Both can be true.
Capitalism didn’t create itself… She’s just looking at the root of the problem instead of its effects.
Yeah, I just can’t stop pooping out capitalism. It’s literally a natural thing that I do. /S
Hopefully something will fix it. Maybe it’ll be communism. It’s just a little ridiculous to believe that humans are hardwired to be capitalists. Especially since we’ve had two major economic systems prior to capitalism.
“how dare u criticize slavery when u eat the food the master gives u sleep in the barracks the master owns and works the masters fields u have no legs to stand on”
The extinction of animals because of human action predates agriculture. This comic is the middle of the bell curve meme.
Did capitalism destroy this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea
The Aral Sea is considered an example of ecosystem collapse.[42] The ecosystems of the Aral Sea and the river deltas feeding into it have been nearly destroyed, largely because of the salinity being dramatically higher than ocean water.[5] The receding sea has left huge plains covered with salt and toxic chemicals from weapons testing, industrial projects, and runoff of pesticides and fertilizer. Because of the shrinking water source and worsening water and soil quality, pesticides were increasingly used from the 1960s to raise cotton yield, which further polluted the water with toxins (e.g. HCH, TCCD, DDT).[43] Industrial pollution also resulted in PCB and heavy-metal contamination
This was the result of this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plan_for_the_Transformation_of_Nature
Exploiting nature and fucking things up is not limited to capitalism.
Plus, animal consumption is among the top three causes of ecological destruction on this planet. Do people think burgers only exist under capitalism? That palm oil and pig meat are an obsession of the super rich? It’s not a matter of efficiency (farming is already absurdly efficient). It’s just math. Like everyone will give up chicken nuggets to save the planet or something? Good luck with that. People are obdurate and gross.
Getting rid of capitalism is a step in the right direction, sure, but unless folks are willing to give up meat, cars, airplanes, and who knows what other amenities, we are still just as fucked.
capitalists have a justification to pay us shit wages
That’s still a capitalism problem. 10 people working produces more than 10x the wealth of 1 person’s labor. It’s capitalism that causes the uneven distribution of that greater wealth.
I wanna argue the 10x bit: specialization and organization is a force multiplier in terms of production.
So China must be a paragon of eco-friendly, right? Right? Like, you wouldn’t place all your bets in a pseudo-imaginary concept that has never been able to materialize and when it does it only seems to favor fascist behavior, right? Right? It must also mean that there aren’t capitalist nations the means and innovation for protection of the environment, right? Right? You totally aren’t setting yourself up for a scale you will define completely subjectively to suit your point, right? Right?
This wasn’t even true under Dengism, can you seriously look at their percentage of private sector now and say they’re capitalist?
Are they a liberal laissez faire capitalist market? No. However they operate as a capitalist market that is tied to the government. Their special economic zones operate in ways that even places like the US find under regulated. They have people running corporations and making billions in private capital, while investing their capital in shares/futures/etc markets. They are a capitalist country, they are also a dictatorship that ultimately controls everything. These things are not mutually exclusive.
Try Eastern Europe then, before the fall of the communist regimes there. The environment got fucked hard by the commies here.
So China must be a paragon of eco-friendly, right?
If every country was doing as well as China right now, the world would be a much better place. But the Chinese advantage is largely in its cutting edge industrial capacity. A bit unfair to hold Vietnam or Cuba to the standards of a tech giant.
It must also mean that there aren’t capitalist nations the means and innovation for protection of the environment, right? Right?
Economic central planning that forecasts the consequences of ecological degradation on a 5, 10, and 50 year time horizon will lead administrators to policies that individual businesses fixated on quarterly profits and annual executive compensation packages don’t want to embrace.
Past that, a big part of what the Chinese environmentalist project has been about is experimentation. They’ve done manual reforesting along the Gobi Desert. They’ve done nuclear energy R&D. They’ve done carbon capture projects. They’ve invested enormous sums in their space program.
Most of the western R&D and infrastructure development has been limited by what the O&G industry is willing to directly invest in (carbon capture, converting from coal to nat gas with supplementary wind/solar, carbon credits and other forms of green financialization) all of which are designed to immediately enrich their bottom lines. That’s not even considering the deliberate efforts to maximize fossil fuel usage (the Texas ERCOT grid refusing to buy cheap renewable/nuclear power from outside the state, various states threatening to prohibit/tax electric vehicles and renewable energy power systems).
To conclude capitalist rent seeking isn’t guiding any of these policies is deeply irrational.
So, is China capitalist? Is it communist? Thank you for your totally not subjective reply.
So, is China capitalist?
They seem to be employing a central planning model out of a public sector unconcerned with maximizing personal profits. So… No?
Is it communist?
Not yet. They appear to be exploring Socialism, but with a particular set of Chinese Characteristics. I think they’re even a book on the subject.
Thank you for your totally not subjective reply.
No problem.
