You are, I am, we all are. Do some research into whether capitalism has been a force for good or bad and you will find a number of search results, with some sentiments being in direct opposition to each other. Well, look around, is the $1.90 a day poverty line realistic, can you buy enough to eat and live safely with on such an amount in say South America? This average is calculated based on the very poorest countries in the world and it holds that this estimate is of little to no use to countries still developing yet a little further ahead than the very poorest.
For all of the talk of Corporate Social Responsibility it seems like a world with more GDP and more ultra wealthy people than ever still means a world of scraping by for more and more people.
I'm not an economist or historian however, one of the papers I read goes over some data related to real wages of people from a few centuries ago until now. There are some assumptions made for working hours and it assumes a one worker household with a family of four, yet the data asserts people were not so widely impoverished before capitalism. The paper also looks at other metrics other than real wages such as height and mortality rate. The data for these metrics often coincides with huge losses during times of colonial involvement and less so outside of natural disasters, famine and war during precapitalist times.
Capitalism actually drove down real wages for regions such as South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The wages never truly recovered for said regions.
Where is all this going and does higher GDP and a few more rich people really mean the world is becoming a better place? Would we have the 'benefits' of capitalism if we could have a system that isn't exploitative?
This paper goes over some of the defining features of capitalism and how it is a force that extends beyond economic activity. It states "In almost every account of the rise of capitalism, there is a general recognition that capitalism as an economic form cannot be separated from wider societal processes." Many have argued that capitalism is a 'system of needs' and Marcuse argues it creates new needs. Will these needs that get created really be useful to fulfill, or will they be some fad people engage in because you were sold a less than ideal system?
The Late Stage
If there's talk of unionization in a big box store the location gets shut down. Clothing is made in horrendous working conditions to cut costs for some business venture. The people making cellphones for billions of consumers have suicide nets outside their windows. To act ethically is a matter of debate when it comes to cutting costs and driving up profits. Oil companies are still a thing and making tons of money off of a climate catastrophe that more than a majority of climate scientists warn us about. We're living in the capitalism matrix.
What is a human life really worth?
Is this really the best we can do as a society? Capitalism has seeped into our beings and in the late stage the question of whether to negatively affect lives will come down to dollars on a balance sheet. What won't be justified in the name of a profit? Slavery? War? Genocide?
It's true the price of the average consumer electronic device has fallen substantially so that even the poor can afford a cellphone. However, the drawbacks of cheaper goods beholden to a profit motive will be worse off than alternatives in the long term.
Where from Here?
Many of our governments have become enamored with corporate agendas in the form of Super PACs and related forms of blatant bribery as it comes off to me.
Is this really what we expect of our governments? To waste all the potential humanity can have to build better systems on one tearing at the seams? Of course, people have done better. There are a lot of really smart people better qualified than I am that have spoken on alternative econonomic and social systems.
Read into it yourselves. Is all this running around for a profit motive really the best for people across the board? If not, why waste time and measure progress for people based on metrics that don't really account for the actual quality of life of people?
We can continue to live in a lie - that capitalism is good for all of us when a few dozen people own more wealth than billions of people. Or we can break the illusion and start working towards better systems that don't leave so much of the world in destitute conditions while a few people reap the rewards of our collective efforts.
I believe social and democratic reforms are way overdue. We need direct democracies and better social safety nets for those of us at risk. In a world where some sources of our information are beholden to the profit motive, why wouldn't they fudge search results and cover up the truth in an attempt to drive up earnings? We're living in the capitalism matrix, maybe we should wake up.