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Six Arguments for the Elimination of Capitalism
1. Amorality – increase of individual and corporate wealth is the only core principle of capitalism. Recognition of any social concern or relationship to the natural world that transcends the goal of increasing capital accumulation is extrinsic to the system.
2. Dependence on growth – capitalism relies on limitless growth, but the natural resources essential to wealth production are finite. Super-exploitation is exhausting those resources and destroying the ecosystems of which they are a part, jeopardizing human survival as well as that of other species.
3. Propensity to war – since the only goal is to accumulate rather than distribute wealth, resources that produce wealth must be controlled; therefore war is inevitable.
4. Intrinsic inequity – without any constraining outside force or internalized principle of social equity, capital accumulation leads almost exclusively to more accumulation, and capital is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
5. Anti-democratic – democracies are corruptible: wealth can purchase most of the representation it needs to get the laws necessary for further accumulation and concentration of wealth. This means that as the concentration of wealth increases, democracy is degraded and ultimately destroyed.
6. Unproductive of real happiness – human happiness and wellbeing are demonstrably tied to other factors besides capital accumulation. Extreme poverty is clearly unproductive of happiness, but so is wealth, past a relatively modest level. Happiness is most widespread where there are guarantees that basic needs will be met for all, wealth is more equitably distributed, and bonds between people and the natural environment are still stronger than the desire to accumulate wealth.
“Ours is the first generation in history to have essentially moved its consciousness inside media, to have increasingly replaced direct contact with other people, other communities, other sources of knowledge, and the natural world […] with simulated, re-created, or edited versions of events and experiences.”
Real experience is different from media experience in the amount of negotiation that goes on. Outside media we are receptors and actors. Inside media we are almost exclusively receptors. With the private sector in charge, the messages we receive have the exact same intent as the communiques from an Orwellian state, even if the content is different. The intent is to homogenize us into a monoculture. In this monoculture, the prime directive is to consume.
In the capitalist utopia it doesn't actually matter who or where you are as long as you buy and don't get in the way of others buying. So you can keep whatever trappings of culture or individuality you have that don't hinder consumption, commodification, or access to the resources needed to produce the things you are supposed to consume. And advertising will (constantly) instruct you on what those things are, and make you believe your happiness, wellbeing, and most importantly, your identity are based on buying them...
...Consciousness seeks to make a whole of a disparate, fragmentary experience. Capitalism now flings stuff and information at it relentlessly, numbing it to accept these offerings as the totality of existence. The system's happy-face, sky’s-the-limit facade imperfectly conceals an enormous vacuum of meaninglessness, and a bonfire of destruction and waste.
Originally posted by Rockpuck
reply to post by KillerQueen
The only thing I agree with is the last bit. For every new gadget we invent, for every luxury we provide, you'd think we'd be very happy? But we are not.. we are miserable. Comfortable, yes, but not happy. Capitalism has made us to be the most comfortable and protected miserable people in history. It's weird, and no one can really place why exactly we are so sad, so angry, so apathetic.
Originally posted by Semicollegiate
1."increase of individual and corporate wealth is the only core principle of capitalism."
Not true. The core principle of capitalism is production. Food , clothing and computers need to be created before any social concerns can be oppressed onto them.
2. "capitalism relies on limitless growth"
Not true. Captialism relies on continued consumption of the goods and services produced.
3. "since the only goal is to accumulate rather than distribute wealth, resources that produce wealth must be controlled; therefore war is inevitable."
Not true. That is not about Capitalism, it is about political power.
4."without any constraining outside force "
Not true. Capitalism is constrained by the consumer and by the difficulties and expenses of production within the forces of nature.
5. "democracies are corruptible"
Irrelevant. Politics is not capitalism.
6. " human happiness and wellbeing are demonstrably tied to other factors besides capital accumulation. Extreme poverty is clearly unproductive of happiness, but so is wealth, past a relatively modest level. Happiness is most widespread where there are guarantees that basic needs will be met for all, wealth is more equitably distributed, and bonds between people and the natural environment are still stronger than the desire to accumulate wealth."
Begging the question. How does the author or reader know that capitalism doesn't provide the greatest possible availability of all desired services and comodities?
"With the private sector in charge, the messages we receive have the exact same intent as the communiques from an Orwellian state"
Interposing the state (the implicit solution and actually more Orwellian) is not the same as removing all insulation from interaction. Obviously the author is replacing corporate insulation (a side effect of artificial economic control) with political insulation and misrepresenting the interference as inconsequential.
"And advertising will (constantly) instruct you on what those things are, and make you believe your happiness, wellbeing, and most importantly, your identity are based on buying them..."
Advertizing, AKA propaganda, is the mode of our poorly educated society and will be used by any central authority, especially a non-capitalist, control-oriented, centrally managed society.
Capitalism has never exsisted outside of a hierarchical society. Capitalism suffers alot of blame from the accumulations of the political and social systems that it does not cause of itself.
Capitalism only asserts the right of a person to use his/her property to make a living as he/she sees fit.edit on 12-8-2012 by Semicollegiate because: (no reason given)
This is why China quit feeding drugs to their employees.
Originally posted by bjax9er
so which ISM do you propose we replace it with?
the one where government controls EVERYTHING?
free market capitalism is the most compassionate system to ever exist.
Mao Zedong and his revolutionaries were determined to eliminate inequalities, promote self-reliance and develop China into a modern industrial state.
First stage, land reform was introduced in 1950. It aimed to... take land from land owners and redistribute them among poor peasants, and to increase produce to help industrial development in China.
Originally posted by bjax9er
so which ISM do you propose we replace it with?
the one where government controls EVERYTHING?
free market capitalism is the most compassionate system to ever exist.