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I'm obviously implying that the reason capitalism is used is because it aligns people's self-interest with society's interests. You're encouraged to make someth
by Mirioron 7y ago
I'm obviously implying that the reason capitalism is used is because it aligns people's self-interest with society's interests. You're encouraged to make something better in capitalism and that pushes innovation. Best of all is that people do it voluntarily.
That private ownership of the means of production means that it is yours. People generally want to have better stuff. When you improve that means of production due to your self-interest then everybody else also benefits from it, because now you can produce something better or for a lower cost. It also tells others that it's possible to improve those means of production.
- esarbe 7y agoI see where you're coming from, but I dare say that you might be conflating capitalism with a market economy. There are many kinds of market economies, not all of them are capitalistic in nature. I also don't agree with your premise that capitalism aligns people's self-interest with society's interests. Let's take a monopoly for example; getting into a monopoly position might be in the interest of an individual actor in a capitalistic market, but that's not in society's interests, not at at all. Furthermore capitalism tends to favor enterprises that manage to externalize as many costs as possible, primarily to the detriment of society which the has to socialize these costs, whereas the profit is privatized.