/lit/ - Literature

>>11239480
>>11239480
someone is imitating me, ignore them

capitalism can work if the flows of wealth are rerouted, if there are mechanisms put in place by a government to redistribute wealth or make sure workers can exercise power in some way and share in the prosperity. but if you want capitalism and democracy to be compatible, the only route is some form of keynesianism, or social democracy. the problem is that inevitably you have some right-wing bullshit like the powell memo that ends up dismantling this more stable configuration.

when the wealth stops being shared, when wages stagnate and prosperity is limited to the few, this inevitably leads to political instability. its a catch-22, when the market is completely free, it moves towards its own collapse. if the underclass wins, they may just reinstate a form of social democracy again, restarting the cycle, or they may get rid of the market altogether. if the rich and powerful win, they will continue to rig the social order in their favor, continue to sabotage the market from above, until its ruled over by monopolies backed by state power.

the things is, as computers and AI grow more advanced, the free market may be facing extinction. leftists could talk about realistic central planning with the aid of AI. and the right-wingers could do something similar but with a corporatist style economy.

personally, i think capitalism isn't the worst thing, but its a precarious and temporary system if left unchecked, which is currently facing a double-bind from the social forces that it has itself unleashed (including climate catastrophe), and advanced technology that may make the market mechanism look inefficient and old-fashioned

in this light, libertarians and objectivists are just weirdos who pruposefully put the blinders on, who have to remove all nuance and ignore all wider political implications to make their philosophy work. they're like people who want us to rev an engine that is already flying apart. at least the accelerationist types are honest about the long-term prospects for capitalism, objectivists are delusional