Is Capitalism Flawed?

[RealBitcoin]

And while you may have some substance behind your claim that the majority of population don't have enough brains (though this is debatable), the technology may be specifically intended to address this issue. In fact, even simple calculators do exactly that, though on a rather primitive level, of course


After all, any technology hinges on making human life better and easier in some way or other

Transhumanism? I havent considered that possibility.

Although I am not sure people will like this idea, that is by definition the extinction of humanity as we know it now and being replaced by cyborg, half sentient robots.

We dont even know if robots can have consciousness, so I am not sure humans would welcome the idea of being "augumented", we have no idea what that experience will be like and we  are familiar with what we know already.

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[Anarchist]

I agree that in capitalism it has all this, but it is still the best system

The Best system? @_@

Capitalism is an economic form of slavery...in one case, you buy a man and take advantage of his work. In the other case, one buys the conditions of possibility of work, and therefore, under ordinary conditions, the survival of a man, and one takes advantage of his work.
The aim is thus the same: to take advantage of the work of others (which is the own of capitalism, since its purpose is to increase the capital by making the right investments).

[deisik]

And while you may have some substance behind your claim that the majority of population don't have enough brains (though this is debatable), the technology may be specifically intended to address this issue. In fact, even simple calculators do exactly that, though on a rather primitive level, of course


After all, any technology hinges on making human life better and easier in some way or other

Transhumanism? I havent considered that possibility

But you certainly should have

Though I wouldn't call that transhumanism or any other such scary word. In fact, we are moving in that direction all human history. Even a simple and rough stone axe can be considered as a tool augmenting human capabilities. Any working vaccine heavily tampers with human immune system (since otherwise it wouldn't work), so we are effectively already there (and for many years at that), whether you like it or not. In other words, it is a matter of degree, not of kind. Regarding experiences, what do you feel when you calculate some fancy numbers using a calculator? I don't think it would feel particularly different if you had a sort of "calculator" built directly into your brain (this is indeed an oversimplification of matters but it outlines the whole picture nevertheless). If anything, humans will remain the same humans in respect to their self-recognition and self-awareness

[Eternu]

Like everything in human history and life is flowed, capitalism is flowed too. It have its good things and also it have its bad things. I agree with what you wrote, and i do not deny that. I think that in order for us to evolve we need to go true some certain things, capitalism maybe is one of those. I believe that in future there will be arrangement that will be better.

[Hydrogen]

The Best system? @_@

Capitalism is an economic form of slavery...in one case, you buy a man and take advantage of his work. In the other case, one buys the conditions of possibility of work, and therefore, under ordinary conditions, the survival of a man, and one takes advantage of his work.
The aim is thus the same: to take advantage of the work of others (which is the own of capitalism, since its purpose is to increase the capital by making the right investments).

Under capitalism, everyone has the freedom and the right to own property, start a business, own the ideas or inventions they patent. There are many benefits to capitalism which celebrities, schools and media ignore due to them all having pro-socialist/anti-capitalist bias. Many immigrants from foreign lands move to a capitalist country, start a business which they use to buy a house & put their children through college.

Under socialism, people do not have the freedom or right to own property, patent their ideas or inventions or even start a business. The state owns and controls everything. These limitations restrict progress, development and innovation in civilization. The united states being a hotbed of inventions and R&D is due to it being a capitalist society.

As bad as capitalism can be in some instances, socialism is always worse.

[Lampaster]

Capitalism is not flawed. I do think that all economic systems have a right to exist. Vicious only those who receive the right to realize the idea of development of the country. They always put their own interests above those of the state and is able to ruin any good idea.

[bouren]

Equity is always better than equality. We can't snatch someone's income just because he is earning more than others as his earnings are owed to his skills, talent, experience etc. However mere capitalism should not be implemented, it should be mix with element of equity comprising just, fair treatment to everyone. So mixed economy is best alternative.  

[Przemax]

This is what people typically say

They innocently assume that all this automation appears out of thin air like banks are creating money. But industrial production is not banking. All these robots have to be first designed and then manufactured somewhere, and I promise you that somewhere deep down the line there will always be quite a lot of human labor involved. To get an idea, look at the history of automotive industry. It seems like it destroyed quite a few jobs in some sectors but it created many more jobs in other sectors as well as created entirely new ones. It's the same with automation and robotics, they just move human labor to other fields, and since they are more complex technologies, this necessarily means that more human labor is required in other fields. In other words, you can't escape the complexity loop

But average people cant take complex jobs.

Not everyone can be an AI programmer, a mechanical engineer or a mathematician.

Most people are bartenders, supermarket clerks or similar king of jobs.

Here is the news for you, they are already phased out:

* https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/5/13842592/amazon-go-new-cashier-less-convenience-store


The simple jobs get phased out as fast as lightning. The complex jobs remain for the latest, but they will be phased out too. After all an AI is probably a better engineer than humans.

There is no solution to this than to just abandon this flawed system.

Its wrong to assume, that capitalism had ever worked. The USA capitalistic success is a myth most of the time. USA had developed rapidly thanks to world wars and the decline in europe economy.

Usa was mainly a country that had a stunning inefficiency and corruption never else seen in the world. It still has and still will have. That would be seen by everyone how inefficient USA is, if not OPEC and oil based dollars would save its economy.

Its all fraud - there is no good capitalism. If not electricity, and combustive engine there would be no place for growth, no matter what economic system we would live in.

The only real wealth is technology - not economic systems. We should not fear using the technology, and learn about the new ones. Thats the only way for more wealth.

We should abandon the rigid school system that makes people stupid and make new ways of teaching and learning. Talking about economical system is basicly a talk who takes from whom - thats a theft. We need to focus on wealth creation not its distribution.

[fullhdpixel]

I agree that in capitalism it has all this, but it is still the best system

The Best system? @_@

Capitalism is an economic form of slavery...in one case, you buy a man and take advantage of his work. In the other case, one buys the conditions of possibility of work, and therefore, under ordinary conditions, the survival of a man, and one takes advantage of his work.
The aim is thus the same: to take advantage of the work of others (which is the own of capitalism, since its purpose is to increase the capital by making the right investments).

I don’t really believe a rich man works more hours than an average man.
Rich men employs the average and poor to work in their favour. So I think an average and poor man works much more, while the rich man eats the bigger cake.

[thejaytiesto]

I agree that in capitalism it has all this, but it is still the best system

The Best system? @_@

Capitalism is an economic form of slavery...in one case, you buy a man and take advantage of his work. In the other case, one buys the conditions of possibility of work, and therefore, under ordinary conditions, the survival of a man, and one takes advantage of his work.
The aim is thus the same: to take advantage of the work of others (which is the own of capitalism, since its purpose is to increase the capital by making the right investments).

I agree with your basic description of capitalism, it is really slavery, specially when you consider the fact that most of you earnings go to tax, shelter, food, transportation to and from work, healthcare, 10 different insurances you need to have because you cant afford to not have them, and at the end of the day youre working for fuck all, most factory workers have no savings at all and literally live from paycheck to paycheck and are to scared to leave their job due to the fact they cannot afford to be unemployed for a week because they have a family to feed. This is, for want of a better word, slavery. Just prepackaged in bullshit to make it seem attractive to the average human being.

But the real tragedy is: what is the better system?

I like the idea of an open source society of sorts, kinda like what Jaque Fresco described (Resource Based Economy). But I don't see it in practice. While im willing to give up on dreams of ridiculous opulence if it helps making an RBE viable, it doesn't matter, because in practice there will always be someone that gets a monopoly of power and subjects others. It would take maybe a couple thousand years for the species to get anywhere close to that. Until then, you better be getting some money because otherwise you are fucked.

[Granxis]

I agree that in capitalism it has all this, but it is still the best system

The Best system? @_@

Capitalism is an economic form of slavery...in one case, you buy a man and take advantage of his work. In the other case, one buys the conditions of possibility of work, and therefore, under ordinary conditions, the survival of a man, and one takes advantage of his work.
The aim is thus the same: to take advantage of the work of others (which is the own of capitalism, since its purpose is to increase the capital by making the right investments).

I don’t really believe a rich man works more hours than an average man.
Rich men employs the average and poor to work in their favour. So I think an average and poor man works much more, while the rich man eats the bigger cake.

On the basis of this is the inheritance system, I do not think that if I get rich a day, I will not leave my children inherited, because I will start the process to donate the inheritance system to human beings.

[coralreefer]

capitalism is the best model out there.  To me the only caveat is that people still need to have compassion and help those in need.  Capitalism affords people to make that choice.  Hopefully, their moral code helps to make sure they do the right thing.

[deisik]

But the real tragedy is: what is the better system?

I like the idea of an open source society of sorts, kinda like what Jaque Fresco described (Resource Based Economy). But I don't see it in practice. While im willing to give up on dreams of ridiculous opulence if it helps making an RBE viable, it doesn't matter, because in practice there will always be someone that gets a monopoly of power and subjects others. It would take maybe a couple thousand years for the species to get anywhere close to that. Until then, you better be getting some money because otherwise you are fucked

This holds true in any circumstance

As they say, it is better to cry in a Mercedes than on a bus. That said, I don't really think we need a few thousand dollars years to see changes (any changes, for that matter). Could someone imagine today's world (I refer to Internet obviously) some 50 years ago? I suspect no one could. In this manner, we can't really say what we we are to expect and likely see with our own eyes (as well as feel with our skins) what the world will be in another 50 years. More specifically, the core change might be the destruction of power monopoly. Till cryptos came about, there had always been a state monopoly on money (even when gold was money), but this is no longer the case. And if something like that happens to power monopoly, the effect would be even more dramatic and profound

[sheldonnnn]

Capitalism has a lot of problems. But it seems to me that he is invincible. I recommend reading the books and small articles of the Slovenian political philosopher Slavoj Zizek. You can find it on the Internet. He wrote a lot about the problems of capitalism from the standpoint of modern Marxism. He opens our eyes to modernity.

[Hydrogen]

In a capitalist country with 2 million people, all 2 million have the freedom to start a business, innovate, build better things.

In a socialist country with 2 million, only a small fraction will have the freedom to start a business, innovate, build a better product.

Capitalism although not perfect is a superior system for innovation and advancement. This is why russia and china have been forced to adopt free markets of capitalism over time. Its also the reason why venezuela a country rich in oil has suffered by attempting to nationalize toyota and making constant attacks on the private sector under a pro socialist banner which have reduced standard of living to a dramatic degree.

The thing socialism is best for is keeping people from having electricity and modern plumbing the way socialist north korea forces its people to live in an era before electricity was discovered. Socialism is only good for restricting innovation and progress and keeping people enslaved.

[deisik]

In a capitalist country with 2 million people, all 2 million have the freedom to start a business, innovate, build better things.

In a socialist country with 2 million, only a small fraction will have the freedom to start a business, innovate, build a better product

I tend to disagree with this

I don't deny that capitalism is better than socialism overall provided all other things are kept equal, but this is not the case in real life for the most part. More specifically, if we are to remain honest, only a small fraction out of 2 million people in any country may actually start and successfully run a business even if they allegedly have (or do not have) the freedom to do so. First of all, not all humans have the propensity to run their own business at all (in fact, only a tiny fraction can). Further, in today's capitalistic system it is next to impossible to start a business given that all profitable markets have already been seized and divided by those mega-corporations. Your only chance is to be the first to enter some new field when it hadn't yet been conquered by corporate monsters and become that monster yourself before the rest of the pack. Otherwise, you will be quickly run over by competitors (but that's not bad in and of itself, of course)

[wizardee]

Is Capitalism flawed? I used to believe that Capitalism solves issues, but if I really look around me, it actually only creates more issues that were not here before.

> There are many rich people with tons of capital but there are more unemployed people that will not have access to that

> People are living in luxury mansions and driving very expensive car, and then kids are starving in other places

> Profits of companies is going up, but real wages going down, people are living paycheck to paycheck

> Everyone is in debt, nobody has any savings, and most people are working part time jobs

> Nobody has a house, nobody can afford one, yet real estate speculators own thousands of them

> Banks have trillions of $ of money, but they still charge you 50$ / transaction because of their greed

> People have no future prospects, no career opportunity, they just live from paycheck to paycheck trying to pay off the debt and buy some shit GMO food filled with poison, because why sell healthy food to the public when the GMO food is more profitable?


It looks to me like Capitalism is flawed. Nobody has any money and everyone is suffering. I think a universal income must be implemented as fast as possible.

Yes, capitalism is very flawed and there are many major problems with it that are not properly addressed. People / investors are so fixated on profits that it is causing major damage to society as they are willing to go to never seen before lengths to gain money.
However, capitalism does open up the windows to many opportunities for people to do, so I guess it has its pros and cons. But capitalism will soon tople itself with more and more money being printed and the bubble we are living in soon to burst.

[cryptocortex]

Capitalism is an efficiency based system, so I can't see how it's flawed...
People make it a flawed system when they mix capitalism with politics and oppression, and at this point it may not even be called capitalism anymore.

[seraph_the_wise]

It is flawed, but do we have a better system to replace it with?

Until we have AGI that can essentially automate everything or some kind of hyper advanced tech such as star-trek-eske molecular assembler + nuclear fusion power we will still need jobs (or some kind of incentive scheme), including a large number of jobs that people would not like to do. Plus the pesky problem of ownership of resources. Many of these techs are coming no doubt (and even more revolutionary stuff, such as nanobots that slow/reverse aging), but not as fast as many think due to physics and $$, so no tech is gonna save us of the difficult issues in the next years ahead. Actually, many of the technologies in the pipeline will cause enough social problems as it is (think L4 Autonomous vehicles, delivery drones, crypto, cas9, etc).

In absence of magic tech where we all could pursue leisure as we please, either exploring the rest of the universe or a virtual world, we have to deal with some unpleasant realities of our system and society. Whatever the model we pursue as a replacement, I believe companies will still exist in a way or another and will need consumers to buy their products with the goal of profit to the shareholders. It’s in their best interest not to shrink their consumer base too much, even if that pool can’t afford it, hence lending. That leads us to markets, complex financial instructions, etc. And soon enough we have more or less the same as today. In essence, the system is as flawed as we humans are.

[denis_igorevich]

I read about ERP on blockchain, guys says there that  they can breakthrouth capitalism. Their site www.darfchain.com, are they say truth?