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Because capitalists, by definition, exploit others in order to turn a profit. Capitalism isn't a win-win game. Nothing 'trickles down'. Without sufficient gover

Because capitalists, by definition, exploit others in order to turn a profit. Capitalism isn't a win-win game. Nothing 'trickles down'. Without sufficient government regulation, you get things like one trip to the ER bankrupting a person, Amazon delivery drivers defecating in baggies while working, megacorps like Walmart putting thousands of small shops out of business without creating anything of better value, to name just a few consequences. The cherry on top is that the growth mindset at the center of modern capitalism (fueled by industrialism) is extremely unsustainable, due to capitalists' myopic decisions and the relevant economics' inability (or unwillingness) to calculate environmental costs as part of the profit equation. Sure, a couple centuries of explosive growth and innovation is cool, but tragically pointless when the system collapses under its own weight after it exhausts all reasonably-extractable resources. And no, space mining is not going to save it. Even oil is already becoming unprofitable to extract in many areas on our own planet, how do you expect anything involving spaceflight to be? Even events like this Branson party wouldn't exist if the companies involved didn't believe they were turning a profit (in this case, by fleecing would-be space travelers).

robomartin 5y ago
> Because capitalists, by definition, exploit others in order to turn a profit. This is the kind of thing someone who has never run a non-trivial business of any kind might say. I'll concede that during the dark ages of the industrial revolution workers needed help. That's the history of humanity. We suck at things until we figure out the right way to do it. Today the average worker in most economies has as much freedom as they want (they can quit and go get a different job and even make more money) and tons of protections (rightly so). "exploit others to turn a profit"? Hogwash. Please. You might not understand any of this until you are personally responsible for making payroll.
- Niglodonicus 5y ago
  Any business that creates a product converts labor into a product that is sold to another party. The capitalist uses his position of power in owning the means of production necessary to create the product in order to turn a profit on this transaction, by extracting money from the laborer as well as from the buyer (in most cases, another laborer). So the net result is that laborers work, and the capitalists leech money from all parties involved. How do you think it occurs that the wealth gap keeps growing? If capitalists were equitable, the profit would go mostly into the pockets of the laborers, and we would not have such a massive divide in between working and capitalist classes. But this is utopian and goes against the reasons capitalists become capitalists in the first place- to get richer. And to get richer, you have to extract money from someone else, as it is a zero-sum game.

robomartin 5y ago

> Because capitalists, by definition, exploit others in order to turn a profit. This is the kind of thing someone who has never run a non-trivial business of any kind might say. I'll concede that during the dark ages of the industrial revolution workers needed help. That's the history of humanity. We suck at things until we figure out the right way to do it. Today the average worker in most economies has as much freedom as they want (they can quit and go get a different job and even make more money) and tons of protections (rightly so). "exploit others to turn a profit"? Hogwash. Please. You might not understand any of this until you are personally responsible for making payroll.

Niglodonicus 5y ago
Any business that creates a product converts labor into a product that is sold to another party. The capitalist uses his position of power in owning the means of production necessary to create the product in order to turn a profit on this transaction, by extracting money from the laborer as well as from the buyer (in most cases, another laborer). So the net result is that laborers work, and the capitalists leech money from all parties involved. How do you think it occurs that the wealth gap keeps growing? If capitalists were equitable, the profit would go mostly into the pockets of the laborers, and we would not have such a massive divide in between working and capitalist classes. But this is utopian and goes against the reasons capitalists become capitalists in the first place- to get richer. And to get richer, you have to extract money from someone else, as it is a zero-sum game.