Please remember that capitalism isn't merely about private ownership, in capitalist countries, many goods are public(traffic lights, street lights, roads, schools) and in Communist countries many things are privately owned(cars, furniture, clothes).
Well, obviously capitalism is easy. Easy, at least for people to relate to. But the world is counter intuitive. So much of what we know to be true was not ascertained by merely observing what happens in everyday life. In most cases, some form of investigation was required.
Capitalism, especially the sort that is exported by the West, is easy to get into because it's basis is in human nature.
but Ernesto Guevara had this to say,
It is very easy to claim that in capitalism, the individual has the option
to satisfy or to express true human nature. A child has one toy, and wants two. That child gets two toys and wants four. This is human nature, isn't it?
But when a whole society behaves in the same way
or when it becomes a monopoly, oppressing the less fortunate is that human nature?
This system blinds people also to invisible forces. People are lost in the idea of the self made man. I won't deny that for most of my life I thought that a man was measured this way as well. But no one realizes that there are forces that give them more opportunities to succeed than others. Capitalism uses freedom as a front to expand it's borders, but freedom is at an untold cost.
Instead of putting the rest of my content into paragraphs, I'll have to do a Nietzsche, that is, to continue in point form.
What I don't like about capitalism:
1) It seems to have skipped ahead of itself, saying, "look, at the rate we're progressing, we'll be on Pluto in no time!" without realizing 'we' means 'us privileged few'. If all the world cash spent on military funding OR fast food OR bail-outs were diverted to providing farmlands for the poor, we'd be able to advance as a human race instead of forgetting those who sew our clothes in sweatshops.
2) When I look at the endless rows of tissue papers, coffee beans, potato chips, etc, I'm not amazed by the capitalists capacity to produce, I'm thinking, "don't we need just one or two brands, making, supplying and researching specialized products?" Instead, we're packed with a billion different labels. Even Proton and Perodua are wasteful. Why would we need TWO Malaysian car companies that don't know how to make cars? This IS NOT an insult to their efforts, all I'm saying is that they are simply re-badge-ing old Japanese cars without having the right skills for the job. I'm aware of the dangers posed by monopolies, but I do not withdraw my previous statement. I am confident that consumers have no idea what their dollar votes do and that the capitalist system is to blame(more on this later)
3)Marketing. You see, the one thing about capitalism that does it some degree of justice is the demand-supply graph. In many socialist countries, severe famine has occurred because they lack privately owned farms, so farmers don't get to price food according to the the aforementioned graph(which usually makes things easier). Essentially, what the demand-supply graph does is it sets (y) price when (x) quantity is provided. Without going into detail, it's an efficient way to make sure resources are efficiently allocated. So, when a product isn't favored, it drops out of the market and is replaced. When there's marketing, it all goes topsy turvy. With marketing, firms MAKE you WANT things by exploiting your emotions. McDonalds puts up a poster of a juicy looking burger, all of a sudden demand SPIKES, even though you KNOW that the actual burger is going to look tiny and pathetic and will probably taste like salted cardboard. I fail to see how marketing makes people aware of quality goods. What happens if McDonalds spends 80% of its cash on advertising and 20% on the burger, while Carl Jr Burgers spends 20% of its cash on advertising and 80% on the burger? You still pay the full 100%(maybe even more), but you're more likely to cast your dollar votes in the inferior product.
4)The power of the few. Bill Moyers once talked about mythology. After reading his book on myth I no longer saw the need to nit-pick every aspect of religion. I thought it was at LEAST semi-justified. When he talked about systems, he explained that most systems were to aid the individual but at a collective level. Societies usually understand common wants, then create a system that benefits the many. But what makes people miserable? Layoffs, quitting, going to work from Monday - Friday, and not having money, to name a few(that relate to capitalism). This system no longer benefits the individual. Ever since the rise of corporation, only a handful of owners enjoy the benefits of capitalism compared to the millions of employees. A million people will work to fatten the wallets of their slave driver, called the CEO in the modern world.
5)Consumption. Humans never NEEDED to buy this much before. The fact is, when combined with the wretched powers of marketing, capitalism is willing and able to feed a single person with a weeks worth of food. Money talks. In the modern capitalist world it screams. Landfills are one of the many by-products of capitalism. A firm is not obligated to deal with the product it sells once it leaves the shelf, unless of coarse, there's a warranty. Even then, who deals with all the packaging? Who's to blame for the tons of unused plastic? Who pays for the ads and excessive amount of boxing and wrapping that comes with something as tiny as a pen?
6)Opportunity cost. Firms are reminded by economists of the dangers of sharing, helping, caring or even spending money on research, as every dollar spent is a lost income opportunity. Why spend money finding a safer, more intelligent product if the rival product is going to do that next week? We can just copy his designs! What about the Haitians? There is real money to be made in the country North of it where we can supply our food and make real money out of it(unless they advertise their efforts, then it becomes a soulless act of kindness).
7)Transfer of blame. A corporation like McDonalds is NOT a human. It cannot feel, speak or decide. When a CEO is blamed, he shrugs and excuses himself by saying he's acting in the interest of the share holders. When the share holders are blamed, they shrugged and say they were not involved in the decision making process. A modern day public firm is an organization that is completely unblamable. The laws that protect it are the laws of capitalism, the law of the land. Externalities are absolutely disgusting. It is what happens when someone (like a person living in a 3rd world country) is directly effected by a transaction made between some other person and a firm. Basically, if Toyota sells ME a car, and I pollute YOUR air, it's YOUR problem, not mine or Toyota's.
7)It is legal to be unfair. That is what capitalism stands for. And that is what's worst about it.
