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!
Is this really uniquely true of capitalism? After all, the Chinese government sacrificed their environment (and neighboring countries) to supercharge growth. Then there was the destruction of the Aral Sea by the Soviet Union, one of the worst environmental disasters. I’m not claiming that communism was the cause, but that neither communist nor capitalism was the cause.
Capitalism exploits resources with an eye on ever-increasing “growth”. Capitalism abhors anything that either lessens “growth” or doesn’t actively encourage it. Growth for growth’s sake is a dead-end road, one we’re rapidly approaching. That China had the same mindset isn’t an aberration, the CCP and Chinese economy leverages the tools of Capitalism and the proceeds go to Communism (and corruption), to fuel stratospheric growth in order to counter Western hegemony. That China embraced Capitalistic growth models is a means to an end, it may be called Communistic Capitalism. It’s an economic model, not a political one.
And what of the USSR and the Aral Sea? Point is, when the two largest examples of real world communism wind up doing largely the same as capitalism, I find blaming capitalism to be incredibly dubious.
From what I understand, the idea is that the CPC gains governing legitimacy mainly by delivering strong growth for the Chinese people. This is an alternative to an electoral democracy, where legitimacy flows from the choices of voters. The economical is the political, in a way.
If you’re going to continue going to bat for Capitalism as your growth fueled world begins to burn around you, you might consider putting the blame at the feet of the petrochemical industry which is decidedly Capitalist. Have a nice day.
I think you’re misidentifying what’s happening. The petrochemical industry is capitalist in capitalist countries (or not, see Aramco) and communist in communist countries. Communist countries have various arrangements of state owned and run petrochemical industries. There was a petrochemical industry in the USSR. Present day Venezuela has PDVSA, Vietnam has PetroVietnam, and Cuba has CUPET. Laos is a little unclear and North Korea is shrouded in mystery.
Agreed. I have a similar critique of some of the other comments. A lot of people are pointing to problems right now and drawing the conclusion that capitalism caused those problems. No doubt that capitalism was part of many problems but I think it’s flawed to say the problems of today are uniquely caused by capitalism.
I can’t think of a country that is purely capitalistic. They’re usually some mixture of free-market with government intervention where needed. I think the US is in a period of transition but that description will likely hold for the future.
Mixed economy is the term. It’s the almost universal modern economic model, though of course the balance varies widely.