So I just randomly decided to read through this thread, and here's just some random thoughts. Warning, I really like to try and clearly get my points across...which makes me horrendously long-winded. Long post ahead.
While there's no doubt that Capitalism has proven to yield good results, that doesn't mean it's as infallible and perfect a system as some claim. Just because it's "the best system so far" doesn't mean that it doesn't have any flaws, and that those flaws can't possibly be improved. Just because a coat with holes is the best thing I have for keeping me warm in the cold doesn't mean that I should A) Stop looking for a coat with no/fewer holes in it, B)
Not try to patch up the holes if I can, or C) Throw away the coat because it's not doing me much good anyway. It does us no good to fall back on true but tired statements, nor does it do us any good to totally dismiss them entirely.
These aren't faults in the capitalist theory per se, but rather the end result of failing to protect some of the essential aspects of capitalism... true competition, preventing monopolies, preventing anti-competitive behaviour, separating the political system from corporate influence.
This has always confused me, because I don't really understand how "true competition" and "preventing monopolies" can feasibly exist in Capitalism? In business, either my company gets the consumer's dollar, or my competitors do. If my company gets enough consumer dollars, the other companies will suffer and probably go out of business, and then I will have a monopoly, plus the mindshare/infrastructure to give future upstart competitors a hard time if I maintain consumer trust. That's the inevitable endgame, the goal is to make money, and since money is a limited resource, that means by making money, I am then taking away money that could've gone to a competitor. Either I win or they lose, period. The only way the "everybody gets a piece of the pie" ideal works is if each company targets a different section of the market, but since that basically cultivates and preys upon our differences (class, race, gender, etc.) and often creates an "us vs. them" mentality (for example, console wars), I'm not sure if that can truly be considered a good thing.
So really, the only things that should be completely out of bounds for companies are cheating the system or blatantly exploiting and mistreating the public. Other than that, anything goes. Just like any other competition, one must play within the rules and do everything in their power to beat the opponent, because in the end there is only one winner, and thus a loser as well. I just don't see why people seem to pretend that Capitalism is supposed to be anything other than a cutthroat free-for-all where the cream rises to the top...but all who don't disappear.
Capitalism requires regulation. It's a shame that the current ruling party of the United States is in the pockets of those who have a clear self-interest in that regulation being weakened/removed altogether.
Here's the problem though: Capitalism requires regulation to be the positive force for society it was hoped to be...
but it needs no regulation to function and be successful. This is in stark contrast to Socialism, which requires regulation and strong government
to even exist, let alone be successful. One bad apple in office and a Socialist system tends to explode near-instantly. On the other hand, Capitalism brings in the money and maintains a functional, if not totally stable, economy no matter what. I mean, think about it, even during modern-day economic crises, it's not like everything suddenly crumbled and totally fell apart. People were still spending, and thus a band-aid was slapped on the issue and we moved on. No massive reforms, no revolt from the common folk, no overthrow of the current government. With corrupt Socialism that probably would've happened, but corrupt Capitalism? Yeah right. This creates an odd situation where the government needs big business more than big business needs the government. Since it's in top government officials' best interests that businesses remain healthy and the economy appear stable so that
their own lives can be as stable, profitable, and stress-free as possible, well then naturally they're going to spend the majority of their time kissing up to big business and doing things according to their needs rather than the people's. And since it seems like a large number of Americans are utterly convinced that what's good for businesses automatically will be good for enough (not all, not even most, but
just enough) of us, the system persists.
But that IS the point. Profit is more important than protecting their own employees, the very people is giving them prosperity. I get the "I'm making less money", but it is not because of being an unviable business, or the market disregarding them, is because they are investing in a vital part of the business, and that is their own people. That is terrible.
And yeah, I don't know if we can just say it is part of the system itself, or the people running it, but as it is it just can't be. It is cultural, but capitalism is central in our culture (hell, even for the ideology itself, it's part of human nature so we should be fucked lol).
TL;DR is: stop treating people as less important than profit.
This is interesting too. There's really no reason why a nation as successful and wealthy as America should have the structural problems it does. You'd think that it'd be a relatively easy thing to invest a portion of the tons of money coming in back into the daily lives of the people spending, but I guess not. I think back to Stephanie McMahon's infamous "philanthropy is the future of marketing" quote, and while it's a rotten statement, if that's really what it's come to, maybe we just need to go all the way and require that a cut of what these companies make goes directly to these communities, and I don't mean in the superficial "improving the standard of living" way, I'm talking money going straight to schools at the very least. If Capitalism is going to be a battlefield no matter what, then why don't we shift the battle for the consumer's wallet ever so slightly towards the battle for the consumer's trust? "Mom and Pop" businesses are probably never coming back in a big way, but maybe we should demand that big businesses at least attempt to adopt a few of those types of values, to the point where a local installment of a worldwide franchise is seen as a good, valuable part of a community, rather than just another option for making (minimum wage) or spending money.
It seems like the biggest problem with the current state of Capitalism is that it, with the help of its spokesman Consumerism, treats profit (and immediate profit at that) as the end-all, be-all, and we've totally bought into that ideal as a culture. I mean sheesh, even the stereotypical American ideal of individuality has morphed into..."Do you, but only if it pays, and pays well. If not, don't bother." They see us only as vehicles to buy their stuff, we see them only as vehicles to give us the money to buy their stuff. Everything else (which is necessary for our nation's continued health, mind you) is always "someone else's problem."
I really don't think all this is a Capitalist society at its best. Surely some of these holes can be patched up...right?
