So far two people have replied to this thread. Comrade Zeus points out that the United States is not a particulary nice nation. This may be true, but this fact has nothing to do with our discussion of Capitalism.Many nations have started wars and killed many people. Non-capitalist empires such as the Roman, Mongol, British, and Russian regimes were often very bloodthirsty. The National *Socialist* party in Germany was particulary evil. Let's not confuse economic with foriegn policy.
Zeus does admit that Eastern Europeans overthrew their Communist masters in an attempt to gain democratic freedoms. Many of these Eastern Europeans sacrificed their lives.
If this does not speak in favor of Capitalism, I'm not sure what does.
Mr. Fassbinder points out that the Earth's environment (and hence ourselves) face serious problems. His statistics and hot-links point to dire predictions of overpopulation and environmental collapse. His facts may be overstated, but not by much...Mr. Fassbinder is more or less correct in his assesment of our current situation.
Once again, we must ask; "What does this have to do with Capitalism?"
Global warming is the result of technology we've developed over the past 100 years. We use this technology to maintain the standard of living on Earth. Even Socialists who advocate seizing factories have offered no new technology that would enable us to exist without factories.
In Socialist economies, the environment doesn't fare much better. And when an individual is harmed by the environment he has no private rights. I can sue Exxon, but a Socialist citizen cannot sue "the people's state".
An example of a way to solve these problems *within the current capitalist system* might be to heavily tax firms which pollute. This approach is used in the United States power industry and has resulted in many new technologies which burn coal cleaner and cheaper.
Once again, I believe that the current system should be changed...but not scrapped. Yet another bloody revoloution followed by years of experimentation under a socialist system doesn't seem like a wise gamble to make with Earth's five billion lives.
Remember that nobody has ever seen this Socialism thing work before. Nobody knows if people will willingly change their human natures. Nobody knows how to wrest power from the entrenched elite without destroying the world we are trying to save.
Capitalism, on the other hand has a good track record. Goods are produced, people are employed, and most people in the world favor it. Let's concentrate on making Capitalism work fairly rather than leading the world on another revoloutionary adventure.
- nat
