EDIT: LOL, downvoted faster than the post could have been read, with zero rebuttals. Achievement unlocked: KICK HORNET'S NEST.
(America-centric post because that's where I've spent my 54-years and know the most about.)
Capitalism ain't the problem. Capitalism for the economy and democracy for the government is the best we humans have figured out. Problem being, money has been funneled to the top. The top took our vote via lack of education, media control, and union breaking, and their power has been snowballing for the last 20-40 years. Now we're too ignorant and misled to vote in our own best interests, no unions to back us. We're seeing the end game, the end game of any unregulated system.
Said many times, almost every evil of capitalism gets nullified when the government disallows and breaks monopolies and megacorps. Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, argued vehemently against monopolies. Couldn't find a succinct quote because he explained the evils in depth. Sorry, no sound bite for this one.
Having grown up in the 70s and 80s, I am stunned by what is allowed. A handful of corporations own and control our health, food, entertainment, news, banking, everything. Education is the one thing that's not wholly corporate, and the oligarchs have had that sector in their sights for decades.
And they're not after education merely to skim more money. Education in history, math, critical thinking, current affairs, is how they can be beaten. FFS, we're repeating the mistakes of exactly a century ago, people can't figure when back-of-the-napkin math doesn't make sense and can't tell when they're being conned. I see the latter items on lemmy, daily.
Stumping for socialism? Well, the Soviet Union failed mighty fucking hard. "But that wasn't true socialism!" And capitalism isn't what you are experiencing now. In neither case does the name fit the theory. North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Oh, and they're "socialist". Want to model their system?
"But socialism gives workers the power!" As the great socialist Upton Sinclair said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." Coal miners aren't organizing to stop fossil fuels, and neither are roustabouts. Were those the workers you imagined handing power? How about insurance company employees who would be out of a job with universal health care?
We can't let workers vote for bread and circuses. Capitalists compete amongst themselves. That competition works for everyone, as long as unions are the brake pads on that train. We took the brakes off and blamed the train conductor wanting to go fast. Well, that's his job in this poor metaphor, hope it comes across.
Blaming capitalism is as naive as saying, "Trump did this!" We can acheive nothing but backlash from ignorant supporters. Instead say, "The GOP did this!" (politically) and "The billionaires did this!" (economically). Words matter if you want to win hearts and minds.
I agree. What the US have got isn't classical Capitalism - it's Corporatism, which is pretty much the diametrical opposite. I have zero problem with people taking a risk and benefiting from getting it right, particularly if they reinvest all the proceeds in performing solid R&D, creating new products to address real problems and / or create jobs. So long as they pay their fair share of taxes. And their fucking employees.
Instead, what we've got is people who - unlike actual capitalists - do not want honest competition. What they ideally desire is a monopoly, or, failing that, a cartel. Both virulently anti-capitalistic notions. In fact, what they really want in extremis, is for the State to be a corporation: Democracy annulled in favor of a Board of Directors telling everybody else what, when and how to do anything and everything. And there's a word for that kind of central planning: It's Communism (except, to be fair, ideally in a Communistic system the citizenry would be staffing the committee, not the owners - that's never what actually happens though).
Edit: Heh. People really don't have a counterargument to offer. Only downvotes. Pathetic.
Maybe you should go and learn what capitalism really is, and why that isn't what you currently have. While you're at it, look into what 'corporations' originally were and how they were meant to function (and, importantly, cease to function). Then contrast that with what you're calling corporations these days. It'll be instructive, I promise.
You might want to read Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' (which kept me sleepless for days on end) or, you know, any book really.
Great! Lots to unpack there, but I knew I was missing the mark only talking about monopolies. "Cartels" are the larger problem. We don't allow strict monopolies, one company controlling a thing. But 4-5 companies controlling social media, entertainment, and news, for 350,000,000 American humans, the largest economic block on the planet, is, maybe, a problem?
You've hit other points I could have stressed. People are getting mixed up on capitalism as an economic system vs. what we have today. The owners do indeed want central planning, and it is, and will, go as well as the Soviet's notion of government central planning. Amazon's
us-east-1going down last week was hilariously reminiscent of the Soviet's Ukrainian tractor battery factory burning back in the day. Single point of failure. And what system prevents this?Capitalism spreads the risk among owners. Doesn't work that way today because the owners are oligarchs who have captured the political system. If they were truly competing, they'd stab each other in the back, crab bucket style, to keep any one of them from becoming too powerful.
Anyway, asked many times on here for an example of an economic system that cannot devolve into stronger apes sending the bananas upstream to even stronger apes. Never once had an answer. Not one time. Isn't that something?
"Trickle down economics doesn't work!" Yeah, we know, been there done that. "We can reverse it!" Do tell?
Here's the thing: I'm Danish, right? I believe - wholeheartedly - in the notion of 'social democracy': That corporations should be subordinate to the State, which should in turn be subordinate to the Citizenry which it supposed to serve. It's not a problem if a society gives rise to a corporation good at their job - that's great! - it's a problem when said corporation no longer thinks they're subordinate the the society that initially nurtured their growth. Then they become a metastasized cancer slowly killing their host organism. A net negative as opposed to a positive. A malignant tumor to be excised with extreme prejudice.
Mario's slimmer brother had a point there. And that's why he scares the piss out of worthless executives everywhere. They know they're pure poison, but they don't want the host to realize it. That'd undercut their profit margin. To put it in the words of "The Cowboy" of Lynch's "Mulholland Drive":
"Beautiful evening."
"Yeah."
"I want to thank you for coming all the way up here to see me from the nice hotel downtown."
"No problem. What's on your mind?"
"Well now, here's man who wants to get right down to it. Kinda anxious to get to it are ya?"
"Whatever..."
"A man's attitude, a man's attitude goes some ways... as to the ways his life will be. Is that something you might agree with?"
"Sure."
"And did you answer because you thought that what I wanted to hear, or did you think about what I said? And answer because you truly believe that to be right?"
"I agree with what you said. Truly."
"What did I say?"
"...That a mans attitude determines to a large extent how his life will be."
"So, since you agree, you must be a person who does not care about the good life."
"How's that?"
"Well, stop for a lil' second. And think about it. Can you do that for me?"
chuckles "...Okay. I'm thinking."
"No, you're not thinking. You're too busy being a smart-alec to be thinking. Now, I want you to think. And stop being a smart-alec. Can you try that for me?"
"Look. Where is this going? W-what d'you want me to do?"
"There's sometimes a buggy. How many driver do a buggy have?"
"One."
"So let's just say, I'm driving this buggy. And if you fix your attitude, you can ride along with me."
"Okay."
...There's a great deal to be learned from that interchange, especially in context.