7 Reasons Why Capitalism Can't Recover Anytime Soon

[ProudDad]

"As the recession grinds on, politicians in most industrial countries have an incentive to make exaggerated claims about the supposed coming economic recovery. Some say the recession is over. Obama is in the group that claims we're on "the road to recovery," while other nations can only spot recovery "on the horizon." Below are seven important social phenomena that point to a more realistic economic and political outlook."

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/149104

And some DAMN GOOD REASONS why it shouldn't "recover"; Resource depletion, population overshoot, Peak Oil, and Catastrophic Global Climate Destabilization...!

[social_critic]

1. recession is over in most nations - new focus should be on improving capitalism

I happen to have the October 16th 2010 Economist magazine on my desk. Here's the GDP growth projections for major capitalist economies in 2010:

USA +2.6
Euro area +1.5
Australia +3.1
India +8.4
Turkey +6.1
South Korea +6.5
Brazil +7.2
South Africa +2.8
Taiwan +9.2
Japan +2.9

Reviewing the table, I also notice the only nations with negative growth are Greece, Spain, and Venezuela.

[ProudDad]

2. Than this is a BAD trend...

We're already resource vampires using up more of the Earth's resources than can be replenished...

We are digging our own graves...

How can you improve a system based on vampirism?

[social_critic]

3. I guess we could become communists and die sooner

I suppose we could become communists and die sooner. I do notice there's a trend by communists to blame environmental problems on "capitalism", as if communists were able somehow to keep the environment pristine, etc.

The key of course is to move towards sustainability, which means becoming a lot more efficient and stabilizing population. To me it's self evident that communism is a lot less efficient and less nimble - it tends to lead to a very centralized power structure unable to react to events.

Therefore, the arguments being made "that capitalism must end" sound fairly hollow. What has to end is the practice of using the planet's resources in such an inefficient fashion. For example, those of you who want to have a REAL impact on things, try to move to a smaller dwelling, and cut your electricity use. Eat less - there's nothing wrong with being slim - and definitely try to drive a smaller vehicle and keep your tires inflated. And for god's sake stop buying crap for xmas and putting up xmas trees, it's truly horrific what we do around xmas. And also don't forget to criticize people who have more than two children - we really need to stop growing our population.

Simple changes like I propose will do a lot more than running around blaming capitalism for economic growth.

[leftstreet]

4. Why are you bringing up communism? The OP is about capitalism

:shrug:

Capitalism is a stage, a process.

[Kayla2010]

7. I agree with part of this.

I don't think anyone should have more than two children. I don't care what you're financial situation is, I don't think people should have more than two children. If you want more you should adopt. There are plenty of children out there needing homes. And I agree about the smaller vehicles and smaller dwellings. I don't think we should cancel Christmas like you seem to be saying above but put some limits, definitely on the decorations. I've seen some homes and yards that you could see lighting up the sky from miles away.

As far as blaming "capitalism" goes, I don't remember hearing anyone slamming it until it got out of control which it did years ago. It's been nothing but one gigantic ponsi scheme for years! We need to see a lot more corporate criminals in prison paying for what has happened in this country and they all need some very strict rules and an organization making sure they stick to those rules. There has to be people out there that can't get paid to look the other way. Don't see any sign of them yet but....

[leftstreet]

5. K&R

[Octafish]

6. No jobs means nobody to buy stuff.

That was the lesson Henry Ford knew. So, he paid his workers $5 a day -- top wages for the time.

And they bought the stuff they made -- cars...and also their own houses and educations for their kids and eventually -- after unionization -- helped create the middle class.