The Probelm With Capitalism

[MineralMan]

45. That's good.

I am a reductionist at heart. When I look at complex systems, I consider the fundamental elements of that system. In all economic systems, the individual exchange between two people is the starting point. Everything derives from that. The more complex the thing being exchanged is, the more transactions that take place. However, the person working in the lithium mine is as crucial to the manufacture of a cell phone as is the CEO of Samsung. He is paid far, far less, though. He digs in the dirt, essentially.

Moving from an agrarian society to an industrial one introduced massive complexity that has become more and more complex over time. There are few simple transactions any longer, since almost everything involves technology today. Yes, I can still grow carrots and take them to a farmer's market and interact with my customer, even using bartering. If I choose to do that, of course. I do not so choose.

How I have made my living is through producing words for publication. That is, frankly, quite equivalent to growing carrots. I deal with one person, some editor at some publication. If my words find acceptance from that person, I get paid. So, I function, economically, on a very simple transactional basis.

However, the process of generating those words and distributing them involves a great deal of technology. I am not involved in any of that, except as a user of it. I simply use tools created by corporations to create what I write. When movable type was invented, technology became the tool that made publishing possible. Before then, individual scribes wrote books by hand. Once books were printed in larger numbers though, an entire system had to be created to manufacture and distribute those books. The writer no longer had any direct economic connection with the reader.

Complexity created capitalism. Capitalism was the most efficient way to execute all of the transactions that lead to the development and manufacture of goods. Such business practices are very costly to operate, so capitalism evolved into its own marketplace, with people investing in corporations who undertook that complex process of manufacturing. Technology cannot be simplified to an extent that allows any other economic system to function properly. We cannot demand simplicity of commerce any longer. Technology has put paid to that forever.

So, I'm not interested in your ill-considered personal attack on my reductionist argument. Within that argument is the entire explanation of why capitalism is the overwhelmingly most capable system for handling the complexity of the modern world. You dismissed me. I shrug at your dismissal.