Not judging and am genuinely curious. Am asking here because this version of the “ask” community doesn’t have a “no politics” rule. Again, I’m not here to bash, this has just been on my mind for a while. This question has two components that are both relevant to capitalism and communism.
So we should start off with the context that capitalism, love it or hate it, is very preachy. Capitalists, like Communists with Communism, like the idea that as many nations as possible are Capitalist. This is regardless of a nation’s properties.
At the same time, the very nature of the Earth is not equal opportunity. Much like how one person can be born with better eyesight or athleticism than another person, one nation can exist with more natural valuables than another nation. You certainly aren’t going to find people moving to Australia “because the rainforests are nice”.
Natural valuables, however, are valuables nevertheless. Did you strike gold or valuable plant life in your native region? You can snag it from the Earth and drag it into the economic system and money will unquestionably pour in. Did you try to find valuables in your Saharan nation but can only find sand? Too bad, nobody is going to buy your sand.
That means that capitalist prosperity is not equal opportunity. One nation’s maximum possible level of capitalist prosperity could be levels lower than another nation’s maximum possible level of capitalist prosperity. At the same time, this does not stop the classic Capitalist view that Capitalism should be ubiquitous and the same everywhere. Also at the same time, there is no obligation to create a crutch.
Along comes Communism (by that I refer to hard Communism, since there are many highly pick-and-choose versions of it). Communism tries to acknowledge a lack of being equal opportunity and so it sets up a system where everything, from parts of the environment to the people themselves, are given roles based on their skills and needs, abandoning mutual exchange as a backbone. However, partially going back to the part about people themselves not being equal opportunity, this leads to a hierarchy of respect based on one’s work and skills. Are you a very sickly person who can’t afford to take part in the wolf pack, someone whose needs overshadow the little providable skill? You will, in many circumstances, be put on the back burner (note that wolves are bad model here, they care for their less fortunate). Same with the environment.
And to be fair, this is a valid question for many other ideologies as well. Libertarianism especially, if you live in a world where people have the liberty to leave people behind without the guilt of having been called murderers (since you’re acting on your liberties).
How do you explain this away and/or stray from the conventional form of your ideology (in a doctrinal way or maybe in the form of little habits you do) so that your approach makes things a little more equal opportunity (for example, my employer made a system to cycle errands according to employee sleep issues)?
I think it’s a miracle that we found a way to get humans to cooperate whatsoever. It’s fragile but by assuming everyone is fundamentally self-interested then it just about works.
Other systems assume a higher degree of altruism than humans actually have. Paradoxically this leads to more corruption in those systems, like endemic corruption in communist countries once some people start to play the system.
Capitalism facilitates cooperation but with an underlying game theory assumption of self interest holding it all together.
Australia has some of the largest rainforests: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondwana_Rainforests
There is no quirk. Hierarchy and inequality are natural and good. Equal opportunity sounds nice but like you explained it doesn’t really make sense anyway.
I’m not entirely clear on what your angle is (or even what you’re particularly asking about). But I’ll try my best to offer something meaningful.
From what I can gather, you are making the rather common mistake of equating captialism with corporate capitalism/venture capitalism It may seem convenient (and depressing to think of the things as intertwined, but they’re really not.
Capitalism is very simple. It’s the exchange of goods and services for monetary reward. The harder you work (theoretically) the more you’re rewarded. It’s only when corporations, venture capitalists and stock prices become involved that that notion begins to become corrupted.
If I make a point to trying to do my grocery shopping at the local grocery store rather than the big chain, that’s still capitalism. I’d argue it’s more pure capitalism than corporate douchebaggery.
If I have a neighbour who likes to make wooden furniture in his garage and I procure a table and chairs from him instead of going to IKEA. That’s still capitalism.
If (as I had all the time growing up) our neighbours kept cows while my family kept chickens, we would purchase beef from them and they would purchase eggs and poultry from us. THAT’S CAPITALISM.
Seeing the reward from your own sweat rather than a corporation seeing the reward from other people’s sweat.
I guess in some sort of answer to your question, take back the notion of capitalism from the greedy corporations that have hijacked it. Support your local community. Go to your local farmer’s markets. Buy from local artisans and farmers. THAT’S how we reconcile (and fix) capitalism.
I think the big problem is the concept of state and corresponding geographical boundaries. If humanity could get rid of geographical binding of territories to states, it would stop all wars, and capitalism would work much better for everyone. Instead of states there could be some kind of unions and they could be represented in different geographical locations, and the infrastructure of any geographical location could be managed by cooperation of unions existing there.
