Is capitalism slowing the progress of the human race?

let me just say it wasn’t capitalism that got us to the moon and created the playing ground for the development of GPS, and commercial satellites. I severely doubt we would have that now if we relied on capitalism to advance space flight. The investments were huge and the benefits not immediately apparent and delayed for several decades, time in which a company could very well go bust.

No, selfishness and greed are slowing the progress of the human race.

You are incorrect that the only thing that matters in capitalism is profit. Profit is what you have left over after you do a bunch of other things right. No doubt capitalism has its flaws, but don’t confuse those flaws with the much greater impact of impersonal corporations. Pile on top of the impersonalness, the unbelievable greed of CEO’s who take WAY MORE than they are worth, and the self preservation instinct of the coporation (for example, to buy up all the battery patents to keep their oil sales high) and we have a potently obstructive mix.

There are plenty of innovative, environmentally conscious companies that utilize capitalism and make a profit. Don’t confuse them with soulless corporations.

It depends on you definition of progress.

Probably the thing Capitalism does best is getting goods to your average consumer, since that usually is the best way to make maximum product. I would slightly disagree with @ragingloli about capitalism not getting astronauts to the moon. Capitalism made it possible for the tax basis which paid for NASA’s moon efforts. That is basically what played out with the end of the Cold War. The USSR’s Communist Market could not keep up with the US’s Capitalistic Market.

As per electric cars there wasn’t enough profit in them at the time for GM, but now there is a market potential for them. I think this is primarily due to the Government providing incentives, the Consumer market gaining interest, and the Battery technology improving and become more cost effective.

So while, capitalism might not always be the first mover in a technology, it is the best method available for utilizing and distributing that technology in a maintainable manner.

No.

@ragingloli Not sure how to respond but here goes. One of the main parts of our space flight and GPS is capitalism. A very large part of NASA consists of Government Contracts that go out to companies that are trying to make money and stay in business. Virgin is starting their own space program based on nothing but capitalism. Granted, the Government runs the space program but without entrepreneurs and their companies we wouldn’t have what we have today. I’m not sure I understand what you meant. Maybe I misunderstood.

@missingbite The need for political plaudits was the initial motivation for the ‘Space Race’,
capitalistic institutions and individuals merely stepped onto that bandwagon.
Just a little step though.

@missingbite
It was the governments that started the space race. The costs were massive, the benefits not immediate but delayed several decades. It was not even sure if it could even be done.
No company would have invested into development of rockets and space exploration because of these factors.
Now of course they flock to it, because the government institutions did the development and found out that it worked and how it can be done. It provided the technology and the launching facilities and thus relieved the companies of the risks of failure, and the development costs.
The recipe has been developed by the governments, the cake has been baked by it as well, and the companies are now eating it. What I meant is, the companies would not have done this on their own, at least not with that speed.

@ragingloli I see what you are saying now and I somewhat agree with you. My question now is, where did the Government get the money to put into the space race and GPS? Or where do they get the money from for anything. It comes from capitalism. The costs were massive for the space race. You are correct that one company could not have done it alone. If they could it would have taken years longer. It took the US entrepreneurs to start business (who pay taxes) to manufacture or sell something and hire people (who pay taxes). That is the problem I believe we are in now. We are spending more than we are taking in. You can only raise taxes so much.

@lloydbird You too are correct but without the tax dollars from capitalistic companies and its employees, the government couldn’t have done it either.

the point is that capitalism wastes a lot of the money on consumerism, comparatively little is spent in innovations, largely because of the costs, risks, and uncertainty of eventual benefits and potential financial losses. It takes an agency that is not driven by the need for profit to do the really costly innovations, and right now government institutions are the only ones up to the task.

Profit is a great stimulus for certain things, like getting people/companies to create useful products. And then competition brings the price down so everyone can own the gadget-of-the-week.

The problem with Capitalism, like the problem with Communism, is that it ignores the needs of the individual. Neither economic system accounts for the welfare of people, maintaining a civilized and moral society, encouraging people to strive for greatness for the sake of greatness, etc. Both economic systems have their strong points, and like all things in life, one way or the other is usually too extreme. A few bits from both sides will likely function better and be more useful to people.

@Marina

If you dont mind, I would love to hear your reasoning.

Capitalism is a cultural retardant. It very much slows the progress of the human race.
Because we are all struggling to push past each other, in one way or another, we are not collectively advancing at great rates and fulfilling our huge potential.
We are all pushing the car in different directions and not getting very far.
Not just yet anyway.

An urban legend (I personally believe this on is true): There was a carburetor that was invented and produced in the 1970’s that would enable an automobile using then-current 1970’s technology to get up to 100 mpg. According to what I heard, the patent for this carburetor technology was purchased by a major oil company and suppressed.

Free market fundamentalism does slow the progress of the human race. Social market economy speeds up the progress of the human race.

If capitalism & free markets slow the progress of the human race, then why has the country that based its economy on capitalism in its founding, the United States, so much more advanced technologically than the rest of the world? The US has been in existence less than 250 years, yet it has led the world, (until its recent decent into collectivism) in scientific, industrial, & medical advances for most of its history. Capitalism has given the US’s poor a standard of living that is higher than that of the kings & royalty of old. It is the economic system of rational self interest, where each individual is responsible for their own output. This sets the bar for achievement much higher than collectivism, where your work does not benefit your self interest, & people try to live off the work of others. So how did this relative infant of a country, so much younger than many of the collective economies of Old Europe that have been around many hundreds of years longer, advance to its state of technological splendor & material plenty by choosing an economic system that “slows the progress of the human race?” Shouldn’t the more socialist countries be kicking the behind of the US under this scenario?

Did it now?
Surely you don’t have to be reminded that the Soviet Union whopped the USA’s arse throughout the Space Race until they lost interest in it? The Soviets had the first satellite in space, the first life form in space, the first human in space, the first space walk and the first space station and the US only was the first on the moon because, 1: the Soviets were not interested in going to the moon anymore and 2: because of the intellectual ressources provided by German Scientists abducted after WW2.

You also need not be reminded that many, if not most of today’s important inventions and discoveries were made in good old Europe, including, but not limited to:
– Democracy
– moveable Types
– Penicillin
– Aspirin
– Germ Theory
– the first scientific Pregnancy Test
– the Theory of Evolution
– modern Astronomy
– the Steam Engine
– the Locomotive
– Textile Mass Production
– X-ray
– the Cathode Ray Tube (which was the Basis of all Television and Monitors until LCD)
– the Computer
– the WWW
– the Binary Number System
– Differential Calculus
– Newtonian Physics
– the Theory of Relativity
– Quantum Mechanics
– atomic Theory
– Nuclear Fission
– Electromagnetism
– Genetics
– Biological Taxonomy
– Telegraphy
– the Telephone
– the Microphone
– the Electron Microscope
– the Thermometer
– the Dynamo
– the Refrigerator
– the Hot Air Balloon
– the Zepellin
– the Glider
– the Aeroplane (google karl jatho)
– the Tank
– the First multi-shot Weapons (google puckle gun)
– the Jet Engine
– the first operational Jet powered Combat Aircraft
– the first ICBM
– the first Cruise Missile
– the Helicopter
– the Electric Motor
– etc. p.p.

You also need not be reminded that the automobile and about every type of combustion engine was invented in Europe (specifically Germany) and to this day, European cars (especially German) continue to wipe the floor with American cars.

The recent economic crisis has devastated many American corporations, including huge car manufacturers and banks, while European economy with their oh-so-evil socialist safety nets are not even nearly in as bad shape as their US-counterpart.
Meanwhile we enjoy universal health-care of top notch quality (when you get a child in germany, insurance will pay for someone to come to your home and take care of you and your baby) that covers nearly everyone and is not nearly as expensive as the American system, we enjoy a superior public transport system, lower crime rate, higher happiness, higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, high standard of living and our laws protect our freedom of speech by keeping us free from frivolous lawsuits when you criticise corporations and keeping us free from the fear of being fired when you have an argument or disagreement with your employer and almost as an afterthought the €uro is almost 1.5 times as valuable as the Dollar.

So excuse me that I find your claim that the US is so much better than Europe in terms of Science, health and economy because of their unbound love for predatory capitalism completely bunk

”Shouldn’t the more socialist countries be kicking the behind of the US under this scenario?”

Should we? Yes.
Do we? Yes as well.

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. It is BAD capitalism that ruins things and stifles growth. True capitalism is like The Field of Dreams; sell it fare they will buy. Capitalism is the bases for a free market system. Anyone who will open a store, start a practice etc is a capitalist if they use, enjoy and embrace the free market system. Under that there is the spirit of competition, the better made better price items should prevail; because that is what people will want to buy. That is all about supply and demand, if enough people want it (as the housing boom was) you get the best price for it if the supply is low. If no one is really interested the price is soft to entice people to buy.

You get greedy slime balls who want to pervert capitalism by fixing the market so they don’t have to be innovative or have a good product, they will have about the only product, a de facto monopoly. You want this or that you have to go to company X, and they can hose you for whatever they can get from you. I remember the Dark Ages back when cable 1st came out. Showtime and HBO was the only dogs in the movie pen. I think Showtime came 1st you had to purchase the service separate from your regular service. I remember the pricing got better when HBO hit the scene, and better still as Starz, Encore, and other got in the mix. The same way cable had to change their arrogant ways when satellite dishes came out. If there is competition no company can gouge the customer because they will be the only company standing without a chair when the music stops.

The companies who want to be ahead of the game create the next generation of gadgets. Yes, they want to make a profit but if they come up with something that works better or was not done, then their competition is chasing them. Remember when the iPhone came out? Now see how many touch screen iPhone-like devices that are out there, each with their own little twist. Capitalism doesn’t thwart innovation it creates it. Corporate greed is what stymies innovation and growth.

Not really. Both socialism and capitalism have done their parts to advance progress, prosperity, and quality of life for everyone.

Socialism exceeds capitalism in grand projects without an immediate profit to benefit future generations. As @ragingloli said, capitalism would never have gotten us to the moon, as there is no profit in it. But much of the modern micro technology that we take for granted is an outgrowth of space research. Even the interstate highway system in the US was a grand socialist project that took 100 years to complete. Imagine if we had to take back roads through little towns to drive across country?!?! Of course, socialism is based on “egalitarianism” or “one size fits all.” You have a choice of one model of computer to “choose” from, one model of automobile, etc., etc., the features of which are decided by a committee of politicians…

On the other hand, capitalism exceeds socialism in giving people what they want now and gives them choices. When computers were new on the market back in the 80s, the USSR created a “people’s computer” that was pretty pathetic. There was no choice in configuration, only the most wealthy of communists could afford it, and it was outdated before it was even available for sale. Communism would never have given us 3 GHz processors, terabyte hard drives, TVs for every taste and budget, cell phones, iPods, iPads, tablets, notebooks, vehicles of all sizes and shapes and budgets. Of course, capitalism also gives us greedy corporate executives who don’t care how their policies impoverish everyone else as long as they can afford to buy a new Beemer every year.

So both competing ideologies have served mankind well.