Why are folks so anti-capitalist?

Hi all,

I'm seeing a lot of hate for capitalism here, and I'm wondering why that is and what the rationale behind it is. I'm pretty pro-capitalism myself, so I want to see the logic on the other side of the fence.

If this isn't the right forum for a political/economic discussion-- I'm happy to take this somewhere else.

Cheers!

rusticus1773 ,

Pretty simple really: capitalism requires infinite growth. We have finite resources. The world is literally melting around us due to unsustainability.

The pet peeve of many people is the greed (of billionaires, politicians, global companies, etc) for wealth (paper, essentially) yet not giving a flying fuck about the anyone else or the rest of the planet.

Whirling_Ashandarei ,

I'm really not trying to be a dick, but uhh... Look around? The world is literally on fire and efforts to put it out or even to stop pouring more gas on it are put down at every turn by capitalists in the never ending pursuit of more money for it's own sake.

Let's start here: are you a capitalist? Do you own any actual capital? I don't mean your own house or car, that is personal property not private property or anything resembling the means of production.

I ask because many people consider themselves capitalist when really they are just workers who happen to own a bit of personal property, and they make themselves essentially useful pawns for actual capitalists.

And, if you're not an actual capitalist, why are you so pro capitalism?

steltek ,

It's not illogical to be pro-Capitalism while not owning any "means of production" if it means you still have better outcomes.

There are no true Capitalist countries and no true Socialist countries. It's not even a spectrum; it's a giant mixed bag of policies. You can be for some basic capitalist principles (market economy, privately held capital) and for some socialist policies (safety nets, healthcare) and not be in contradiction with yourself. There's more to capitalism than the United States.

I think OP was seeing a lot of "burn the system down" talk. Revolutions aren't bloodless, instantaneous, or well directed. Innocent people will die and generations will suffer. It's stuff only the naive, the malicious, or the truly desperate will support. And if you're here posting it on the daily, I don't believe you're that desperate.

argv_minus_one ,

Global warming is upon us. If something doesn't drastically change, now, our entire species is going to die.

Matt_Shatt ,

And some people will be hoarding money until the last, bitter second.

persolb ,

I think this conflates capitalism with lack of coordination. We could fix global warming today via regulation. Even if our government was socialist, it would probably still not be curbing emissions due to trying to achieve some other non-capital goal.

Second, there isn’t any need to falsely imply our species is going to die because of climate change. No model points at that. Billions of people having crappier lives and dying sooner should be enough motivation.

archomrade ,

We're ~ 5 degrees from mass crop failure and famine, and that's pretty well documented.

"Billions of people having crappier lives" is a weird way of describing starvation.

Zyansheep ,

Hmmm, its those kinds of extreme statements that make me a bit suspicious. Is global warming really an extinction level event? I can imagine terrible civil wars over resources and increasing displacement from natural disasters, but total eradication of the human race is afaik not a possible result of global warming.

argv_minus_one ,

If global warming doesn't completely wipe us out, we'll finish ourselves off with nukes.

Hexadecimalkink ,

It's kinda like when they called it world war 1 and 2 - it didn't actually include the entire world, but it did include so many countries that people considered it to be the world. The amount of people that could die or be affected by global warming could kill billions. Billions.

Zyansheep ,

Hmmm... words used in not-satiric circumstances where the true meaning isn't the intended meaning is a bit confusing...

Didros ,

Yup, that is the goal. Juuuuust short of desperate. That is where we are aiming for most of our population to live.

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