Capitalism is Unsustainable

But pure naked capitalism would have also taken our deposits with them. I wouldn’t think we’d get much, if anything, back in a bank liquidation.

And in that bastion of capitalism across the Atlantic you could add Goldman Sachs.

Had this argument with a friend over 20 years ago. Capitalism with humanity is like leaving a raging alcoholic running a pub. All the wrong kinds of people , similar to politics, seem to end up in the strongest positions who have absolutely no interest in anything other than themselves.

Individuals just can’t be trusted so whatever system you come up with you will always have rogue individuals corrupting or manipulating it to their goals. But capitalism is just the absolute worst sort of system you could come up with that literally lets rich people get richer even when they’ve made a balls of everything.

It’s just a modern feudal system at this stage , that’s technically not because “anybody can be rich”. Yes, anybody can win the lottery or get lucky and rise above it. Also love how people imply it drives on humanity which is dogs*t. Some of the greatest achievements or inventions come with wars (technology and moon) or crisis (covid immunisation)

I note the article says nothing about liberal democracies. But, I think you can make a stronger case that (ever expanding) cradle to grave welfare systems and entitlement spending are much more responsible for these problems because they are a product of our one man, one vote, democracy.

Capitalism is just private ownership of goods and property, combined with free markets. Capitalism can exist in a low or no-growth environment, as it did for centuries. But the welfare state can't. We have to have economic growth to allow the national debt to keep on expanding and entitlement spending to keep increasing.

Capitalism is, no doubt better than any alternative system we've devised. Unfettered capitalism where corporate losses are socialised and capital gains are taxed at much lower levels than the wages of labour, however, lead to a concentration of wealth among a robber barron class which has disasterous consequences for the world (see Trump, Putin, Thiel, Bezos, etc.)

As with all things, the answer lies in balance: let market forces decide what gets built/grown/created and how much is charged for it, have taxation policy that taxes away the excessive wealth of current billionaires and prevents the creation of new ones and sensible planning laws that ensure we're not destroying our planet in the name of "progress".

Abolishing planning permission would be outright madness. If anything we need to tighten restrictions on what's allowed to be built. Have you seen the monstrosities the likes of Cairn Homes and Glenveagh are getting away with throwing up lately? It beggars belief that someone with the title "Architect" actually put their name on the drawings. Hideous, over-sized, boring blocks that are in no way in keeping with the environment they're built in. I'm hearing more and more anecdotes from the occcupants of these new blocks that they're having issues with the cheap construction materials used and dampness from the lack of ventilation achieved in pursuit of an A rating.

The death cry of capitalists, "whatabout….. communist marxism". Is that all you can say to what is a thoughtful op?

I lived in the US for a few years and now live in a European country conservatives in the US dismiss as a communist society. It is a million miles away from that. In fact nothing about it could be described as marxist communism.

The quicker people realize this, the better it would be for the human race. One of the most depressing things of the last 10 years has been watching the volumes of people who think Trump/Musk and their ilk have for one second acted in the interests of anyone but themselves. Being selfish is a human trait, that's fine, there's going to be people like that, but to praise and laud them as has been done has been a massive misstep.