The Fall of Capitalism

All the problems in the world today can be blamed squarely on the cancer that is capitalism. Whether it be over population, environmental destruction, rampant crime, or the widening gap between the obscenely rich and the rest of us, these are all symptoms of capitalism's pathology.

Capitalism, as engendered in the predatory mega corporations, whose only mandate is to maximize profit, requires an ever increasing consumer base in order to survive. As we have seen in the past few months, when consumption suddenly drops, the capitalist economy teeters precariously on the verge of total collapse.

In order for there to be an ever increasing consumer base, new consumers have to be created. If you create them by increasing the rate of population growth you are worsening over population on a finite world. If you create new consumers from people who have not yet fallen into the capitalist trap, you are increasing demand for more stuff, which requires more resources. The production and consumption of more stuff puts more and more strain on the environment.

Capitalism is very good at what it does... at least until the bubble bursts. It's very good at expropriating wealth for the wealthy. The wealthy do nothing to create anything or work to make something. Their money does all the work for them. And capitalism makes sure that wealth is collected by the wealthy. And the myth of the entrepreneur making a fortune from hard work and a good idea is just that. The vast majority of people in this world will never have the opportunity or the sheer luck of becoming wealthy.

And while the rich get richer the poor are sinking in a cess pool of poverty from which they can never hope to climb out. This drives many to lives of crime to make some small dent in their perceived lack. As the poor fall farther into poverty and the middle class becomes the poor crime rises.

Now there are TINAs (there is no alternative) who will tell you that free and unfettered capitalism is the only option to drive the world's economy. Any other option, such as socialism or communism have proven failures. They fail to mention that true socialism or communism, minus the avariscious dictators, and true to their theorists' ideals would be more equitable than capitalism as we know it. But there are alternatives put forward by an inspired few that utilize capitalism's strengths while dealing with it's weaknesses in order to create an economy that is more egalitarian and more environmentally sustainable.

In a later post I will give examples from various authors I have studied.