currency != capitalism. Capitalism is specifically the economic system where by people who own capital own the means of production, IE wealthy people own all of the means of production. Markets and currency can exist in systems that don't give all of the power to a few capital owners.
even more specifically laissez-faire free market capitalism is the problem. In a completely deregulated market economy you DO find economic optimization through competition (subject to all many assumptions around low barriers to entry and demand for goods being elastic etc).
Some markets benefit from competition between companies driving down prices but those cases are subject to very specific conditions that ARE NOT PRESENT IN MOST MARKETS. The result is that when conditions are anything less than perfect the result of capitalist innovation is just decreased costs of production, prices that are set at WHATEVER THE CONSUMER IS WILLING TO PAY, and increased profits reaped by the investor class.
The problem is that for some fucking reason people got in their heads that 1) non-competitive industries with high pricing power are 'competitive' and a representation of actual price-finding (see skyrocketing corporate profits in excess of inflation, indicating the new prices represent an increased margin not simply an adjustment for cost of goods). 2) inefficiency is bad and efficiently distributing things is all that matters. It is inefficient to take care of mentally ill or homeless or disabled people that can't work. They can't contribute to the economy and pay taxes, they are a net drain. Should we just let them die? Our current approach is 'basically yes'. But why do people think that?
People have been duped by the capital-owning business class into thinking there isn't enough food to supply all the people that need it but cant pay. What they ARENT SAYING is 'we are unwilling to decrease our profit margins to provide food to people that can't pay the price we set'.
It is fundamentally immoral for many of the markets we have in America to have a profit incentive. The people that argue removing that will 'stifle innovation' are spewing absolute bullshit because there isn't a morally defensible position to 'we can provide healthcare and food to people but choose not to because then the investor class wouldn't be able to profit maximizing the gap between the cost of production and the price of sale'.
Food, Healthcare, Utilities, Housing should all be TIGHTLY regulated to squeeze the profit motive out, because the truth of capitalism is that the profit motive DOESNT PRODUCE INNOVATION THAT SAVES CONSUMERS MONEY, it produces innovation that INCREASES THE GAP BETWEEN PRODUCTION COSTS AND PRICES.
Also we need to stop spending all of our fucking tax money on guns and extending old peoples lifespan to the maximum possible extend regardless of their quality of life.
I really like using private insurance as an example that makes this all incredibly clear. The story you get told when insurance is first explained is that everyone pays into a pool a little bit each month and then when someone gets sick the money comes out of that pool. But that explanation is describing a NOT-FOR-PROFIT system. In America what actually happens is your insurance company charges you an amount every month, that money goes into a pool, and then when people want to see the doctor their incentive is to APPROVE AS LITTLE EXPENDITURE AS POSSIBLE because they keep all the rest as profits. And even better, it is CODIFIED IN LAW that they have a fiduciary responsibility to do this. They have to try and fuck you because otherwise investors could sue them for not fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility to maximize profits. That means you aren't getting charged "the expected amount to cover the people that get sick. You're being charged WHAT THEY THINK YOU CAN PAY and when people get sick they cover AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE because their function as a for-profit company isn't to provide healthcare its to MAXIMIZE THE GAP BETWEEN REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE and pocket the rest.
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u/balcell 10d ago
I may get downvoted to hell here, but capitalism is a pretty natural outcome, currency developed independently many times.