Around 250 years ago, Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, in which he described the birth of Capitalism which would lead to the accumulation of wealth beyond anything we can imagine and undoubtedly it has reshaped the world and lifted people out of poverty over the last two centuries, increased standards of living and resulted in inventions that have radically improved our lives but it has come at a cost.
Making a profit has become the over-riding philosophy to the detriment of society and inequality and probably the greatest threat we face, the environmental damage and devastating climate change.
With those with the most to gain from Capitalism making the decisions, Capitalism will not be replaced anytime soon but with a significant gap between the wealth of the richest and poorest people continuing to grow and nature fighting back with devastating droughts and sea levels rises, it may have to be rethought.
The 2007-2008 financial crisis exacerbated the capitalism problem, hitting the poorest hardest and leading to resentment of the politicians which led to the likes of Populists such as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Jair Belsonaro rising to power and the polarisation of left and right wing political viewpoints.
A change may be coming, in a statement released by over 180 corporate CEOs including Wal-Mart, Apple, JP Morgan Chase, Pepsi and Yahoo acknowledged that they must redefine the role of business in relation to society and the environment, doing more than deliver profits to their shareholders and contributing to the improvement of the human, natural and society rather than the sole focus on financial capital.
If Capitalism is to survive, and Karl Marx described it as a necessary step towards Socialism as the workers would rise up and overthrow their corrupt leaders and install a fairer system which would distribute fairly the share of the profits, the future of Capitalism and the Capitalists driving it, depend on it changing into something a bit more fairer and less devastating to the planet.
Saturday 3 July 2021
Changing Capitalism
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1 comment:
the gap in wealth is increasing. and the pols make sure we see that everyday.
BUT, being "poor" is a much better life style today than it was just 100 years ago. Poor no longer means starvation and squalor in most of the world. in the US, it means you have a crappy home. but that crappy home has electricity, water, internet, heat, appliances, smart phones, big screen TVs.
but, keep the pols keep driving a wedge between the rich and the poor by talking about the greed of the "rich" - whilst leveraging the envy of the "poor".
fair is subjective. which the pols like AOC leverage everyday.
i don't know about the "less devastating". the USSR did some pretty horrific environmental damage as does Russia and China.
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