Too many people, .....too few resources. And it will only get worse. People are gonna reproduce and it will be as it always has been.... ....exponential. Ever see a dog shaking water off its back? That's Mother Earth, and she doesn't care. George Carlin joked, .......but he was right. Enjoy your time and enjoy your kids. Hope for the best. Its all you can do really.
Sure, they're not static, but they have inertia. Arguably we want to make upward class mobility more fluid. How can we do that?
How Malthusian and false.. they thought this way thousands of years ago... Yet here we are with a higher standard of living due to capitalism
Hm, not that I enthusiastically endorse Vanzandt's POV, but I will rebut on his side that thousands of years ago, they didn't have nearly the knowledge of existence or population that we have. They couldn't even imagine the concept of "peak oil." Hypothetically, unless population growth is globally stalled, we will reach a population limit. Similarly with non-renewable resources, the well will run dry on many things eventually. I don't think everybody will die, but I don't think even a perfectly implemented capitalistic system would survive a period of extreme scarcity, since such situations are marked by systemic upheaval.
Many people here think that capitalism exists in a vacuum. I'm all for people having to make their own way and work hard, but the version of capitalism that we have today is perverted. Apple sells as many iphones as it does because the general public has many basic needs covered that allows them to have extra income to spend on stuff that benefits a capitalistic society. If the government didn't organize public transportation, be it either buses or roads, clean water, basic education, the private companies would ensure that we would be nickle and dimed to death, therefore not having anything left over at the end of the month to buy stuff with. (you might even have to pay for the air you breathe because some corporation would figure out a way to bill you!) Education is a huge oversight of pure capitalists. Everything up to highschool is essentially paid by taxpayers, and this brings most people to the state of being able to function in society. You can drive a bus or clean houses on this basic amount of education. A person doing these tasks has been brought up on government money and when they buy an iPhone, the credit will go to Apple, as if Apple is solely responsible for having the innovation to make this sale happen. But this sale was only possible by all the work and effort, much of is from socialism, to bring this person to the age of being able to buy an iPhone. The fact of the matter is, a capitalistic society could not function without all the benefits that socialism provides. I would even go as far as saying that without all the people just getting by, the capitalists would see their profits shrink to a pittance. Each breathing person on earth consumes quite a bit, and of course the poorer they are, the more they might require in terms of subsidies, but the capitalists are directly benefiting from these people just existing. Every dollar spent by the government does actually end up in the pocket of some big corporation. I'm not saying that socialism isn't going to suck a country dry, but a pure capitalistic model wouldn't allow for any one company to thrive because there wouldn't be very many people around to sell shit to. The fact of the matter is that the capitalists sorely need the efforts of socialism in order to provide eager consumers. And likewise, we need capitalism in order to weed out the ineffective companies and increase productivity because under pure socialism, you do eventually "run out of other people's money". But make no mistake, capitalism absolutely piggybacks on all the contributions that socialism provides.
Agreed; neither conceptually lives in a vacuum. A balance of both concepts is necessary, and they are not mutually exclusive.
I completely disagree. Healthy competition brings prices down, not up. When you have one state enterprise providing a service, you pay what the government tells you to pay (roads, water etc). You could say the same about airlines, if you just had one government airline we would all pay $x to go somewhere. Now we have a variety of airlines. Theres the high class movie watching foot-massaging champagne drinking service, or theres the budget (dont carry anything heavier than a toothbrush) service which is great. I live in the UK, i can now fly to different European countries for the price of a bus fare if i book in advance. Socialism would never allow that without creating catastrophic losses. Education? I spent half my childhood privately educated and half state educated. The private schools cater for the child, they teach children to pursue their interests, they identify a childs talent and adapt and mold themselves to the child's needs rather than state education where everyone is taught to be a worker drone and if you arent good at the topics the government decides are important, you go onto the scrap heap. Could say the same about healthcare, elder care, community support. Everything the state touches fails or works inefficiently. I resent just about every penny of tax i pay apart from that which goes on maintaining law, military defence, basic education and emergency care. I have created businesses and feel i owe nothing to "society" for getting me to achieve anything. They have stood in the way at every single step and then if you do make it they take half of you. The notion we live in a "free" society is a joke. But as i originally said, i do understand the concerns of the people in the world, there are less and less opportunities for people, its harder and harder to get anywhere. You can't go and open up a shop now because you are competing with every internet shop in the world. You cant manufacture anything as someone in the far east can build something identical for a fifth of the price and even providing services now is hard because you need technology skills which were never taught in schools when we went. Trading is probably the last industry in the world where you can go in with a little and come out with a lot without million s of upfront investment and it is an industry hated by governments. Those are the issues that need addressing and the government taking a bigger role in saying what you can earn and where you can earn it is a very dangerous path to go down
You think it was easier back then to build the railroads? It was always hard to make it big. But people always invested passively if they could not do it actively. Arguably there are more opportunities now b/c of our better understanding of the world. Unless you mean that b/c of larger population there are less opportunities per capita. Then we are in trouble and the only solution might be the population growth control.
Completely wrong. Capitalism creates 1.Arrogant people like Trump. 2. A trashed planet as they destroy the natural habitats of forest and plain. Along with the animals that live there. 3. A health industry that makes loads of money from people's illnesses, real or imagined. They don't want to cure you, They want you to buy their pills and potions. 4. Gross pollution of rivers and seas as big business and agriculture pour in noxious chemicals unless controlled. Over fishing which will alter the fragile balances of nature. Already Japan is plagued by vast areas covered by jelly fish as their predators are killed off. 5.Workers ground down to a pitiful wage as the uncaring Mr. Big at the top draws in the billions. BASICALLY CAPITALISM STINKS.
Riiight yeah, Castro, Chavez, Stalin were egoless freedom fighters that encouraged the development and growth of society weren't they