The forum guidelines suggest I downvote comments when I dislike the effect they have on a conversation. One of the examples the guidelines give is when a comment contains an error or bad reasoning. While I think the reasoning in Ruth’s comment is fine, I think the claim that capitalism is unsustainable and causes “massive suffering” is an error. Nor is the claim backed up by any links to supporting evidence that might change my mind. The most likely effect of ruth_schlenker’s comment is to distract from Halstead’s original comment and inflame the discussion, i.e. have a negative effect on the conversation.
Capitalism could be worse than some alternative due to factory farming, climate change or various other global catastrophic risks, although we really need to consider specific alternatives. So far, I think it’s pretty clear that what we’ve been doing has been unsustainable, but that doesn’t mean replacing capitalism is better than reforming or regulating it, and technology does often address problems.
I think it’s pretty clear that what we’ve been doing has been unsustainable
I don’t understand this claim/intuitively disagree with it as presented but don’t think I understand what you mean well enough to be sure I actually disagree.
The forum guidelines suggest I downvote comments when I dislike the effect they have on a conversation. One of the examples the guidelines give is when a comment contains an error or bad reasoning. While I think the reasoning in Ruth’s comment is fine, I think the claim that capitalism is unsustainable and causes “massive suffering” is an error. Nor is the claim backed up by any links to supporting evidence that might change my mind. The most likely effect of ruth_schlenker’s comment is to distract from Halstead’s original comment and inflame the discussion, i.e. have a negative effect on the conversation.
Capitalism could be worse than some alternative due to factory farming, climate change or various other global catastrophic risks, although we really need to consider specific alternatives. So far, I think it’s pretty clear that what we’ve been doing has been unsustainable, but that doesn’t mean replacing capitalism is better than reforming or regulating it, and technology does often address problems.
I don’t understand this claim/intuitively disagree with it as presented but don’t think I understand what you mean well enough to be sure I actually disagree.
I have in mind climate change and land use. If we kept consuming at current rates, wouldn’t we likely end up with catastrophic climate change?
If you include consumption trends, things look even worse, but we also have clean tech and government policy coming.