if we needed to get rid of capitalism, could we?

[gisiebob]

@uhtred ok, but what political options would be feasible? both in accordance with laws and within the "rules of the game" with politicians? is that a remotely viable avenue?

[Howard]

1 hour ago, gisiebob said:

ok, but what political options would be feasible?

I see democracy as a type of political system whereas capitalism is an economic system. Many despots, particularly the fascist variety, got rid of democracy while keeping a capitalist economic model. The opposite is also true. In the western world, most democracies, if not all that I know, are capitalists but still allow other forms of distrubition and production such as coops and communes. So no, we would not necessarly need to change political system to get rid of capitalism.

 

[gisiebob]

8 hours ago, Howard said:

I see democracy as a type of political system whereas capitalism is an economic system. Many despots, particularly the fascist variety, got rid of democracy while keeping a capitalist economic model. The opposite is also true. In the western world, most democracies, if not all that I know, are capitalists but still allow other forms of distrubition and production such as coops and communes. So no, we would not necessarly need to change political system to get rid of capitalism.

 

they allow it within the context of an environment of capitalism. like "you   can grow anything you want as long as you still produce corn" I do not know if a system within which capitalism would not "work" could be fully executed and exemplified within capitalism. and while current major governments do not explicitly define economies, they do hold  the groundwork of laws that structure them.

 

what would a legal system look like that had no concept of monetary fines?

[uhtred]

On 5/1/2021 at 12:30 AM, gisiebob said:

@uhtred ok, but what political options would be feasible? both in accordance with laws and within the "rules of the game" with politicians? is that a remotely viable avenue?

Its difficult but I still think playing within the game is better. Revolutions are often very ugly things - and rarely end  up better for the general public, no matter how noble the original goals. 

In the us democracy mostly works - politicians do want to get elected.  People try to manipulate the public's feelings, so any new plan would need to do that as well.  Its not impossible - look at the strong support for a  progressive agenda.  Or the change in attitudes toward homosexuality over the last 50 years.

A starting point though is a good plan. Most people see the question as a scale form pure capitalism (which is a disaster) to pure socialism / communism, which is also a disaster.  Somewhere inbetween with some free market and some government regulation and social programs seems to work best.  Maybe there is another option outside of that scale?

[Zagadka]

I think that, like most things, people focus way too much on labeling everything. What is technically capitalist or what is technically socialist. You aren't going to have a sudden worldwide revolution and over throw "capitalism," as if capitalism is a specific structure or there is something you can replace it with. You can displace it over time, but...