Why can't capitalism stop its excesses, greed, and other damaging characteristics?

There are many problems with capitalism. It creates excessive inequality, pollution, decimation of natural resources, damaging political influences, war, poverty, racism, and immigration issues. And always, all these have their basis in greed.

(Some readers will want to debate certain issues in the above list. I'm not here to debate them. That is not what this post is about. Rather, it's about the excesses as a whole. There are always excesses whether you would remove this or that from the list. Capitalism produces excesses and that is what reforms, regulations, and what some call "socialist reforms" are about. Without excesses there would be no need for such reforms.)

So think about what life under capitalism would be like if it controlled and eliminated all negative excesses. There would be no opposition. There would be no protest. There would be no call for a new system.

The problem is greed. Oh, sure, there are businesses, usually small ones, that respect their workers, ensure their well-being, avoid pollution and other negatives, etc. But such businesses don't rise to the top. They don't become one of those counted among the largest and most successful (richest). Why? .... -because the owners are not sociopathic. They do not put profit and their personal wealth above all else. They have a human conscience.

Why, then, is it seemingly impossible to manage this problem, keep businesses small and worker-friendly, make large profits unimportant or at least lower on the list of importance, and thereby preserve capitalism forever? Why is greed and its excesses so impossible to control under capitalism?

 

I suggest you study human behavior...human flaws...then guess what happens when you place 7+ billion of them in competition with each other...

 

Capitalism saved America.

 

All the "isms" are just chalk board exercises. None would work in pure form in any society.

 

You post a thread then say you don't want to debate? I guess that means you are just looking for confirmation.

Why are you so closed off to dissenting opinions? Are your convictions so weak they can't hold up to scrutiny?

 

If we had an honest monetary system capitalism would be better off.

Fix the monetary system, the economy will be better off. Regardless of what type of economic system...

 

yes like it stopped another 120 million from slowly starving to death in USSR and Red China.

 

capitalism does not create inequality God or evolution did by making only some people very very smart, ambitious, hard working, greedy, and anxious to serve mankind.

Without the contributions of these select inequal few most of humanity would slowly starve to death.

 

A liberal will simply lack the IQ to understand capitalism. In fact, liberalism is purely based in ignorance. Actually, capitalism prevents greed as you have learned 37 times now. Slowly now, if a capitalist is greedy and takes too much money his competitor can take less money and drive him out of business with lower prices. Shall we go for 38???

 

small businesses are inefficient. An Iphone 10 costs $1000. if Apple didn't have volume for entire world price would be 10 times higher and billions of poor people would not have phones or motorcycles etc etc. Now do you understand?

 

That's exactly what I'm getting at. Thank you for pointing it out in the very first post. Capitalism brings out the worst in the human psyche.

 

...from the native occupants who were only trying to survive.

 

Even in its impure form our current economic system is a real problem.

 

You don't read well. I didn't say I don't want to debate the point of my post, just your pointless diversions.

 

But that was a central part of your post.

 

I am in a business where the competition consistently offers less but charges less. I have daily had to compete with the large and small. Service makes a huge difference. Non Capitalists tend to be so angry they do not deliver good service yet whine when the public shuns them.

Ask any socialist or communist how they run their own business and they will end reporting, very poorly,

 

yes 100 million can afford supercomputer iphone toys at $140/ month. Doesn't seem like 120 million are about to starve to death as they did under libcommieism.

 

Yes, it very very interesting how capitalism is actually about providing good service to others while the Marxist meme is not aware of this at all.

 

The biggest problem with our form of capitalism is that it's not really capitalist anymore, it's crony capitalist.

Businesses buy politicians at all levels to give themselves a hand up on the competition. Tax hand outs at all levels of govt. Zoning changes at the lo so level. Subsidies for their products and loan guarantees from the federal govt. The list goes on and on. This has created a system in which small businesses are not on an equal playing field as large businesses that have all of these special carve outs. Because small business can't compete, they sell out or go out of business which constricts the market.

 

And some of the greediest are some of your leftist liberal heroes in Hollywood and playing sports. These people are getting paid millions of dollars to be con artist (actors/actresses) or play a game...Sure they're all about hopping on the liberal bandwagon...But will they move out of their mansions, stop taking private jets, driving expensive gas guzzling sports cars so that they can reduce their carbon footprint? No they will not...because they are special, we are not...They expect us to listen to their BS that they don't even apply to themselves. Hypocrites all.

 

Well said

 

Well stated. True as well.

 

In a short word, human nature.
Concerning anything of political-societal importance, the easiest to feel of all human emotions is apathy and indifference.

 

what subject are you on????

 

actually capitalism is when business and govt are separate. socialism is when they are combined as in Obamacare so what we have today is crony socialism not crony capitalism. Make sense?