Reply #26: Capitalism contains so many inherent flaws it could hardly NOT fail.

[GliderGuider]

Capitalism's primary flaw is that it concentrates wealth and power in the corporate structure itself. It does that by gradually disempowering and impoverishing its workers in the pursuit of profit, without realizing that they are the source of its profits - its lifeblood. The sole mandate of a corporation is to make a profit. This causes corporations to work tirelessly to eliminate impediments to profitmaking. The drive to eliminate restrictions, regulations and negative feedbacks causes them to suborn entire political systems, to socialize their costs, to reject accountability for damages, and to minimize the costs of input, whether that be for labour or raw materials. The end result is what we have today - global environmental devastation, increasing social disparity, outsourcing, jobless recoveries, corrupt politicians, and creeping fascism.

Corporations are the individual embodiments of capitalism, as people are individual embodiments of humanity. We can control the actions of individuals and corporations with laws, but we can't fix the system unless capitalism itself changes. Since the mandate of corporations and capitalism itself (making profits) is unlikely to change, we will have to wait until it collapses of its own accord and replace it with something more humane. What that replacement might be I have no idea, but I'm pretty sure capitalism itself is a self-correcting problem.