Sustaining Capitalism in a Finite World

So a foundation of capitalism is increasing accumulation. You always have to have a little more in order to grow. Unfortunately, we live in a finite world so we cannot always increase our accumulation.

I am a center left similar to Bernie Sanders. I am in favor of capitalism but this is a question that has been on my mind for awhile. Any pro-capitalists want to give me their thoughts?

Thanks,

Ignacio Cabero

 

that is absurd and liberal of course. When PA ran out of oil 100 years ago liberals thought the future was bleak. The entire meme was and is is just another idiotic liberal scam so that govt can take over and preserve the scarce resourse of a supposedly finite world.

 

A supposedly finite world? And you were talking about oil? Do you think the world is just constantly producing that stuff?

 

yes, 200 years ago no liberal could have dreamed that in 200 years the earth and its scientists could sustain 7 billion people at a far higher standard of living than they could imagine at the time.

 

As communication range and speed increased, the economy became more and more global which is why we have higher standards of living. We have the whole world's resources at our disposal. Capitalism however is based on increasing accumulation of wealth and resources and constant growth. Eventually we are going to run out of stuff, that's a fact. How does capitalism account for that?

 

actually, eventually we are going to have more stuff than we need thanks to capitalism. If we were to start running out of something the price would go up encouraging substitutes and new inventions. This is why things are cheaper than ever today and why we are richer than ever today. Make sense?

 

But the problem is that capitalism functions because of increasing accumulation of wealth and resources. We always have to have more in order to pay back loans and in order to grow our businesses. But, we live in a finite world. We can't always grow because eventually our businesses will be so big that the amount of wealth and resources need to maintain it isn't practical. That's why we moved our businesses to other countries, why we extract oil and other resources in other countries. Because its much cheaper and more abundant. After we move to every country and extract all of their resources, where will we go next?

 

I already explained to you that we have more people and more oil today than 100 years. So the opposite of what you say is happening.

 

Sanders is open communist, not center left.

 

lets hope in another 200 years the trend continues and things are still getting cheaper. They though were out of oil 100 years ago but today we have more than ever plus gas solar wind battery nuclear and many more possible so it would be silly to worry. Communists pretend to worry hoping to panic everyone into creating a communist govt to manage our dwindling resources. Do you understand?

 

We have more oil because we have expanded globally. Where can we expand next?

Sander is not a communist.

I agree that green energy is the way of the future, but you conveniently don't mention non-renewable resources that are necessary. How will we get those?

 

please don't repeat lies others have told you. We now produce 15 million barrels a day of oil gas and bio fuel, more than ever in our history thanks to fracking and horizontal drilling.

 

actually he says openly he's a socialist!! While attending the University of Chicago, Sanders joined the Young People’s Socialist League, the youth wing of the Socialist Party USA. He also organized for a communist front, the United Packinghouse Workers Union, which at the time was under investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

After graduating with a political science degree, Sanders moved to Vermont, where he headed the American People’s History Society, an organ for Marxist propaganda. There, he produced a glowing documentary on the life of socialist revolutionary Eugene Debs, who was jailed for espionage during the Red Scare and hailed by the Bolsheviks as “America’s greatest Marxist.”

 

drilling obviously!!

 

capitalism functions because it is based on peaceful voluntary relationships and thus is natural and widely accepted. It functions best because it requires that the capitalist provide the best jobs and products possible in the entire world just to survive.

 

you mean China Europe India SA don't use any resources?? Who knew??

 

we have higher standards of living because of new inventions. That's how we got from the stone age to here. If you want the economy to grow you want new inventions to be supplied. This is called supply side economics.

 

Yeah, we produce more because we have expanded globally and have developed new and more efficient ways of extracting resources. You aren't addressing what we do when we run out of it, which is bound to happen when our system is based on infinitely increasing accumulation

Do you really think the things he pushed for this election cycle are considered communist? Things like bailing students out of college debt and single-payer healthcare?

Again, you aren't addressing what we do when they get more and more scarce.

This has nothing to do with what I was talking about. Capitalism works because of infinitely increasing accumulation of resources and wealth, regardless of whether it's voluntary or not. There's a whole other philosophical debate about whether capitalism is even considered voluntary, which I won't go into.

When did I ever say that?

Right. We have those inventions because businesses grew globally, information was spread easier, etc.. We want the economy to grow, so we always need to use a little more money, a little more resources than before. That's the problem. We always need a little more in order to grow, but we live in a finite world. We always need more money to pay back our loans, we always need more money to expand our businesses.

 

we produce 15 million barrels a day in USA more than at any other time in USA. Is that clear enough? You have been used and told the opposite of truth.

 

Yes Nazisocialist govt running the health care industry and education is communist. America is about freedom from govt. Our founders came here to be free not be on welfare. Do you understand?

 

they are not getting scarce they are getting more plentiful all the time.

 

someone lied to you. capitalism works because its make people rich and because its peaceful and natural whether resources are increasing or not

 

you said we have the whole world's resources at our disposal as if China India Europe and SA don't use those resources too

 

we had many new inventions and were a very rich country long before globalization

 

someone lied to you. Resources cost money so If we use less resources say to make a car or gas to run it we have a more valuable product. Do you understand?