11th August 2011, 9:12 PM
I'm not really an all or nothing person these days. Capitalism is still the best tool for quickly moving money from investor to investee. It's also the best tool for figuring out what people want. Maybe not what actually works, as the vast "alternative medicine" market can attest, but still, businesses need at least some level of capitalism to grow well. I joke about your job a lot, but I accept that.
The flip side is, corporations are run by humans with all their flaws. Unlike the Randian super men would think, people don't have all possible information and don't always care about long term "self interest". That means that someone can be frauded out of money, and the savvy fraud can still serve their best interests in doing so as long as they don't get caught. It also means people just plain make mistakes, and those mistakes can be compounded by a billion things. Frankly, simple reality means that unlike randian philosophy would say, people don't and can't start on an even playing field. Someone born into poverty, save for sheer luck or a lot of help from others, will stay that way. No amount of "gumption" will fix that.
Going "all communist" is obviously the wrong way, but complete let it alone capitalism is just as easily corrupted. For now, capitalism with oversight is simply the only way that works well enough for everyone. Debate how much oversight, but it's downright naive to assume that "none" is best for everyone.
I don't think getting rid of capitalism will solve anything until money itself becomes obsolete. That'll only happen if we ever get technology so advanced that we go post-scarcity in everything but land and one-of-a-kind originals (or at least in the things needed for living a comfortable life).
The flip side is, corporations are run by humans with all their flaws. Unlike the Randian super men would think, people don't have all possible information and don't always care about long term "self interest". That means that someone can be frauded out of money, and the savvy fraud can still serve their best interests in doing so as long as they don't get caught. It also means people just plain make mistakes, and those mistakes can be compounded by a billion things. Frankly, simple reality means that unlike randian philosophy would say, people don't and can't start on an even playing field. Someone born into poverty, save for sheer luck or a lot of help from others, will stay that way. No amount of "gumption" will fix that.
Going "all communist" is obviously the wrong way, but complete let it alone capitalism is just as easily corrupted. For now, capitalism with oversight is simply the only way that works well enough for everyone. Debate how much oversight, but it's downright naive to assume that "none" is best for everyone.
I don't think getting rid of capitalism will solve anything until money itself becomes obsolete. That'll only happen if we ever get technology so advanced that we go post-scarcity in everything but land and one-of-a-kind originals (or at least in the things needed for living a comfortable life).
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)