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All business is profiting off misfortune of other people. That is the cornerstore of post-industrial capitalism: maximize the externalization of the costs of pr

All business is profiting off misfortune of other people. That is the cornerstore of post-industrial capitalism: maximize the externalization of the costs of production. Name one product, service or industry which does not harm people, animals or the environment - impossible!

CPLX 3y ago
No it’s not. This is nihilism. Growing food and bringing it to you is one example of millions. And no it doesn’t “harm the environment” to dig a potato out of the ground every year or whatever.
- bigtex88 3y ago
  This is a bit of a naive viewpoint considering the massive amount of damage that modern agricultural practices have done to the environment.
- forward1 3y ago
  Growing food absolutely harms the environment. Maybe not one potato, but modern agriculture is a leading cause of climate change (mostly animal ag, but the point remains). This is not nihilism. This is what capitalism is by definition. Says Rob Urie: > Economic production that produces toxic externalities like global warming, dead oceans, undrinkable water, unbreathable air, etc, depends on assigning little or no value to these. To make this very clear, Western economic ‘accounting’ places no value on these, on the most fundamental necessities of living beings, by design. As Oscar Wilde put it, a cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. This is in fact a summation of Western economics; circumscription of the ‘knowable’ world by what has had a price tag put on it. The externalized costs of capitalist production are real— more real than the stuff in stores that is only ‘cheap’ because the true costs were lobbed off on people who haven’t yet fought back. - https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/09/global-warming-is-economic-imperialism/ https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/09/global-warming-is-ec...
  - landemva 3y ago
    Local subsistence farming is better for you, so you eat from your land plot? What are you harvesting today for dinner?
  - CPLX 3y ago
    So we agree. Maybe not one potato. Sure there are things that you can do while growing food that do harm the environment, and certainly modern agriculture could be improved. But since we’ve found an example inconsistent with your blanket statement (which starts with “all”) it is now disproven. There’s a lot of other examples besides one potato. And let’s not even talk about the ludicrous idea that any change to the environment equals harm. By that definition all living things harm the environment.

CPLX 3y ago

No it’s not. This is nihilism. Growing food and bringing it to you is one example of millions. And no it doesn’t “harm the environment” to dig a potato out of the ground every year or whatever.

bigtex88 3y ago
This is a bit of a naive viewpoint considering the massive amount of damage that modern agricultural practices have done to the environment.
forward1 3y ago
Growing food absolutely harms the environment. Maybe not one potato, but modern agriculture is a leading cause of climate change (mostly animal ag, but the point remains). This is not nihilism. This is what capitalism is by definition. Says Rob Urie: > Economic production that produces toxic externalities like global warming, dead oceans, undrinkable water, unbreathable air, etc, depends on assigning little or no value to these. To make this very clear, Western economic ‘accounting’ places no value on these, on the most fundamental necessities of living beings, by design. As Oscar Wilde put it, a cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. This is in fact a summation of Western economics; circumscription of the ‘knowable’ world by what has had a price tag put on it. The externalized costs of capitalist production are real— more real than the stuff in stores that is only ‘cheap’ because the true costs were lobbed off on people who haven’t yet fought back. - https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/09/global-warming-is-economic-imperialism/ https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/09/global-warming-is-ec...
- landemva 3y ago
  Local subsistence farming is better for you, so you eat from your land plot? What are you harvesting today for dinner?
- CPLX 3y ago
  So we agree. Maybe not one potato. Sure there are things that you can do while growing food that do harm the environment, and certainly modern agriculture could be improved. But since we’ve found an example inconsistent with your blanket statement (which starts with “all”) it is now disproven. There’s a lot of other examples besides one potato. And let’s not even talk about the ludicrous idea that any change to the environment equals harm. By that definition all living things harm the environment.