4 ms·

> the city's excesses and yet none of these problems are unique to New York or about New York. These are transparently excesses of _capitalism_, not this city

by pxc 5y ago

> the city's excesses and yet none of these problems are unique to New York or about New York. These are transparently excesses of _capitalism_, not this city or that > Because Sacks’s videos pull back the veneer of corporate pledges to commit to sustainability, they are often shared by followers who say capitalism is the root problem. But Sacks says she finds that argument “polarizing” and that it “immediately alienates” those who equate critiques of capitalism as endorsement of socialism or communism. amazing. The name of the system we live under is unspeakable

vnchr 5y ago
Care to share about other social systems you have lived under and what the trash was like?
- ProjectArcturis 5y ago
  To the extent a different social system provides less material abundance, to the extent it becomes worth lots of people's time to sift through the trash or re-sell a 20-year-old toaster, I'd expect those other systems would have a ton less trash per capita.
  - vnchr 5y ago
    The trash solution is more poor people? Can’t argue with that basis. Just seems like it has some drawbacks.
- pxc 5y ago
  Whether or not overproduction or the destruction of usable surplus goods into waste is incidental or essential to capitalism is debatable, but whether or not capitalism is in fact the system of production and distribution that has created what the videographer in the OP documents really isn't. The incentives are also very transparent. It takes no special insight or deep research to discern why grocery stores destroy edible food when they throw it out, or as happened recently in Portland, post armed guards at dumpsters. Artificial maintenance of scarcity through the destruction of overproduced goods is not a new or rare feature of the capitalism that we have. That the volume and treatment of garbage on display here is a feature of our economic order should be no more controversial than observations about parallel features of it, like planned obsolescence. Do you demand that people make recourse to personal experience with alternative economic systems every time someone mentions the business cycle, too?

by pxc 5y ago

vnchr 5y ago

Care to share about other social systems you have lived under and what the trash was like?

ProjectArcturis 5y ago
To the extent a different social system provides less material abundance, to the extent it becomes worth lots of people's time to sift through the trash or re-sell a 20-year-old toaster, I'd expect those other systems would have a ton less trash per capita.
- vnchr 5y ago
  The trash solution is more poor people? Can’t argue with that basis. Just seems like it has some drawbacks.
pxc 5y ago
Whether or not overproduction or the destruction of usable surplus goods into waste is incidental or essential to capitalism is debatable, but whether or not capitalism is in fact the system of production and distribution that has created what the videographer in the OP documents really isn't. The incentives are also very transparent. It takes no special insight or deep research to discern why grocery stores destroy edible food when they throw it out, or as happened recently in Portland, post armed guards at dumpsters. Artificial maintenance of scarcity through the destruction of overproduced goods is not a new or rare feature of the capitalism that we have. That the volume and treatment of garbage on display here is a feature of our economic order should be no more controversial than observations about parallel features of it, like planned obsolescence. Do you demand that people make recourse to personal experience with alternative economic systems every time someone mentions the business cycle, too?