humanity as a whole has always been and will always be beholden to profit.
Ayoob_Reloaded wrote:Jack,
Please read Guns, Germs, and Steel.
Mercani wrote:Why is Bill Gates trying to own one more billion dollars, when he can live very very well by not working any more. Heck, he would have to find clever ways just to spend what he is earning !
Is this rational human behaviour? I don't think so.
lotrfan55345 wrote:I hope you don't realyl belive that. Most rich people were born rich, got the family company/estate and stayed rich!
It isn't people fault they were born in the ghetto and can't afford to go to collage. It isn't people's fault they are born in Africa with no food. I mean, how are you supposed to "smarten up" and "get rich" when you don't have anything to eat?
I have never met a rich person who was stupid.
Mercani wrote:Even if my intitial suggestion of putting a limit on wealth may not make sense, it is clear that capitalism is not the way to go.
Capitalism is not mandated upon us. It is simply what happens when we have freedom.
Mercani wrote:Maybe this is correct. But what is the definition of freedom? I can't speed over 65 mph because it is dangerous, an accident kill some other people. However, by driving an SUV I can waste a valuable resource and pollute the best thing we have: air. Is this the part of freedom? We are supposed to have respect for other people's right. In a free society I would expect to have the right to breathe clean air.
Mercani wrote:Most humans are only thinking they are free, although they are the captives of human desires. Most human desires are not good.
JayHMorrison wrote:Capitalism is not mandated upon us. It is simply what happens when we have freedom.
smallpoxgirl wrote:Capitalism...ie the idea that one should accumulate capital and be reimbursed for allowing someone else to use your capital is a very new and very unnatural idea. It is one thing to make a product and trade that product with someone else. It is entirely another to "own" an apartment complex, a trailer park, a factory, and sit on your duff charging other people for the privelidge of working or living.
Ludi wrote:I'm not able to move to a place where trade and barter are allowed, and where traditional tribal lands are respected, because such places are rapidly disappearing due to the imposition of capitalism upon every part of the globe. Not only this, but I'm unable to decide with my neighbors that I would like to pool our lands and hold them tribally, and exist in a system of barter and trade, without the government interfering with us and insisting we pay property taxes on our land, taxes which are largely arbitrary. Being in a capitalistic system is not "freedom" by my standards, because I don't actually have a choice to live some other way, as it stands now. Capitalism is imposed upon me. If I were truely free, I could engage in some other system without arbitrary government interference.
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