Why is capitalism to blame?

[bricolage]

So the things are shit yeah we get that, you just have to read the paper or turn on tv and you know that. Question is how do you make the leap, or better yet do you explain to others the leap, between that and capitalism? Most people will say yeah that is shit but it doesn't mean the entire system is flawed rather you could just change the people running it or a few things about it and have a non-exploitative capitalism where shit like that doesn't happen. How do you argue otherwise, explaining that it is the fault of the system, not the way the system is organised?

I'd be interested to hear what people think about this.

[Winter]

A system with the sole aim of making profit cannot be made to be something compassionate. Capitalism is all about promoting "the virtue" of selfishness. The fact is that politicians do not represent the working class and poor, but their own agendas.

Give them a choice between wanting their families to be able to purchase more luxuries and making sure every citizen has the necesseties in life, and they would choose the former.

The capitalist system molds dishonest, opportunistic, politicians who do not, nor will ever, represent us, but themselves and their own comfort in life.

[RadioRaheem84]

Give them a choice between wanting their families to be able to purchase more luxuries and making sure every citizen has the necesseties in life, and they would choose the former.Ultimately that's what they'll choose but for the last three decades the public has been persuaded to give up their basic necessities in the the hopes of making it big so they can purchase those necessities and more. That explains the distaste for social democracy in the US.


The the OP, it's a long answer but look up John Foster Bellamy's great interview on the financial crisis and his book The Great Financial Crisis. I will post up a link to that interview in which he carefully goes through why the system is to blame and not just some rogue agents within it.

[Muzk]

This is why a vanguard party is neccessary, so we don't waste our time trying to teach the ones unwilling to think.

[RadioRaheem84]

This is why a vanguard party is neccessary, so we don't waste our time trying to teach the ones unwilling to think.

Well there's sort of an unspoken philosophy in the US that you really have no rights (health care, education, etc.) except what you can in the marketplace.

[NecroCommie]

Society ruled by a small elite, will eventually profit only that elite. Pretty much like when you have a jar of marbles, no matter how you organize it the small heavy marbles will fall to the bottom if you shake the jar. All societies will, and can only end up stressing it's prime forms. With capitalism this will mean profit for a small bourgeoisie elite.

[mikelepore]

doesn't mean the entire system is flawed rather you could just change the people running it

If that were so, it would be quite a coincidence that almost all cities, province and countries in the world have nearly the same problems, since they have different people running them.

Rather, ask what all of these different places have in common.

[Dean]

So the things are shit yeah we get that, you just have to read the paper or turn on tv and you know that. Question is how do you make the leap, or better yet do you explain to others the leap, between that and capitalism? Most people will say yeah that is shit but it doesn't mean the entire system is flawed rather you could just change the people running it or a few things about it and have a non-exploitative capitalism where shit like that doesn't happen. How do you argue otherwise, explaining that it is the fault of the system, not the way the system is organised?

I'd be interested to hear what people think about this.

In order to maintain any capitalist entity in an inflating market (inflation is a natural feature to capitalism), it must increasingly grow in power - having a sustainable system that works for everyone is not enough. Subesquently, these entities find ways to compel more labor for cheaper prices (again, inflation is a potent form of reducing real, wages, or buying power). Therefore, there must always be a plateau of bare susenance which most live on, a lower level of poverty your "bad behavior" or lack of sufficient labor could result in, and a higher level of power and possession which is increasingly grander.

In addition, the expansion of consumer goods always comes with higher prices, so the capitalist system maintains high profits by selling the newest technology at greater and greater excesses. In this way, the working class can never really enjoy the fruits of any advances, or indeed even basic production, because the capitalist model demands (and the corporate model legally requires) that the profit-interested parties bear more profit if it is possible. Clearly, it benefits the capitalist class to hold these commodities ransom, and to keep the working class unorganized so that they cannot enjoy these goods, unless they pay more than what it costs in terms of production power.

Not everything is the fault of capitalism. But every major conflict has at its heart some kind of value-conflict involved in it, and capitalism certainly exacerbates the conflict by embracing the competitive, rather than cooperative modes of organization.

[Stateless]

Capitalism as a whole is a class dominated system of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The situation is the same as that of the landlords and the serfs under feudalism.

The antagonistic relationship between these two classes cannot be eliminated without the elimination of the class as a whole.

[Liberateeducate]

Capitalist society is rooted in the irrational exploitation of people by other people, the many by the few.