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Capitalism is Evil
in Philosophy
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Is it nice? Hell no. I am no right wing libertarian sociopath but those that are enjoy the lack of mercy in the system and see it as a 'good' not an 'evil'.
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Those who claim “Capitalism” is evil generally considers socialism is good.
Socialism: “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.”
Capitalism: “an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”
The way I see it, Capitalism is based on freedom, where Socialism is based on State tyranny.
Relative to freedom, the foundation to capitalism and also, the foundation to the U.S. Constitution, I like Thomas Jefferson’s take on freedom:
“Of liberty then I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will: but rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’; because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.”
Those who feel capitalism is bad, is missing their true nemesis being one of moral virtue (aka “rightful liberty”) within a society. Whatever form of governance or economic system one prefers, means little if society’s moral virtue is poor will simply morph into a state of tyranny.
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Face it, if the capitalists don't fleece you, the people warning you you'll get fleeced are going to find a way to fleece you.
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That said, I will assume that your conclusions are based on the assumption that all people want to be happy in life, and what prevents them from being happy is evil, while what helps them being happy is good. With this presumption in mind, let me point out a different side of every statement you made.
1. "It alienates the worker from his work"
For some jobs and individuals this is true, for others it is not. While for some people having to work to be able to survive makes the work itself merely an unpleasant means of survival, for others being rewarded for their work only makes them enjoy the work they do more. This is true in my case: I love my profession, and being well paid for doing what I love only makes me love it more.
2. Incentivizes outsourcing, which creates child labor and slavery.
I would argue that child labor and slavery is the problem in the countries into which the outsourcing occurs, rather than of the capitalism itself. In addition, non-capitalist systems also incentivize outsourcing, even if for different reasons: for example, socialist Soviet Union regularly outsourced military orders into third world country under its influence, as the production cost was much lower this way.
3. It dehumanizes the proletariat by making them nothing more than a means to produce a profit.
This stems from the human nature: we are selfish creatures and we care much more about our well-being than that of other people, so exploiting others is natural. In capitalism, business owners exploit customers, while customers exploit business owners; in non-capitalist systems, governments exploit citizens, while citizens exploit governments. Capitalism is hardly special in this regard, nor is it responsible for such attitude.
4. It creates aggression against progress and other proletariats by creating a fear of unemployment.
At the same time, the fear of unemployment pushes those people who otherwise would sit at home doing nothing to seek paid work they could do, which leads to higher economical activity and speeds up the progress.
5. It demonizes the unfortunate by labeling them as lazy. If you are not working, Capitalism says that you are lazy and deserve to die for it.
This is not correct; capitalism gives you opportunities to earn capital and punishes you for wasting those opportunities, but it does not label you lazy if you happen to be unfortunate - people do. In fact, in socialist systems those who are not working are treated much harsher than in capitalist systems: while in capitalist systems not working means you do not receive any income and must seek other means of survival, in socialist systems not working typically is a crime, as you are supposed to contribute to the society, not to be a burden on its shoulders.
I hope these comments are helpful in letting you see the other side of the issue! As any other system, capitalism has strong and weak sides; in my opinion, history demonstrates its strong sides to be much more abundant than its weak sides, compared to every other system ever attempted. It does not mean that capitalism is the final, ultimate system - however, it is a very effective system, considering that for thousands years a better system was never found.
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"Americanism not Globalism, will be our credo." ~Donald Trump
"A communist is like a crocodile" ~Winston Churchill
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If you want to understand the point you are tryign to rebutt without understanding you can wiki it or read the relevant section of Marx's manuscripts here.
This is a very poor excuse. Capitalists are happy to accept the results of Capitalism when they view it as beneficial e.g. "The profit motive drives people to seek efficiency gains!". You can't then push away the negative aspects of the profit motive driving people to make immoral and harmful decisions.
Also feel free to source evidence for your USSR claim or it can just be disregarded.
An absurd simplification that can be instantly dismissed. People are selfish, but we're also caring, generous, thoughtful, prideful, etc. To quote Ha Joon-Chang, professor of Economics at Cambridge from his book 23 Thigns You Didn't Know About Capitalism:
"The assumption of self-seeking individualism, which is at the heart of free-market economics, has a lot of resonance with our personal experience. We have all been cheated by unscrupulous traders, be it the fruit seller who put some rotten plums at the bottom of the paper bag of the yoghurt company that vastly exaggerated the health benefits of its products. We know too many corrupt politicians and lazy bureaucrats to believe that all public servants are solely serving the public. Most of us, myself included, have goofed off from work ourselves and some of us have been frustrated by junior colleagues and assistants who find all kinds of excuses not to put in serious work. Moreover, what we read in the news media these days tells us that professional managers, even the supposed champions of shareholder interest such as Jack Welch of Ge and Rick Wagoner of GM, have not really been serving the best interests of the shareholders.
This is true. However, we also have a lot of evidence - not just anecdotes but true systematic evidence - showing that self-interest is not the only human motivation that matters in our economic life. Self-interest, to be sure, is one of the most important, but we have many other motives - honesty, self-respect, altruism, love, sympathy, faith, sense of duty, solidarity, loyalty, public-spiritedness, patriotism, and so on - that are sometimes even more important than self-seeking as the driver of our behaviours.
Our earlier example of Kobe Steels shows how successful companies are running on trust and loyalty, rather than suspicion and self-seeking. If you think this is a peculiar example from a country of 'worker ants' that suppresses individuality against human nature, pick up any book of business leadership or any autobiography by a successful businessman published in the West and see what they say. Do they say that you have to suspect people and watch them all the time for slacking and cheating? No, they probably talk mostly about how to 'connect' with the employees, change the way they see things, inspire them, and promote team-work among them. Good managers know that people are not tunnel-visioned self-seeking robots. They know that people have good sides and bad sides and that the secret of good management is in magnifying the former and toning down the latter.
Another good example to illustrate the complexity of human motivation is the practice of 'work to rule', where workers slow down output by strictly following the rules that govern their tasks. You may wonder how workers can hurt their employers by working according to the rule. However this semi-strike method also known as 'Italian strike' (and as 'sciopero bianco' or 'white strike', by Italians themselves) - is known to reduce output by 30 - 50%. This is because not everything can be specified in employment contracts (rules) and therefore all production processes rely heavily on the workers goodwill to do extra things that are not required by their contract or exercise initiatives and take shortcuts in order to expedite things when the rules are too cumbersome. The motivations behind such non-selfish behaviours by workers are varied - fondness of their jobs, pride in their workmanship, self-respect, solidarity with their colleagues, trust in their top managers or loyalty to their company. But the bottom line is that companies, and thus our economy, would grind to a halt if people acted in totally selfish ways, as they are assumed to do in free-market economies."
Baseless claim, also missing the issue that Capitalist economies have structural unemployment issues and have more unemployed people than there are jobs. It isn't a case of people will get jobs if they try hard enoughJust World fallacy. People don't succeed based on grit and determination just because you would like it if they succeeded on grit and determination. Not only that but you proved his point for him, int he prior point you specifically call out unemployed people as people who want to "sit at home doing nothing."
Capitalism is based around people earning money from their wealth rather than from their work and the profit motive driving people to compete and increase their profit to generate more wealth.It's specifically a system which has no place for the unemployed or no way of handling them
Lol this dude thinks China subscribes to "free-market Capitalism".
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Pretty much the defining feature of Capitalism is that control and the ability to extract profits from a business is based on how much money you have invested in it (e.g. how much capital), not how hard you work.
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"Pretty much the defining feature of Capitalism is that control and the ability to extract profits from a business is based on how much money you have invested in it (e.g. how much capital), not how hard you work."
Do your workers meet either criteria? No. The investors and owners of the business are able to benefit from the profits that are accrued - that's the basis of Capitalism. ordinary workers will receive a salary and may receive a benefit as profits increase (which may or may not be in line with the increase in turnover) or may not - that not being an critical component of the Capitalist method. Similarly the owners of the business are the ones who call the shots and have control over how it runs.
Ergo exactly as I stated.
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Incorrect.
http://bfy.tw/10Jr
"An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
"Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit."
Also you're using voluntary exchange wrong, that relates to buyers and sellers - not employers and employees. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_exchange
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And employers and employees are buyers and sellers when it comes to labor. Take Econ 101 and get back to me.
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