Is there a point when capitaism becomes over extreme so that it sucks life life out of the average individual? Are we hitting that breaking point? What are your thoughts?
I would say that there are two ways in which capitalism can reach a breaking point; one is at the individual level, and the other is at the societal level.
Individuals can become overwhelmed in the pursuit of wealth to the exclusion of all else (for examples, see Donald Trump). I personally seen people I know become consumed with the acquisition of material possessions, and it makes for a very empty life. Instead of working to live, you live to work in order to maintain the lifestyle you have chosen. After you have the basics of life (food, shelter, etc) incremental improvements to your standard of living don't add much to your happiness, and when "keeping score" on who makes more money and has more stuff occupies your life, I can't imagine you're going to be happy.
From a societal perspective, I think that capitalism can also be overdone. If everyone in society is out for themselves, with no central moderating force, a number of bad things will happen. Externalities are ignored, and the overall health of the society suffers. China is a good example of the first point, where lack of government oversight has resulted in pollution and environmental disasters, such as the Three Gorges dam. Going back a bit, the late Roman Empire is an example of the second, where the wealthy landowners manipulated the tax system to protect their wealth, the tax base declined, and ordinary citizens reduced themselves to servitude to escape the draconian taxation forced by the shrinking of the tax base. Slavery is another example through history of the overreach of capitalism; when everything can be bought and sold, why not people?
Any ideology, unchecked by personal responsibility and governmental oversight, can result in tragedy, it is up to the people in the society to avoid it. People an become so focused on the acquisition of things that their lives become meaningless quests for possessions, and societies can weaken themselves so that internal or external pressures can easily topple them. I fear that some of the same dynamics that occured when past societies fell are occuring now, with the ongoing stratification of society into wealthy and poor classes.
Capitalism is not like Socialism. Socialists tell people what they ought to be doing. Capitalism tries to predict what people will do. People have free will and are able to choose what they want to do. There may be governments that coerce people into doing things they do not want to do. There may be people who believe that the predictions of capitalism are justification for immoral acts. There are also people that have learned that they can be punished for actions harmful to others even if they make a lot of money in the short run. Yes some people get away with it their whole life but those are really the exceptions.
I obviously think that the capitalist system is best in current conditions. I do not live in a place where I see dead people on a daily basis. Nor do I see a large percentage of the population unemployed. I believe recent figures are about 5% on unemployment. Please note that in this capitalistic country our government helps people transition between jobs and ensures that the elderly have a financial safety net. Both these services can be explained as altruism. People make the decisions of what their government should do.
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I would say that there are two ways in which capitalism can reach a breaking point; one is at the individual level, and the other is at the societal level.
Individuals can become overwhelmed in the pursuit of wealth to the exclusion of all else (for examples, see Donald Trump). I personally seen people I know become consumed with the acquisition of material possessions, and it makes for a very empty life. Instead of working to live, you live to work in order to maintain the lifestyle you have chosen. After you have the basics of life (food, shelter, etc) incremental improvements to your standard of living don't add much to your happiness, and when "keeping score" on who makes more money and has more stuff occupies your life, I can't imagine you're going to be happy.
From a societal perspective, I think that capitalism can also be overdone. If everyone in society is out for themselves, with no central moderating force, a number of bad things will happen. Externalities are ignored, and the overall health of the society suffers. China is a good example of the first point, where lack of government oversight has resulted in pollution and environmental disasters, such as the Three Gorges dam. Going back a bit, the late Roman Empire is an example of the second, where the wealthy landowners manipulated the tax system to protect their wealth, the tax base declined, and ordinary citizens reduced themselves to servitude to escape the draconian taxation forced by the shrinking of the tax base. Slavery is another example through history of the overreach of capitalism; when everything can be bought and sold, why not people?
Any ideology, unchecked by personal responsibility and governmental oversight, can result in tragedy, it is up to the people in the society to avoid it. People an become so focused on the acquisition of things that their lives become meaningless quests for possessions, and societies can weaken themselves so that internal or external pressures can easily topple them. I fear that some of the same dynamics that occured when past societies fell are occuring now, with the ongoing stratification of society into wealthy and poor classes.
Capitalism is not like Socialism. Socialists tell people what they ought to be doing. Capitalism tries to predict what people will do. People have free will and are able to choose what they want to do. There may be governments that coerce people into doing things they do not want to do. There may be people who believe that the predictions of capitalism are justification for immoral acts. There are also people that have learned that they can be punished for actions harmful to others even if they make a lot of money in the short run. Yes some people get away with it their whole life but those are really the exceptions.
I obviously think that the capitalist system is best in current conditions. I do not live in a place where I see dead people on a daily basis. Nor do I see a large percentage of the population unemployed. I believe recent figures are about 5% on unemployment. Please note that in this capitalistic country our government helps people transition between jobs and ensures that the elderly have a financial safety net. Both these services can be explained as altruism. People make the decisions of what their government should do.