Capitalism vs. Sustainability

I was waitin for somebody else to point that out Zorba.

People can trade compassion, we just have to find out how to integrate that into society. If it's possible for a loving family it's very possible on a larger scale for society. We just have to learn how to integrate proper manage resources with compassion.

We have enough resources in the world to make the world a much better place. We just haven't found the best way to integrate the two.

 

We just haven't killed our egos yet!

 

Stop trying to think about it so mechanically then.

Of course we do. We've got everything we want these days.

But the problem is is the west going to be prepared to give up exporting goods and using labour from third world countries?

If you've got a few spare vegetables and your neighbour starving, are you just going to let him starve?

Of course it is. A claim, but not a burden.

Everyone pulls their weight, and if they cannot through illness or misfortune, they are not punished by being cut-of from the rest of the world.

They are helped. And the people who help them might rely on them someday, so as well as helping their neighbour get a nice warm feeling about it, and a reassurance that they needn't worry for the security of their own future too much.

 

The problem is people are always going to be tempted by greed, that is just a human trait, and the problem with having an abstract value system is that it allows for people to exploit it. The reason it can do that is because it doesn't exist, it is virtual. And things that don't exist, don't weigh anything, or take up any space, so it therefore possible to have as much of it as you want, because it does not become a burden when you have too much, as naturally everything does.

So the system of money is facilitating our greed, and becoming a vehicle for people to exploit the entire world around them for their own gains, it is a wildly oscillating and out of balance system.

 

The problem is that some folks have too much. There comes a point where compassion is trumped by greed, resulting in a sociopathic delusion of entitlement.

 

Or they were just sociopaths in the first place...

http://educate-yourself.org/cn/barrretttwilightofpsychopaths21aug08.shtml

 

I don't really see how you think greed leads to a sense of entitlement. If you really think about it, the former doesn't necessitate the latter.

 

A sense of disproportionate entitltlement is what is the motive for greed.

Once one has that, I really don't have much incline about their sense in relation to what is thurs.

If I can suggest that you carry on smoking some stuff, and think about it.

 

Everyone is entitled to what they have earned by their own effort; I don't see this as greed. If we're talking about taking things from others, then yes, you're right. The causation is the opposite of what drew said.

 

Hmmm... that's insane.

 

Drew: you just got told.

 

As you can see, the part you quoted was the Editor's note and not the words of the author of the article.


I'm well aware that the editor of E-Y, Ken Adachi, as... for the lack of a better phrase, "out there."

Why not read the article, instead of stopping before you even get to it.

You may even like it!

 

Many thanks for that brief explanation of how consumerism works. I did not know that.

The point is, a global market on the scale that we are seeing today does not work, evidently. It is exploitative and encourages us to lose sight of the true value of the fruits of the world leading to depletion of them.

Perhaps, in principle, more localised trading of the likes of this would work, but certainly a system on the scale of global capitalism no doubt encourages us to lose sight of the true value of the things we trade.

 

Bah! Prince Charles... Everyone knows that it's Jamie Oliver that's gonna save the world.

 

thank you!!

 

Ditto.
A globalized economy ensures that the parasites at the top of the food chain continue to be grossly over paid for their destructive behavior, but don't try telling that to the globalists.

 

People say the global free market doesn't work, but considering the vast amount of people that have been taken out of poverty in the past 20 years around the world I'd beg to differ. People whine about the big corporations exploiting things, but you know what, if you don't like it don't buy their crap, buy local things. But the fact is the people consuming tend to favor cheaper goods and the people producing, despite the "rabble, rabble, god damn capitalists!" from protectors in the west, people in China, India, ect, they're not forced to work in these factories. They go and work there because by our standards maybe it's terrible, but to them they have the chance for a better and more secure life.

 

Sorry, who exactly has been lifted out of poverty in the past 20 years?

Please, I'd really like to know.

From what I can gather, the disparity bewteen the rich and the poor has only widened as time has gone by, both in my country, and across 1st, 2nd and 3rd world in general.

Sure there might be instances where people have been lifted out of poverty, but on whole, things are getting worse.

 

I agree. Most people will buy whatever is cheapest, no matter where it came from and how it was made.

I think this "free market" business, as far as I can understand it, is just a good idea gone bad like everything else, and since globalization became the big thing it is the key to hell.
Theoretically a "free market" should work better than anything else, but it can not be taken by itself. If people do not have the MONEY to spend, they are FORCED to buy poor quality stuff whether they want to or not. So a truly "free market" can not exist in that context.

The whole economy has grown into a monster because it is simply too big. It encompasses so many things that the model, which would work FAMOUSLY in small localized systems, becomes a burden when applied to an entire PLANET.