One of the problems with pure capitalism is there is no guidance. Capitalism just goes where it wants, does whatever it deems it needs to do, and then moves on without a care for what's left behind.
What's left behind is often social wreckage and ruined communities.
Gold mining is an example. A discovery of gold will bring prospectors, miners and every kind of supply chain they require. Soon, a new town is born. But don't put down roots. When the gold runs out you don't want to be caught holding the bag and owning a lot of property or business there. All of a sudden it becomes worthless.
Another might be the auto industry in America. Wow. After WWII we could build cars and buy our own products. Great jobs for thousands and great cars we loved. The rich lived in luxury and executives made 10-15 times the average worker pay, which was high enough to support a family on one income in modern comfort.
Those days are gone. Most of those jobs are too. Machines and much lower paid workers build the cars, much of the work in foreign countries. There are far fewer workers and they are not paid as much. Executives now make 400 times the average worker pay, which is not enough to support a family. It requires two workers to do that now. And even with two, many families are not as well off as they were in the good old days 'when America was great.'
The towns and cities that were built up around the auto factories thrived in the heyday. But after those jobs were lost everything turned around. Lotta people lost a lot of property value when that happened. Just like in the gold mining towns.
And capitalism just goes elsewhere, not caring about the fate of the communities which were built when capitalism moved in, and are now left behind with less means to build wealth or enjoy that middle class comfortable life. Capitalism doesn't care, because that is never part of the planning. There is no planning. Capitalism simply seeks profitability wherever it finds it and if profitability goes away then so does capitalism.
Proponents of capitalism think it's the end-all be-all of building a good life. But that's not always true. That's really only mostly true for capitalists, those who can invest, and do so wisely. For labor, especially lower paid labor which is unable to invest (capitalists favorite kind - lower cost, more exploitable,) capitalism can just as easily take away a good life as it can help build one. The wise worker needs to be very flexible and ready to change careers, possibly even know when to just move away to a more promising place, leaving all roots behind, including family and memories, parts of human character. Forget that, be ready to constantly reinvent yourself if you want to stay on track to build wealth as a worker at the whims of capitalism.
And it never hurts to be lucky and born into good circumstances.
Last edited by PoliTalker; 09-22-2019 at 05:18 PM.
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