Is capitalism sustainable in the very long run?
If it cant, how would that affect our lives? Will it cause an economic meltdown? Will there be stability? Growing or shrinking poor/rich gap?
Answer:
I think capitalism can be sustainable. I think it's the best system when properly run. When badly run, it can be just a justification for the big fish to eat the small fish.
Capitalism is not doing the greatest in the US these days. We have warped our whole culture to the point where profit and return on investment is the ultimate good, not just a means to an end, as it should be. The gap between rich and poor is growing because capitalism is being used by corporations and the rich as a tool to concentrate wealth. While our system is stable, growing inequality threatens stability.
The problem with capitalism is that it contains the seeds of its own destruction. A free market depends on competition. Where you have competition, you have winners, and once you have clear winners, you no longer have competition. So capitalism will not be sustainable without a certain amount of regulation and control by the govt. Too little is as bad as too much.
I think we have lost touch with one of the basic ideas of capitalism--that its goal is the most good for the biggest number of people. If your criterion is the standard of living and economic security of the working class, capitalism is clearly failing in the US. This is not to say that it -couldn't- work better, but that it's being poorly operated.
capitalism does not imply growth. capitalism is a way of determining what to produce, how to produce it and who gets it. capitalism works to produce a growing economy because it is incentive based. there is a reason to come up with new products and new technology. as long as people want more stuff the economy based on capitalism will grow because someone will make something better. If humans stagnate and lose the ability to be creative and inventive then capitalism will reach a steady state at some level of living standard.
Mr. Knowitall, I believe you should change your name.
Capitalism is sustainable.
But what passes for capitalism today is actually consumption and that has no future.
Capitalism is based on private property. New economic systems, different from capitalism, could arise such as new ways of socialism. Growth is not enough to make capitalism work. Historically growth without technical progress or innovations is not credible. We would have consumed all natural resources years ago. Capitalism is a concept that is alive. Crisis and growth, depressions and prosperity will be going on but there´ll always be an equilibrium.
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