Capitalism - Good or bad ?

[Mairead]

95. Think of Mondragón. Of open-source software. Of inventors. Of university research centers.

They all demonstrate that technologically-advanced research, prototyping, reduction-to-practice, and maintenance/upgrades are fully compatible with having absolutely no private-profit Capitalism or Capitalists involved.

With the usual caveats about Nature abhorring both vacuums and bright-line divisions, we know that people fall into a few basic categories when it comes to motivation.

A tiny number are motivated primarily by the desire for power-over-others. They're the psychopaths, the human-shaped reptiles.

A somewhat larger number are motivated primarily by the desire for the biggest, shiniest, most-expensive "stuff". They're constantly playing status games. Those with power play the status games that are wrecking the world.

Another group are motivated primarily by the desire for achievement: they have a strong desire to be the first to discover, understand, make, do, or improve something.

The rest --the vast majority-- have no primary motivation, no burning needs. They just want to live out their lives with the most social approval and least social disapproval they can get without too much effort. They're usually the healthiest, psychologically. They'll never discover the cure for cancer, but they'll never start a war, either.



The achievement-oriented people are the ones responsible for nearly all non-cultural improvements. They don't require any outside motivation. They take lousy "day jobs" to keep body and soul together, and spend their free time working toward their current goal. To them, Capitalism and Capitalists are time-and-energy sinks. Free them from the need to keep that Capitalist-enriching day-job and they won't loaf -- they'll spend all their time working on solving the problems that engage them.