this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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Money is how you get people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do. Farmers don't like farming they do it for the money, truck drivers do it for the money, factory workers do it for the money.
So if we get rid of economics then who's going to farm the food, who's going to pick the food, who's going to transport the food to the stores (although at that point I guess they are just public distribution centers), who's going to run the stores?
They only solution to all of these problems is automation but we're not there yet. So what is your solution for today?
you understand there’s more than one way to have an economy right? that there’s more than one way for labor to be rewarded for its output?
saying “our economic system needs to end” has nothing to do with what you wrote
Do you have a proposal or are you just theorizing? Obviously there are more economic models, but all of them center on allocation of finite resources. As stated above, automation isn't there yet to even approach post-scarcity.
So, what you got?
seeing as everyone starved before the advent of capital... oh wait
The reason we don't have famines isn't because of money, it's because of one Jew's patriotism to what he saw as his German fatherland.
The reason we have the internet is due to an organization need in warfare, not a profit motive.
The reason we have modern medicine was because people wanted to help other, even if they went broke to do it, sometimes even being outcast from society.
The reason the Nazis were stopped was not because it made a lot of profit, but in spite of it.
do not conflate the achievements of modernity with the inherent economic system you ascribe to.
So many words shoved in my mouth. At no point did I say that people can't do good things with minimal incentive. Though it's either naive or disingenuous to pretend that some form of bartering didn't exist before capital or would be suitable solution the modern problems.
Could that one person feed a city on his own? Or keep it clean? Or supply it power? Water? Maintain the infrastructure?
I wasn't talking about individual achievements and technological leaps. I'm talking about the day to day necessities that a functioning society requires. A city like New York is not some simple thing. To make it possible for all those people to coexist, the effort and man power is staggering.
And a bunch of it sucks.
Garbage, sewage, paperwork. You name it, there's some poor bastard that has to deal with it and doesn't want to. In fact, there's a shortage of power lineman (I may be out of date) that can stand as my example. Difficult job, risk of death, need a bunch of them. And you're not going to find enough people passionate about power lines to fill the roster and that job is essential for modern lives.
Now, I'm not rushing to defend capitalism. Holy shit the crimes committed for the unholy dollar. No. I'm generally for socialist practices in any industry that should be a public work (education, utilities, healthcare, etc) and leave capitalism to the luxuries. But I'm getting off track.
I wasn't defending capitalisms many crimes. I'm calling you out for being a child about what can be done about it. Ideals don't pave roads, specific plans and actions do. So what are yours? This system sucks? I fucking know. What changes should be made short of a violent revolution that would almost certainly leave everyone in a worse place? We don't have the luxury of sci-fi tech that can provide for our needs with trivial cost.
Example: taxing the fuck out of the rich, single player health care, investment in green energy, walkable cities, forbidding Congress from owning individual stocks. These things push the world in a better direction.
Next time you advocate for burning it all, try to remember that we live in the most peaceful time in all of human history.