Is Capitalism Making Life Better?

This Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFxYyXGMfZM

-Seems to debunk the myth that a rising standard of living provides adequate justification for a particular political/economic system. As, (to make an analogy), the rising standards of living in Stalinist Russia were astronomical; in a period of 10 years, Russia was transformed from a largely agrarian peasant-based society to an industrial economy. However, this was done through the use of: coercion, terror, slave labor, murder, secret police, and state-propaganda.

(See the video for additional examples)

If a rising standards of living are the necessary and sufficient conditions for justifying one's economic system, then capitalism AND Stalinism are justified.

I doubt very much that any rational person would consider both economic systems to be justified.

Thoughts anyone?

 

If you don't want a riding standard of living, go live in Chad.

Stalin's "reforms" are not justified by any means, and while the wealth of the Soviet Union did increase as a whole, most workers in lives in the Soviet Union actually became worse as workers were forced to meet ridiculous and sometimes impossible quotas which could often require 14 hour workdays. Though ironically in terms of equality between the genders and education, life in the Soviet Union did go forward under Stalin

People in former communist countries, China, the western world, and most of history will agree a better standard of living does justify the system.

 

The answer is : No.

Any system that allows the wealthy to accumulate as much as inter-galactically possible is not helping for the betterment of everyone in any way. It, doesn't even like, improve human quality of life.

Capitalism creates large Us vs Them categories ; the haves and the have nots, the rich and the poor, the divide between the hard working and the worthless, the deserving and hte undeserving. The gap between the wealthy and the poor is forever widening, and economists are all in agreement that the gap presently is rising at an accelerated rate.

We create export countries like, China as one of many examples, and then we wonder why our own domestic economies become import countries ; there are no steelworkers that make cars in the USA anymore.

It's no wonder that this capitalistic system, where it's in the best interest of the individual to hap-hazardly test their profit focused schemes to run amuck that we get crash and burn results.

 

We don't because someone else would do it for cheaper. On the flip side our economy has moved beyond that of a steel and such based one, we've evolved just like China has evolved from being an agrarian state. If we didn't do that, China wouldn't have done theirs, and we'd all just be poorer and more miserable in a less advanced world.

 

Can I use this in my sig?

 

Hell yes.

But no seriously people would be willing to take a hot dildo up the ass daily to live richly then to live poorly. And I say that literally, we would all take a dildo up the ass every morning if it came with $3,000 a day. We are all whores

 

That's not the reality of capitalism however, as Chomsky illustrates in the interview.

Aren't 70% of Americans living paycheque to paycheque ?

Is that really a just reason to continue with a capitalistic system ?

 

Yes, how many Americans live paycheck to paycheck because they have debt up to their ears because they couldn't live within their means? It doesn't matter what social group you're in, 80% of Americans make more then 90% of the average workers in the world. We don't have a money supply problem, we have a money management problem. Do I have statistical proof of this? No. But I have tons of anecdotal living in the suburbs, people buying houses they can barely afford to keep face, kids getting $2,000 worth of xmas gift, bran new cars when they're 17 evidence.

 

Precisely. Living beyond your means and beyond the means of what you even have is the capitalistic way - the living on credit model. The notion that we always have to accumulate and make some kind of profit that we can sign for on the dotted line is what counts. It's the entitlement we feel for having so much more than someone else or making ourselves out to be owners of such capital as this is the mode of life.

What you're saying is that people are for the majority in favour of the capitalistic system, because these ideals of accumulation and wealth justify the entire system ; that is, the capitalistic system in its entirety.

 

You haven't answered the question in your own words though. I'm not sure why.

Is capitalism making life better ?

 

And even if that is so, what else does the capitalistic system justify ?

 

Does the poll options fit the title of the thread properly?

 

Unbelievable.

 

Four Brands Of Capitalism

Anyway as far as the question is capitalism making life better? Basically yes. Almost every developed country practices some brand of capitalism. It's capitalist or market organization of economic activity that generates the wealth for these countries. Even "socialist" countries like Sweden practice enough capitalism to make their system work.

 

Simply put - Any system that destroys itself does not better anything that relies on it. The problem with this question is that if we do not take human experience on a unified level, where we look beyond our immidiate experience, then we could never assess the benefits and failures of capitalism. Ie. If I measure capitalism in the context of immidiate pleasure of those existing right now, I could only say that it serves better than any other system that could potentially be in place(utopian dreams are not considered possibilities in this discussion) However, if you look at immidiate pleasure, in the context of future generations and what their experience of immidiate pleasure will be in relation to capitalism, the picture changes and we see a very dark side to capitalism, something that rots and festers all whom rely on it....

 

My answer is yes and no, depending on your perspective on people.

 

It's not the capitalistic way, it's the retarded way. Capitalism gives people the option to accumulate large amounts of wealth, it's also given us an information technology lead society where people have anything they need to know at their fingertips. If people decide they'd rather watch American Idol and buy $300 purses instead, that's not the fault of the economic system, that's the fault of society. Those left with a brain can continue on their merry way. And it's not a notion, it's human nature. It's basic instinct translated into modern terms. Money is the key to survival in modern society, of course people are going to want more, it's security. Would a farmer 1,000 years ago not try to grow as much grain as possible for his security?

You can't beat human nature, all of us, does anyone here really need the last pair of shoes they bought, the last movie they saw, last CD they bought, last restaurant they went to? Anyone who isn't giving every dime they don't absolutely need to starving children in Africa does in fact love capitalism because they are hoarding the wealth.

 

Go away! Party Pooper....

 

It depends how you define "better". A higher standard of living doesn't necessarily equate to well-being. There are plenty of miserable fucks on wall street who are wealthier than I'd care to be. If I wanted to be rich, I could cut my hair and join the ranks, but then why would I want to do that?

As for capitalism resulting in a higher standard of living, to some extent it does, but unbridled capitalism has only rewarded those at the top, while the rest of us have actually experienced a decline in standard of living.

 

The English speaking world has had Capitalism formaly in-place since the rule of Queen Elizabeth I. Informaly we have had private property since neolithic times.

There is precious little else to compare Capitalism to as a sustained, functioning system.

To the OP I say: Since when? What is the starting point of your argument?