Does capitalism work?

Then democracy is irrelevant.

As long as there is money, there will be power. Unless you distribute money evenly, in which case everyone will have the same amount of power (well, with some differences, actually, due to intelligence...). So what do you suggest?

 

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If you "distribute the money evenly", then there is no point of money.

 

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Yes, I suppose that's true...

 

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The "tyranny of the mob" is a well known problem with democracy, and is one of the primary reasons for the system of checks and balances in the US. A democracy is not an inherently just form of government, particularly if the majority of the electorate votes unjustly. If you have a room of 5 people and the 3 men vote to rape the 2 women then you have a tyrannical democracy. A democracy cannot be more just than its electorate.

Well, my political philosophy is Libertarian. So I would suggest removing the power from the politicians. If they couldn't subsidize Exxon from the public treasury, or harm Exxon's competitors, etc. then Exxon would have no reason to curry favor with corrupt politicians. Remove the politicians' power and their corruption is irrelevant and harmless.

-Dale

 

if you're expecting to enlighten people about communism, or another form of economy, criticizing one that is just as flawed isn't such a grand idea. Capitalism works just as well as Communism, both are very flawed at their core. The base Idea in Capitalism is that of Economic Survival of the fittest, the working class will be tramped and will eventually lead to a rebellion that will either end in a toppling of the ruling class or new rights for workers. In Communism it's the opposite, the individual is trampled and looks for ways to put themselves above, and if allowed eventually will convince more capitalism is a good idea, and unless democracy comes into play it will continue in a vicious cycle. Democracy is what truely allows a country to stay weighed in a kind of economic system, as long as the general populace is happy then a rebellion is most likely stayed. By no means does this mean that Democracy is the only way, bear in mind that Stalinistic Communism is very popular, as it allows people to get more from a paycheck than others, just keeps it in check so the difference isn't so varied. Just like American Capitalism isn't bad either, due to democracy for the most part. In a basic capitalist system the lower class is owned and disregarded easily. Socialism is probably the best way to go about things, adding a fine mix, allowing personal freedoms (Capitalism), but also regulating the economy so as to avoid market crashes and economic degredation (Communism). Unfortunately many people have developed a negative stigmatism to Communism due to popular media.

Edit: Dale makes a wonderful point about the checks and balances, if you don't believe him, or maybe before even posting here you should all read something called "The Federalist Papers". They're quite interesting and informative

 

There's democracy in the US....!?

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I would tend to agree that capitalism works at least as much as it doesn't.

 

Capitalism must work: The only socialists I know are employees, or thieves.

All the successful business people I know are capitalists -- with employees, some of whom are thieves.

 

Capitalism does not work because it's not sustainable, but it's all we have for now.

 

Capitalism is a way shifting risk. If you are wealthy, you can shift the risk onto the people who are less wealthy.

 

If you are a wealth redistributor you can do the very same thing.

If you aren't wealthy you have to take wealth from someone who is.

If you are wealthy you have to give it away.

Those who can't generate wealth for themselves have to characterize as thieves those who can generate wealth so that they can justify taking from people just like themselves because they're arguably better and thus more deserving.

 

This is where we're supposed to pretend that the largest economies on the planet are not operating on the capitalism model.

Right?

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It should be noted that nothing, and I mean nothing, is sustainable. Every function of civilization or, indeed, of biological life uses up something that can only be renewed through greater effort. Get used to it.

The free market is all about bootstraping to your next source of resources or way to use them before your previous supply runs out. Governmentally controlled systems revolve around getting every last gram of value out of whatever you have left. The sad thing is that by following the latter system, you will be left trying to find a way to cut a single loaf of bread in six-billion different pieces rather than try and find more bread.

 

For the Cliffnotes crowd: The state of living requires that you pee into your local water table.

Suck on that.

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Well... you are always either peeing into your own water table or somebody elses. Either that or you are storing all your pee in some secret underground repository for all time. Or you are doing the whole oriental thing of drinking your own pee. And both of those possibilities are just too freaky to contemplate.

 

Which begs the question of the composition of the urine of Ammonia breathers.

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I'm not a socialist, I'm a capitalist, I just think capitalism needs to be updated. We need capitalism 2.0, otherwise it's going to breakdown and end up as socialism or even worse communism.

Capitalism has to be adapted, we need a more ecology based form of capitalism. Right now capitalism works like chaos, with no order or rhythm to it, we need to give it some reason and rhythm.

Some ideas are here http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/


The point is, capitalism needs to be focused on humans, otherwise the machine breaks when the human spirit and body breaks.

 

The earth was sustainable. maybe if our capitalism were more earth and human friendly, we'd have sustainability. Until we have full employement, capitalism is neither efficient nor optimal. We must have more jobs than people before we can say capitalism is sustainable and efficient.

 

Ecolonomics are the future. I don't know why this forum does not have an ecolonomics section.

ecology and economics combined makes sense, what good is making money if you make money destroy the earth and yourself? it's irrational.

http://www.ecobooks.com/books/smbeaut.htm
http://www.ecolonomics.org/ecolonomics.org/pages/ioe_home.html

 

Oh. So rich people are great and poor people are scum?

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Get a life!

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