Why do people hate capitalism?

why?

red_aries, i don't know why "people hate it", but i can probably tell you why i don't think it's all that and a bag of chips. 😛

capitalism is so weird. because its driving force is the rags to riches ideal. that joe shmoe the farmer can patent a cutting-edge vacuum cleaner and become rich overnight. that perceived economic freedom that lends support to the capitalist system.

however, in my opinion, it is a system that - like so many others - is good in theory but in practice is lacking. people live under the illusion that, with enough hard work, they will become rich. when, in reality, the majority of people will spend the best years of their lives working 160 hours a week (yes, that was a deliberate exaggeration) only to make ends meet and remain in the same economic class as their parents.

i mean, the greatest percentage of the US population falls into middle class. not that that's horrible or anything. the point is just that the extremely wealthy are the exception, not the rule. which means that for most people the promises of capitalism are never reached, quite the opposite actually. and poverty is more prevalent than wealth, which is also a problem.

i can't prove it on an internet forum obviously, but i do not fall into the category of either irresponsible or lazy. i simply don't agree with the idea that life and all the world's happiness should revolve around money, and that people who are not suited to a life of work upon more work should be forced to do so or live on the street...

i KNOW i sound like a hippie, but i think life is a lot simpler and more enjoyable when possessions aren't the focus.

i am not an advocate of communism, because of all the things that branh pointed out above, as well as all the power that ends up being placed in the hands of so few. but i do agree with many communist philosophies. *shrug*

"Ants, bees....anyone who has a tendency to be in large organised societies."

?

I know that you can never be rich working for someone else. But what choice does one have when one's power is limited.

I myself is ambivlent towards capitialism. Cpaitalism is good for human progress, but to a large dgree now we are detached from our basic needs. needs such as food shelter and water that we are counting on someone else to provide for us. The competition for wealth has made lose the most crucial skill of all, the skill to survive. people now are obssessed with pursuit of money because money is the only thing they can guraeentee their survival. Fear , rather than greed, is the driving force that motivate us to get rich.

I agree with you wheel, life should not revolve around the pursuit of wealth, but one cannot survive if one lacks money unless there is another alternative.

"Cpaitalism is good for human progress, but to a large dgree now we are detached from our basic needs. needs such as food shelter and water that we are counting on someone else to provide for us."

But without the efficiency of such a system that allows this, capitalism or otherwise, our lives would be spent entirely on satisfying basic needs such as shelter, water and food. These skills could be learned by anyone in a span of several days to a week. Theoretically we could all revert back to this and survive (provided there is enough food, water and shelter to support the population currently). The beauty in capitalism is that by seemingly working separately to our own goals we are actually working in symbiosis towards our collective goals AND we have the opportunity therein to actually accomplish far far more than these basic requirements.

The idea of reverting back so to speak is really romantic. Being one with nature and being content in simply fulfilling our basic needs but the truth is that reverting back to this would also, according to history, revive many fatal diseases, shorter life spans, higher death rates and ruthless violence.

Also capitalism allows us the time to contemplate such things.