Let me give you two examples that just wastes things that should'nt be wasted. Texans periodically get to see flames shooting into the sky near oil drills. This is the natural gas being wasted, all of that potential fuel being discarded like garbage because it is too costly to refine and distribute to make a decent profit. And of course we are all familiar with farms forced to leave food in the fields to rot because overproduction would decrease their profits. When we are in a world with masses dying from starvation, such a sight should enrage any caring person.
II. Environmental Destruction
I want you to ask yourself why we are not using recycled paper. There is a greater supply of post-consummer paper than there is demand for slightly more expensive recycled paper. Because recycled paper is difficult to mass produce, it is more expensive to produce because each unit has to share a higher percentage of the fixed costs of production. So, instead of doing what is ecologically prudent, we continue to ravage our forests and send our post-consummer resources to the landfill to take up room that could be used for true wastes. And what about air and water pollution? If pollution-controls did not adversely affect profits, we know that industries would automatically comply. I do not wish to present manufacturers as the "spawn of Satan", but the bottom line is that protecting the environment is a liability in a capitalist-like system. Environmental issues are just one example of how a capitalist-like market can force us to make the wrong choices.
III. A Society of Wage Slaves
To keep prices low, and to compete, management must prey upon labor, keeping wages low, automating jobs out of existence, and exporting jobs to other nations which still have slave-wage labor. This leads to poor products from disgruntled labor who realize that management only cares about their output, not their humanity. I realize that corporations have to do such things to "stay in business" in a capitalist-like society, but that still does not justify the human costs. People deserve more from a full-time job than just the necessities of survival. And, in many places in America, even having a full-time job does not guarantee the essentials. Some homeless people DO have jobs, but one cannot survive on a single, minimum-wage job. A person who makes the effort to contribute to a society should be truly rewarded for that effort. Every worker should have a certain percentage of their wages that can be considered "expendible". They should also have the time to do things they want to do; people who "live for the weekend" are only enjoying 2/7 of their life. If we were to efficiently allocate our labor resources, there would be no need for people to spend so much of their life working/preparing for work.
IV. Growing Inequality in Income/Wealth
"Between 1978 and 1987, the poorest fifth of American families became 8% poorer, and the richest fifth became 13% richer. That means the poorest fifth now have less than 5% of the nation's income, while the richest fifth have more than 40%...The American economy now exhibits a wider gap between rich and poor than it has at any other time since World War II." (Reich, Robert B. "Why The Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor Poorer", The New Republic, May 1, 1989.) Reich gives a convincing argument that the reason for the vanishing middle class is because of economic changes...we are now living in a global economy. US workers now must compete with workers from "developing countries" who are willing to work for very little pay. Another way of saying this, is that the culprit is a capitalist economy. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being economically rewarded for hard work or service, and very few want an equal distribution of wealth. The problem is, how many of those in the top fifth honestly earned their money? Those who sit around playing with money all day, producing nothing of value, and yet becoming richer is not the idea behind reward for labor and innovation. Just what is the true gap between the value of someone's efforts? Is there EVER a situation where someone should earn in a day what it takes someone else a year to earn? Is there truly that much of a gap in the value of the services the two hypothetical people provide?
Ross Perot is single-handedly trying to form a third political party. "At least a third of all senators are millionaires...More than 50 House members are millionaires."
For several thousand dollars, you can have lunch with the leaders of one of the political parties and "rub elbows" with the representatives.
lol jk... sorta. I feel like a broken record when I say this but the only perfect system would be a balance of capitalism and socialsm... atleast in my opinion.
Well, those 'flames' you see shooting into the sky are useless byproducts of petroleum. So that one's off by a mile. 70% of our energy comes from natural gas, so we know where it is. And that isn't from oil wells.
It's actually capitalism that invented environmentalism, just of our own doing. And hippies, which America has to many of. Hippies rebel against everything, including the thing that runs their lives.
And do those slaves have any future to begin with? They are often unintelligent people who can't really do anything else. However, for those that have some amount of intelligence, it is a sad existence. But it's partly their fault for not getting a better job.
And? Does that have any effect on you? Because you have absolutely no dreams of trying at that? You can have 80 IQ and still become smart. Unlikely, yes, but you still can. Intelligence is the root of capitalism. Second down is greed, not the other way around.
Well, I have to agree with you there. However, you can always get rich, no? Yes you can. Get a job, go to college, and advance your way up. It's not all that hard. As for the poor, get a loan. Not hard either.
I only skimmed it. I'll get back to you on some other issues later.
The argument that has been applied to commmunism many times before on these forums, that you can't assess their flaws because a pure system has never been achieved, can also be applied to capitalism. The failings you mention are not criticisms of the system itself, but just the way things are at the moment, which is very far from pure capitalism I assure you.
Show me a better government with bettter quality of life, advancement of technology, and military power.....
You sound kind of like a fascist but pure capitalism fails without socialist reforms like public schooling and medicare. Military power is never anything to be proud of unless you support fascism.
