saying the same bullcrap.

It seems to me that you do not wish an actual intellectual debate about policies or positions, you just wish to color those who disagree with you in the most negative terms possible. Which has lead to the sickest most disturbed folks in this society to threaten the lives of elected officials and their families.

Crawl back to the sick stinking disgusting underbelly of the internet where you belong.

[Nalix]

No, socialism is inherently evil, and the US hasn't been a properly capitalist country since 1913. What we currently call capitalism is no more than socialism for corporations, with the dubious excuse of helping the economy, while only really helping those corporations, and hurting the economy and human well-being in the process. Just like socialism on the left pretends to help marginalized people but only uses them as meat-shields for taking more power.

In either case, it's Orwellian domination and control, branded "good for the economy" vs the same authoritarian regime branded "helping marginalized people" while not actually helping them in any meaningful ways.

[mich15smith]

I wouldn't say its "evil" but it does tend to lead to a ton of inequality and our economy crashes every 10 years. Its better than feudalism but I think that we could do better. We produce more food than we could possibly eat but people still go hungry and we have more empty properties than we do homeless people. It did help lift some people out of povery but it doomed millions more to poverty. People talk about communism killing people but don't hold capitalism to the same standards, https://countercurrents.org/2018/12/britain-robbed-india-of-45-trillion-thence-1-8-billion-indians-died-from-deprivation/ this number may be an exaguration but even if we only count the famines that the British caused in india, they still killed millions so I don't know.

[tartaarsaus]

The weird thing about the USA is that lots of people describe themselves as socialists when they are basically just for capitalism with more market intervention by the government and/or greater provision of public goods. Likewise, plenty of people think slightly higher taxation is basically socialism/communism, when it’s not.


What capitalism is is also weird because it’s not set and stone. Anyway, free markets as a general rule of thumb (except in the case of exceptions) is the most successful. I don’t really see how racism or such factors into this given that capitalism is a purely economic system. It could be the case that too little government regulation may give rise to more explicit racism taking place, but that doesn’t make capitalism racist as that legislation doesn’t change it into something different than capitalism.

[Anonymous]

No, capitalism is not inherently evil, but unchecked, capitalism allows evil people to do terrible things. No one is inherently racist or fascist, but there are many people in America who have made the choice to be and demonstrate it proudly. And nearly half of Americans support these proud racists and fascists, which is equally as bad. Socialism has nothing to do with combatting racism or fascism. It has everything to do with creating a better nation for everyone. Free healthcare helps everyone. Improved city infrastructure helps everyone. Great public schools help everyone.

The rampant racism and fascism in America is a completely separate issue.

[locutus9999]

ok... lets see the stuff. in capitalism you have, well done planes, vaccines in weeks of the market needed and state get out the way. the taller most beautiful buildings, longer life expentacy, capitalist countries generally do not engage on war with another capitalist countries. a flourish market hen mostly all is avaliable... a permanent jump on tech that actually is not cause war need. social movement. as freest the economy the less poors. I mean... ia morally superior than socialism and if not at least estheticly superior.

[msc545]

Capitalism has turned out to be a real problem especially when it's uncontrolled and unregulated. It results in huge amounts of inequalities such that a few people have all of the resources and the money and the rest of the population has almost nothing. In the United States for instance a large percentage of the population lives below the poverty line and a few people have tremendously ridiculous amounts of money. All this is the result of capitalism and the failure to of the government to regulate capitalism. We don't see this kind of thing in countries that have social democracies. United States is supposedly the richest country in the world yet we don't have simple things like free college education or free healthcare or affordable medications. Again all this and more is the result of capitalism.

[Gravit1]

Both Capitalism and Socialism are flawed, but leaning Capitalism is the way to go. Capitalism can't answer the question: What do we do with those unable to compete/work? And Socialism can't answer the question: How do we motivate people to work/compete? The US system of Capitalism balanced with social programs has been a wonderful model for centuries, but airheads like aoc wish to destroy it.

[cth96190]

Capitalism and free enterprise have delivered unparalleled prosperity and technological advancement.
The only other economic system that has been shown to work is Adolf Hitler's National Socalism, but the lunatics of the left will not talk about that.

[macnom]

Socialism/Communism (Shut the fuck up their so similar) - Sounds great on paper but often times is horrible, corrupt, and unfair in action.

Captalism - Sounds terrible on paper. But actually works out really well and is pretty stable overall.

I think what really annoys me is the fact that most people who praise socialism are the people who don't want to work and just want to be rich or have money

[slatyb]

Democratic Socialism is not the opposite of capitalism. That would be communism. It's regulated capitalism with a strong safety net. This seems to be working very well in Scandinavian countries and Canada. People live longer and are happier. The United States works very well for people like who are highly compensated. It's an ugly place for people without health insurance.

[Lionman95]

No I wouldn't say that because communism is such a utopia that no one actually wants to live. All those so called communist countries had or have a rich minority living a more capitalistic lifestyle.

[TeeBar]

No, capitalism has brought more good to more people than any other system in the history of Mankind.
To claim otherwise is to stamp one as an uneducated buffoon.

[007kingifrit]

no, i believe humans are inherently evil and capitalism is great because it turns human greed into betterment for all by creating the right incentives to help others

[andreasderjuengere]

It's as flawed as its competition.
Not evil - just dumb.

[WindAtMyBack]

Nope, it's great. It's been a resounding success. How is that evil?

And AOC is a complete moron. She's a stupid immature child.

[The_Sal]

if AOC lives through socialism she'd be praising capitalism. there's a reason why Russia ditched communism aka socialism also China is communist but is capitalist in a lot of ways

[JesterRose]

Oh ya, the mentality that advanced the western world and has given us so many advances is the issue. Obvious sarcasm is obvious.

[OddBeMe]

Capitalism breeds apathy and greed. But if it’s regulated it can bring billions out of poverty.

[CuriousMufuxka]

I do. Yet realize it's a far lesser evil.

[jahaims]

Nope..

[Ilickvulvas]

Not at all