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Originally Posted by OngBonga
Marginal? Are you kidding me? We were close to free energy when Tesla was alive, yet here were are, a century later, and still we're burning the black stuff to make the wheels go round.
It's a myth. Thousands of scientists and engineers are currently doing stuff at a tech level Tesla didn't know, and they don't say what you say.
I can give you a more direct example of how capitalism is stifling innovation and technology.
What am I doing with my life? I spend most of my time at home, on the computer playing poker, chess, watching shit on youtube, I see my friends, socialise, play cards, go see bands etc. I don't work, but those jobs I have had, none of them have been what could be called innovative or particularly challenging.
I'm considerably smarter than average, if IQ is to be considered a reliable measurement. Average is around 100, I'm somewhere between 120-130 as far as I'm aware. My chess rating on gameknot is 93rd percentile, that is I'm top 7% of the site. I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet here, quite the opposite in fact. I am actively wasting my intellect. Why is this? Because the system is not suited to me. I don't have money, so I can't go to university. How do I survive if I do? How do I pay the rent? Where's my food coming from? In order to get my benefits, I have to be "actively seeking work", so if I'm a full time student, I lose my right to benefits. Those who do go to uni tend to take on huge amounts of debt. It's the system that is causing me to waste my brain. If education was free, if the system prioritised innovation over profit, then I would have gone to uni and studied physics, chemistry, something like that. But here I am, aged 34, living in a bubble, doing nothing productive. Capitalism has stifled my progress, that is for certain. I can't afford to improve my life.
What could I have achieved if I had free education? I would most certainly be more of an asset to my society than I currently am. How many more people like me are wasting their lives? Most of my friends are in dead end jobs. Most of my friends are also smarter than average.
Our priorities are all fucked up. Making money is more important to our society than moving forward is. I could have done much more with my life, but I've been held back by a system that has only one priority - profit. I won't get a free education because whoever pays for it won't make any money. That's capitalism stifling innovation right fucking there.
There has to be another way. How many billions of people are living in poverty? Do they really need to live in poverty? This Fresco guy I talk about, he doesn't seem to think so. People live in poverty because capitalism distributes resources unfairly. You don't live in poverty because you're fortunate enough to live in USA, a nation that consumes far more than it exports. Those in poverty live in nations that export more than they consume. How much do Indian kids get paid to sew footballs and stitch shirts? How much does a Manchester United shirt cost to make? How much does it sell for?
We think this system is great because it works for us. Two important words there - for us. It doesn't work for the majority of people in the world.
But hey, only our western nations matter, right?
Our current system isn't perfect and it's a shame. However, the blame isn't capitalism. What would you be doing under another system?
A system that works better than every other proposed system still doesn't solve all problems. Our current system does have problems, big problems, but capitalism is an aspect of the system that has made things better for people like us. History isn't puppy dogs and ice cream. Your ability to achieve is far greater under the partial capitalist model than it would have been at any other time. Dude, we don't even have an aristocracy anymore. That is craaaaazy. Aristocrats kinda ruled the world forever. Mercantilism put a small dent into that and capitalism basically eliminated it. You're not bowing to your queen. You still have one, but it's ceremonial. Britain was one of the world leaders in capitalism and protection of private property. The middle class is even a thing because of capitalism. Without that, we'd all just be a bunch of people who work for the aristocracy if we work at all
I don't know if any of this resonates. Civilization has not been kind to non-aristocrats. You, me, and everybody on this board, if born 600 years ago, would be poor as shit plebs with no rights and no opportunities whatsoever. We should acknowledge this and acknowledge that capitalism is at the heart of what allows somebody to use their own resources to better their lives. That's the definition of the name itself. We could call it "resource-ism" or "do what you can with what you have-ism" and it would be the same thing
As for third world countries, capitalism is one of the only bright spots in their plight. In China, for example, people are moving in droves from the farms to the cities to work in factories for a better life. We look at these as sweatshops, and in some ways we should, but we should also understand that the policy is non-coercion and the workers are choosing the path as a means to better their lives. It's an absolute shame that it has to be like this, but the other alternative is even worse than that. Those who don't like this shouldn't derail capitalism, but should improve it, for capitalism is the improvement upon what we had before
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