I think almost all critiques of capitalism rest on a failure to understand what capitalism actually is. Capitalism is private ownership of the means of production. Socialism is public or common ownership of the means of production. Capitalism is not greed. Socialism is not benevolence and love. They are systems of ownership. Once you see this, a lot of criticisms of capitalism melt away.
If you think capitalism and socialism affect the social ethos then that is true, but you have to actually have to look at whether people are nicer in socialist countries like Cuba, Venezuela, the USSR, Vietnam in the 1980s and so on. It doesn’t seem like they are.
When you’re talking about sustainability, you also have to look at the real environmental performance of these different systems of ownership. It is sort of true that capitalism drives climate change because it drives economic growth. But recognising that is inconsistent with your claim that it leads to massive suffering (which I assume is human suffering). But lots of socialist countries have a terrible environment record. and many capitalist countries and social democracies (which are capitalist with redistribution) have very good environmental records—eg the UK, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, France all now have low and dropping emissions per head.
To say that the only way to solve climate change is to take the economy into state hands is on the face of it a huge claim that doesn’t seem very plausible. State oil companies don’t seem to care very much about sustainability, for example. State-controlled projects can be directed to any end whether good or bad for the environment. Indeed, having monopolistic control of fossil fuels seems likely to do more harm. The UK used to have a nationalised state-controlled coal board that kept coal mines open long after they were economically viable. Thatcher destroyed this via privatisation. in that case capitalism was clearly good for the environment and socialism bad.
I think almost all critiques of capitalism rest on a failure to understand what capitalism actually is. Capitalism is private ownership of the means of production. Socialism is public or common ownership of the means of production. Capitalism is not greed. Socialism is not benevolence and love. They are systems of ownership. Once you see this, a lot of criticisms of capitalism melt away.
This is one important contribution that Jason Brennan has made to philosophy—http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2014/06/socialism-%E2%89%A0-love-and-kindness-capitalism-%E2%89%A0-greed-and-fear/
If you think capitalism and socialism affect the social ethos then that is true, but you have to actually have to look at whether people are nicer in socialist countries like Cuba, Venezuela, the USSR, Vietnam in the 1980s and so on. It doesn’t seem like they are.
When you’re talking about sustainability, you also have to look at the real environmental performance of these different systems of ownership. It is sort of true that capitalism drives climate change because it drives economic growth. But recognising that is inconsistent with your claim that it leads to massive suffering (which I assume is human suffering). But lots of socialist countries have a terrible environment record. and many capitalist countries and social democracies (which are capitalist with redistribution) have very good environmental records—eg the UK, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, France all now have low and dropping emissions per head.
To say that the only way to solve climate change is to take the economy into state hands is on the face of it a huge claim that doesn’t seem very plausible. State oil companies don’t seem to care very much about sustainability, for example. State-controlled projects can be directed to any end whether good or bad for the environment. Indeed, having monopolistic control of fossil fuels seems likely to do more harm. The UK used to have a nationalised state-controlled coal board that kept coal mines open long after they were economically viable. Thatcher destroyed this via privatisation. in that case capitalism was clearly good for the environment and socialism bad.