Why is capitalism bad?

[Silleuksa]

I have trouble putting the answers to these questions into words
Why is capitalism bad?
Why is capitalism racist?
Thanks

[TheGeekySocialist]

I have trouble putting the answers to these questions into words
Why is capitalism bad?
Why is capitalism racist?
Thanks

we are slaves to the rich and their markets and the brutal nature of both...my answer to your second question below provides an example of this for you, but there are many, many, many more, just ask yourself why you might consider yourself a Leftist based upon what you oppose in the world, then think how the things you oppose are linked to the economy...

it requires competition and as such social division in order to survive and keep the masses from uniting against it, therefore it creates such arbitrary things as race, religion, nationality and the like to divide us and make us compete with one another.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Why is capitalism good? It starves people,deprives them of shelter and education,kills millions of by leading to war and neo-colonialism,and renders everyone a wage slave while making the lives of a small elite more decadent than anything imaginable.Technology,such as space travel,is stunted and bigotries are encouraged.

[Tablo]

Capitalism is bad because it is a system in which a rich ruling elite leech off the labor of the working class.
Capitalism isn't racist, but racism certainly thrives under it.

[TheGeekySocialist]

Capitalism is bad because it is a system in which a rich ruling elite leech off the labor of the working class.
Capitalism isn't racist, but racism certainly thrives under it.

I would argue that Capitalism may as well be racist, given the fact that it needs such social division in order to survive.

[redtex]

Why is capitalism bad?

There are many reasons but I will keep it simple mostly because I'm simple and I don't have a lot of experience in communism other than I've suffered for years under capitalism as a worker.

Capitalism is exploitation of the workers. Capitalists don't do anything to contribute other than to invest money. Workers do all the work yet the capitalists get rich for doing nothing while the workers just get enough to survive.

How the hell is that fair?

[CommunityBeliever]

Why is capitalism bad?

In my opinion, there are two main reasons why capitalism is bad: its system of production for profit which constrains our productivity, and the social injustice of the exploitation of the working class.

Production for profit
Capitalism is based upon production for profit. However, in order for products to be profitable they have to be scarce. For example, there is no profit in selling digital goods because we can copy bits instantly and for free. So capitalists combat this by creating artificial scarcity, planned obsolescence, intellectual property, proprietary software, DRM, etc which has effectively suppressed the development of the information technology.

Furthermore, capitalists invest in assests to increase their profitibality. If new technologies arise that threaten the profitibality of those assets (techno-deprecation) then those capitalists will suppress that technology from arising. For example alternative energy technologies (nuclear fusion, space-based solar power) threaten the profitability of the capitalist's oil and coal assets so they suppress them, effectively preventing us from developing a sustainable Kardashev-1 civilisation.

My favorite example of technology suppression is the Lisp machines, which are computers that remain the state of the art in computer architecture design, despite the fact that capitalists stopped developing them twenty years ago as well as basically all artificial intelligence software during the late AI winter.

Socialism is based upon production for *use* rather then profit which will greatly increase our productivity and the rate of technological progress.

Social Injustice
Capitalism is exploitative. It has divided the world into exploiting and exploited nations (imperialism) and it currently uses the "war on terror" as a justification for the continuation of this process. Furthermore, each capitalist nation is split between a exploiting ruling class (the bourgeoisie) and the exploited working class (the proletariat).

This exploitation results in starvation (despite the fact that we technically have enough to easily feed the entire world), unemployment, illiteracy, a lack of health care, war and violence, the imprisonment of a huge portion of the population, etc.


Why is capitalism racist?Racism mainly occurs as a result of imperialism (the highest stage of capitalism). It is an attempt to justify the exploitation of nations and entire peoples. For example, the main victim of imperialism is Africa (see the scramble for Africa and the slave trade), so the Africans (or more generally dark-skinned people) are also the harshest victims of racism.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I have trouble putting the answers to these questions into words
Why is capitalism bad?Capitalism was a step forward from feudalism in the sense of creating the potential for people to create a larger surplus and not be primarily tied to the land and farming production. However, it also has accomplished this through upending the lives of millions of peasants and forcing them to become a proletarian workforce, stealing resources and labor (i.e. people) all over the world, and creating poverty at the same time as increasing wealth. On top of the daily exploitation of workers (feudalism and slavery are also exploitative) it is an inherently unstable system which even if working "properly" creates booms and busts that destroy the livelihoods of millions and create artificial shortages of necissary commodities (like inflated home or food prices).

Why is capitalism racist?All minority ruling classes need to figure out ways to justify their rule as "natural" and also must repress the majority in order to preserve the rule of the minority. Capitalism in particular has utilized racism as a divide-and-rule strategy as well as a way to justify the poverty of workers (blaming the victims of poverty for their own poverty) in a system that is free of ridged castes. In the US, they say, "all men are created equal" but that's a problem if a chunk of the population is enslaved (in the past) or imprisoned and forced into chronic underemployment (currently). So generally the racist view in the US has been, "all men are created equal but some are biologically/culturally/intellectually inferior". Racism is also a direct tool for imperialism and conquest: when the capitalists occupy a region, racist paternalism (white man's burden - "bringing democracy") is argued, when they attack a country the explanation is often that the attackees are "savage" or "backwards" (They hate our freedom! They hate women!).

[Yuppie Grinder]

cuz mane
shit's fucked up

[tfb]

Capitalism can be (and is) also de facto racist. Capitalism prolongs the oppression of any marginalized group (black, gay, transgender, disabled, female, etc.) whether the capitalists are actively trying to harm those groups or not.

Members of marginalized groups are often poor. Capitalism hurts poor people and doesn't have an interest in helping poor people (unless they're tossing the poor breadcrumbs to prevent revolution).