General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Capitalism is not the enemy. Capitalism has improved the Lives of millions. [View all]iemitsu
(3,888 posts)material growth and the advancement of science and technology that characterized the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is an invention of mankind to facilitate market-place transactions and allow for the growth of business and trade. To accomplish these ends, capitalism has worked very well but it is an invention of man not a natural consequence of man's interaction.
It is in the context of a capitalist dominated world that the lives of all of us have been changed. Some lives have changed for the better and some for the worse.
It would be hard to argue that advances in medical knowledge or technology haven't produced more positive results than negative but depending on who you are and where you live the cost of progress might be more than any benefits you ever receive. And the progress we have made is not the result of capitalism, per se, it just happened in communities where capitalism was the mechanism used to facilitate monetary exchange. Progress toward better living conditions and intellectual growth happens in cultures with different economic structures too. The Soviet Union contributed much to modern science and Cuba has provided its citizens with much better living conditions under communism than they had under the influence of capitalism.
Therefore, one could more accurately say that, many positive beneficial changes for mankind happened during the modern era.
It would also be true to say that not everyone on earth benefited equally from the material growth and scientific and technological advances that characterized recent history.
Capitalism provides tools which promote the growth of material wealth but the process of creating that wealth for some, results in great poverty and suffering for others. So it could be said that capitalism has sponsored both great good and great evil.
It certainly has sponsored the greatest disparities in wealth the world has ever seen and consequently the greatest disparities in personal power. This is not good for the individual even when one lives in a rich and powerful land.
Capitalism has not encouraged us to become better beings, as individuals or as groups. Material wealth has not made us more generous or kind toward others. Capitalism insures that good ideas and better technology are developed and made available to consumers, when profit can be made not to improve the world. Capitalists resist adopting good ideas or new technologies if they believe they can make greater profits by not adopting new ideas and methods, demonstrating that activities motivated by capitalism are not inherently geared toward positive growth. In fact capitalists will adopt practices that are dangerous, untested, or harmful, to their workers, their customers, and the environment all to increase their profit margins. Not progressive at all. Capitalists, in order to make a profit, exploit both labor and resources. Resources are extracted from the environment as cheaply as possible (often causing great harm to the local people and environment) and labor is paid far below the actual value of the work performed in order to create the capital which fuels inventions that those who built them can't afford to enjoy. Capitalism and Democracy are incompatible. Both Communism and Socialism were conceived as remedies to the many social ills sponsored by Capitalism.
Without a doubt, great and wonderful developments have been sponsored in the context of capitalist societies but many awful wars and human misery were the cost of those great advances. It seems there must be a way that we can enjoy progress without having to rob others of their ability to move forward too.