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"Capitalism is itself based on constant growth." No, constantly increasing profits or shareholder value are based upon constant growth. Capitalism does not re
by Ensorceled 13y ago
"Capitalism is itself based on constant growth."
No, constantly increasing profits or shareholder value are based upon constant growth. Capitalism does not require constantly increasing growth of profits to be "capitalism".
This "corporations must constantly grow" is, along with "corporations must, by law, sociopathically seek profit", the major reason that American style capitalism isn't viable. It eats it's young.
- dnautics 13y agoThere's other structural issues beyond just legal obligations of corporations (which are a problem). A debt-based economy, especially a debt-based currency, requires a constant level of growth to stave off economic catastrophe. Of course, these are really one and the same: The unifying principle is that if inflation is to be maintained, we must provide an easy avenue for average joe to feel secure against the rolling treadmill, so we create legal entities like 401ks and mutual funds and IRAs and the like - which, in order to maintain a return, require the government to create legal obligations on the corporations, and when they DO fail, pump up the corporations whose stocks, and so on and so forth (and this pumping is financed through inflation), and so we have unsustainable spirals and the periodic retrenchments which, of course, hurt the poor harder.