2 ms·

Capitalism serves the interests of all market participants, including general public. As every consumer-faced business owner knows, rich and well-developed midd

Capitalism serves the interests of all market participants, including general public. As every consumer-faced business owner knows, rich and well-developed middle class is absolutely necessary for good sales and healthy profits. "National interests" don't care about public welfare. They only care about outcompeting other nation states, both in wartime and peacetime. Public interests are routinely sacrificed by governments for the sake of such competition.

return0 11y ago
Then i would expect capitalists to have developed their own private armies (and probably road systems, and so on).
- atemerev 11y ago
  Armed forces are one thing better left to the government. Police and courts are two other. The rest, including healthcare, road building and launching spaceships, can be safely handed by private sector.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    Anything that gives an actor power over other actors – so everything that includes a monopoly, and where actors can’t switch to competitors without moving into another area – is better left to an administration of that area, usually a state, federation, etc.
ethanbond 11y ago
So what do you think dissolved the rich and well-developed middle class that millennials never saw?
- atemerev 11y ago
  Middle class is currently far from being dissolved. Jobs are still there, salaries are paid, taxes are collected. As for "what caused the crisis of jobs and industrial society", the answer is of course automation (this is one thing where Marx was right). The full-blown crisis was imminent 100 years ago (which is why socialist regimes appeared), but it was delayed by two world wars (there are no unemployed in wartime), the Cold war, and rise of the clerks / bureaucracy. Socialism was Marx's answer to the idea of automation of production, but it didn't work out 100 years ago. It will not work now as well. We have to think of something new.

return0 11y ago

Then i would expect capitalists to have developed their own private armies (and probably road systems, and so on).

atemerev 11y ago
Armed forces are one thing better left to the government. Police and courts are two other. The rest, including healthcare, road building and launching spaceships, can be safely handed by private sector.
- kuschku 11y ago
  Anything that gives an actor power over other actors – so everything that includes a monopoly, and where actors can’t switch to competitors without moving into another area – is better left to an administration of that area, usually a state, federation, etc.

ethanbond 11y ago

So what do you think dissolved the rich and well-developed middle class that millennials never saw?

atemerev 11y ago
Middle class is currently far from being dissolved. Jobs are still there, salaries are paid, taxes are collected. As for "what caused the crisis of jobs and industrial society", the answer is of course automation (this is one thing where Marx was right). The full-blown crisis was imminent 100 years ago (which is why socialist regimes appeared), but it was delayed by two world wars (there are no unemployed in wartime), the Cold war, and rise of the clerks / bureaucracy. Socialism was Marx's answer to the idea of automation of production, but it didn't work out 100 years ago. It will not work now as well. We have to think of something new.