I Don't Hate Capitalism....

It's not an any one economic systems at fault. It's unencumbered GREED and the golden rule!

They that have the gold make thr rules.

It's a fact of life. Most of the wealth of the would in held by a very small % of the population and they aren't going to give it up easly.

Rickie The Grey wrote: It's not an any one economic systems at fault. It's unencumbered GREED and the golden rule!

They that have the gold make thr rules.

It's a fact of life. Most of the wealth of the would in held by a very small % of the population and they aren't going to give it up easly.

Precisely why I aim to seize it.

I don't get it. In a capitalist system, if you overproduce to the detriment of your workers and your environment, a capitalist's greatest concern would still be the overproduction: It is only profitable to produce as much as the market demands and everything beyond that is waste of one's own resources. Were it not for people buying up other companies and getting monopolies on the market, the capitalist system would be flawlessly working. Greed isn't detrimental to it, it fuels it and does so to the benefit of everyone within it. The problem is that capitalism as such doesn't exist. It is designed to work and it would work when restricted to itself and not left alone to the people and their craftiness to cheat the system to drag it out of balance. Its not the greed, its not the system that's the problem, its the people who never are altruistic enough to be actually capitalist (as ironic as it sounds). Its precisely the same system that abolishment of money and establishment of communist economy hasn't ever worked out anywhere yet and probably will not any time soon, unless the group concerned is small enough to be honest with itself.

Never said capitalism was flawless. It's a human system thus flawed becaues we are. There is no perfect economic system. Even if you own all the wealth.

Terms like greed can suffer subjectivity. Within capitalism, yes I agree greed is the problem, but it needs to be differentiated from profit taking. The later is the main action of the system, but the former is when people abuse the system's vulnerabilities. By contrast, for someone taking a perspective from outside the system, the whole system seems to run on greed!!!!

By definition greed could be said to be taking more then your share... but if working within the system then your being 'taken' just as much as your 'taking'! So I think its the movement of capital itself, within the system, which is the action allowing innovation and stability to predominate when state run economies (Soviet Bloc) suffered stagnation and fragmentation.

I think human society needs to reward innovation and stability while also being freely accessible to as much of the population as possible, so with a capitalist market economy - by making the individual consumer decide - it could be considered a form of economic democracy!!!???

I think the problems are with inadequate regulation and enforcement, rather then the system itself.

Adder wrote: I think the problems are with inadequate regulation and enforcement, rather then the system itself.

Thank you Adder. That is exactly it. To leave it just the way it is will be detrimental to us all. There needs to be some regulations to benefit everyone. Even if company's do not want the regulations. That's what happened to the US financial institution in 2008, lack of regulations.

I realize this is scary for people that want no interference for how rich they get but I believe it is necessary for the good of all.

Maybe this is what you mean by clean Capitalism.

Example, eventhough there is a high demand for wood we can't purchase the next batch from the Amazon forest because we need the trees for our oxygen and perhaps for medical reasons. There needs to be compensation for that country and we need to get our wood somewhere else for a while. Capitalism left to its own is a psychopath. It doesn't care if it destroys the planet but I would like to believe we do.

This is just an example. I think you are all getting the drift I am passionate about the environment but it is a valid example. I want you to get really rich and I believe in capitalism but not at all cost. I want the system to be balanced and I want the system to work for the majority that really puts in the work and for those who don't, well there is still a planet to live on.

Adder wrote: I think the problems are with inadequate regulation and enforcement, rather then the system itself.

Every single president has promised new regulations to prevent crisis X from ever happening again. None have delivered. Capitalists always find a way to undo, weaken, roll back, or blatantly violate regulations.

The 2008 depression is a perfect example. The regulations that were enacted after the great depression of 1929 were rolled back in 2005 or so and then WHAM! depression.

It's a fundamental law of economics called the law of diminishing return. There's also the law of diminishing marginal utility. Capitalists, seeking greater returns on their capital, minimize risk by transferring it to the gov't and make wild gambles with other people's money.

Se La Vi.

I have no problem with capitalism. It's the best thing we've got going for us right now. Socialism can work, but it really only works on a localized scale in a culturally, racially, religiously, ethnically homogenous group, for instance, modern-day Greenland or Hitler's Germany. Capitalism works better in the large scale.

I think the issue is that often, people opposed to capitalism (see: leftards) use the word to mean "love of money," and while the two aren't mutually exclusive, they aren't the same either. Also, lefties (and all anti-capitalists, some of which, to be fair, are found on the extreme right) like to use the term "capitalist" to mean "white collar criminal." Also similar to how lefties use the word "fascism" to mean "something I don't like," or, to be fair, how some people on the right use "communism/Marxism" too liberally.

It's really obvious to see that "capitalism" has been turned into a bad word with negative connotations, when it should be viewed for what it is. It's not perfect, but I've yet to see anything better.

Star Forge wrote: but I've yet to see anything else.

Fixed that for ya! As long as people are afraid or unwilling to discuss the shortcomings of capitalism, they will never be addressed. But the reality is that capitalism creates a major crisis every 10 years or so, it can't put unemployed people to work even though there are factories sitting vacant and equipment gathering rust, it can't put homeless people in homes even though there are 6 vacant homes for every homeless person, etc.