Does it though? Capitalism has brought Hollywood, Broadway, UPS, and the Detroit big 3 to a grinding halt (or nearly so) since April. The US government has almost shut down four times in the past six months because of capitalism. Capitalism shut down high speed rail in the US. Arguably capitalism does just about everything but keep society running.
And more broadly, by some estimates 2.5 billion people have died since the Industrial Revolution who could’ve contributed to society if they hadn’t died of hunger, war, lack of access to healthcare, and slavery that were caused by capitalism. Capitalism kills proven plans that would help lift members of the lower class out of poverty because they’re unprofitable, or because capitalism requires people to be poor at the bottom of the pyramid. Capitalism leaves 15 million homes vacant while 600,000 unhoused people are on the streets. Capitalism gave us companies removing stock from their streaming apps to exploit tax loopholes.
If capitalism is a free market, we’ve tried it and found it wanting. For a market to be truly free, the buyer and seller must have equal power; that has never existed in Western society. Our capitalism is actually oligarchy.
Does it though? Capitalism has brought Hollywood, Broadway, UPS, and the Detroit big 3 to a grinding halt (or nearly so) since April. The US government has almost shut down four times in the past six months because of capitalism. Capitalism shut down high speed rail in the US. Arguably capitalism does just about everything but keep society running.
And more broadly, by some estimates 2.5 billion people have died since the Industrial Revolution who could’ve contributed to society if they hadn’t died of hunger, war, lack of access to healthcare, and slavery that were caused by capitalism. Capitalism kills proven plans that would help lift members of the lower class out of poverty because they’re unprofitable, or because capitalism requires people to be poor at the bottom of the pyramid. Capitalism leaves 15 million homes vacant while 600,000 unhoused people are on the streets. Capitalism gave us companies removing stock from their streaming apps to exploit tax loopholes.
If capitalism is a free market, we’ve tried it and found it wanting. For a market to be truly free, the buyer and seller must have equal power; that has never existed in Western society. Our capitalism is actually oligarchy.
If you are truly free, are you free to form a collective which competes against other collectives?
Sure. That’s called a union; or at large enough scales, a government or other regulatory body. And that’s… really the entire point I’m making here.
See I was thinking, at that point it becomes a company or corporation. And then you’re back to where we are today.
Indeed.