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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Communism is no different from full-blown capitalism. I don't get why people choose I have to be a either capitalist or socialist. There are certain things that some elements of socialism can be good for, like having free healthcare. However, when it comes to the market, you want as fewer restrictions as possible without hurting the customers or companies growth, as that can be bad for the economy.
Which leads to polluted water, a blighted environment, and corporations finding ways to rule humanity. No thanks.
Pure communism starves human nature, pure capitalism stokes and gluts the absolute darkest traits of human nature exclusively: unquenchable greed, sociopathy, competition, schadenfreude, apathy, jealousy, etc.
They are both economic extremes.
It's funny to me how we look at human nature as selfish, competitive and even cruel, when every scientific experiment shows that unless there's a strong push for those traits, humans are decent blokes who like to take care of each other.
As you said, capitalism pushes us to our worst. If we get rid of it, people will naturally build a better world.
We wouldn't have survived to become the species we are now if those were our "natural" traits. We're socal creatures, we live in communities. If anything, we are now living in the least compatible societal arrangement for our species. There is evidence that even neanderthals would care for the their eldery and dead.
Greed, in my opinion is a "modern" notion designed to propagandize and misdirect away from the true culprit of our time, and that is motive. Specifically, profit motive. Greed, much like laziness, is a made up notion by the capitalist class. It implies that you can be altruistic and "fair" with your capitalistic desires, and anyone who isn't doing as such is simply morally bankrupt.
It allows people to ascribe a personal moral failing to the capitalist, instead of analyzing the underlying motivations and structures that govern their behavior. It means people can, as temporarily embarrassed millionaires, imagine that they would never make that kind of moral failing given the opportunity.
Except, they would make that same "mistake" if they were ever given the opportunity, because capitalism demands it.
The one hard and enforced rule that would need to be in place would have to be to put a hard criminal legal cap on unchecked, society warping greed. By this I mean there are always some humans who always seek ridiculously disproportionate wealth and power to everyone else, allowing them to do so allows them to warp the culture and normalize that mindset, even making it aspirational to people that otherwise wouldn't.
Setting a maximum annual income with a 100% tax beyond a certain level, probably a couple million, would also be necessary for things to improve. Cue the millions of class traitor capitalism apologists who would cry tears of blood despite not having a small fraction of that in their bank accounts. "It would stifle investment!" oh so you'd have to include a lot more people in any large scale venture? The horror, amirite! “People wouldn't want to work hard!" because in a world where very few make that kind of income, not being able to hypothetically make 3 million a year would make everyone lazy amirite!
There are solutions, but too many peasants on the ass end of the problem are too busy defending the problem and the people that cause it, in pathetic hopes they will one day be invited to the little club of exploiters living like modern Pharoahs on the backs of most of society.