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i do appreciate your perspective, even if others here don't seem to, yet disagree with it slightly. perhaps not a vision or plan, but capitalism does have an i

i do appreciate your perspective, even if others here don't seem to, yet disagree with it slightly. perhaps not a vision or plan, but capitalism does have an intrinsic goal--or maybe more appropriately, a central value--which is the accumulation of capital (money). it's amoral[0] to be sure, and presents a clear opportunity toward corruption, but it's a driving force nonetheless. even adam smith acknowledged that capitalism cannot exist in isolation, that it must be constrained by political stewardship, to direct it toward productive good, lest it lead to decay. in fact, no economic system can exist outside a political one, hence the term 'political economy'. so to sum up, it isn't capitalism per se that leads to imperialism and conflict over resources, but more simply, greed (which we all possess to some degree) accumulated over a population and effectuated via political and economic means of any sort. capitalism however is more efficient, and therefore reaches its waypoints, good or bad, more quickly. on the topic of the thread, the US probably spends more than half of this $2T, if the hidden budgets and money funneled through other federal departments toward military aims is accounted for. our official military budget is something like $800B but most estimates of the fully-accounted-for budget is well north of $1T. it's shameful, especially considering the opportunity cost, for instance, replacing coal plants with nuclear the world over ($1T ≅ 100 nuclear plants per year). [0]: i.e., without morals, not necessarily immoral

imtringued 4y ago
You don't seem to understand the fundamental contradiction. Demanding growth/capital accumulation, where there is no growth can only be satisfied by taking from one group and giving to another. Endless hoarding in nature is not a problem, as your capital depreciates over time. This depreciation means that the amount of wealth you can store is a function of your ability to replenish the loss, i.e. your income. What capitalists have done is quite remarkable, they simply declare by force that this loss does not exist. So now everyone struggles to pass off this now hidden loss to everyone else, as if the division of labor were a negative sum game. Imagine if you owed a capitalist 100 hours of your time and they decide to only use 50 hours of that and simply wait those 50 hours. You still owe the capitalist 50 hours but you also lost 50 hours from waiting(=unemployment). Your productivity must double to stand a chance. Another 100 hours pass, you lost 150 hours and must still work 50 hours. Now you must be four times as productive. Productivity must keep going up, just to stand still. At some point you are unable to increase your productivity at the rate your time is being lost and you are no longer able to give what is owed. The capitalist will now call you a thief, you stole the 50 hours you owe him, completely ignoring that your loss of time is far greater than 50 hours and yet as if to rub salt in the wound that time spent needlessly waiting is not worthy of being called theft. I hope it is clear that "urgency" does not exist for those with money, only those with physical capital and those with mortal bodies that are dependent on work to earn money to afford the minimum quality of life society demands have to worry about that. I want people with money to worry just like everyone else, then nobody will have to worry.
- clairity 4y ago
  > "You don't seem to understand the fundamental contradiction. Demanding growth/capital accumulation, where there is no growth can only be satisfied by taking from one group and giving to another." the irony... you've literally just described greed. it can, and does, happen in any economic system (communism, mercantilism, socialism, all devolve because of greed); capitalism isn't special in that regard. it just happens to be more efficient at it (and in general) than other systems. you must account for greed in any and every economic system. americans generally don't realize that our 'innovation' wasn't capitalism or democracy (rah-rah words), but it was the intrinsic separation of power and wealth that formed the basis of our eventual prosperity (along with resource-rich, isolated, and plentiful land). unfortunately, we've allowed that separation to be corrupted from both directions in the last half-century.

imtringued 4y ago

You don't seem to understand the fundamental contradiction. Demanding growth/capital accumulation, where there is no growth can only be satisfied by taking from one group and giving to another. Endless hoarding in nature is not a problem, as your capital depreciates over time. This depreciation means that the amount of wealth you can store is a function of your ability to replenish the loss, i.e. your income. What capitalists have done is quite remarkable, they simply declare by force that this loss does not exist. So now everyone struggles to pass off this now hidden loss to everyone else, as if the division of labor were a negative sum game. Imagine if you owed a capitalist 100 hours of your time and they decide to only use 50 hours of that and simply wait those 50 hours. You still owe the capitalist 50 hours but you also lost 50 hours from waiting(=unemployment). Your productivity must double to stand a chance. Another 100 hours pass, you lost 150 hours and must still work 50 hours. Now you must be four times as productive. Productivity must keep going up, just to stand still. At some point you are unable to increase your productivity at the rate your time is being lost and you are no longer able to give what is owed. The capitalist will now call you a thief, you stole the 50 hours you owe him, completely ignoring that your loss of time is far greater than 50 hours and yet as if to rub salt in the wound that time spent needlessly waiting is not worthy of being called theft. I hope it is clear that "urgency" does not exist for those with money, only those with physical capital and those with mortal bodies that are dependent on work to earn money to afford the minimum quality of life society demands have to worry about that. I want people with money to worry just like everyone else, then nobody will have to worry.

clairity 4y ago
> "You don't seem to understand the fundamental contradiction. Demanding growth/capital accumulation, where there is no growth can only be satisfied by taking from one group and giving to another." the irony... you've literally just described greed. it can, and does, happen in any economic system (communism, mercantilism, socialism, all devolve because of greed); capitalism isn't special in that regard. it just happens to be more efficient at it (and in general) than other systems. you must account for greed in any and every economic system. americans generally don't realize that our 'innovation' wasn't capitalism or democracy (rah-rah words), but it was the intrinsic separation of power and wealth that formed the basis of our eventual prosperity (along with resource-rich, isolated, and plentiful land). unfortunately, we've allowed that separation to be corrupted from both directions in the last half-century.