Have you seen the behavior of parties captured by the capitalist end of the political spectrum? They very much are not the rational actors trying to preserve their own income by keeping consumers alive. If they were they would try to optimize consumer health and spending money instead of aiming for highscore-like accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few that can’t spend it on anything meaningful any more anyway because they can already afford everything that could meaningfully improve their life a million times over.
artificialfish@programming.dev 1 week ago
I’m not saying capitalists as individuals do this. I am saying that capitalism as a system will ultimately do this. Capitalism survives is kinda its claim to fame. It was never going to take a long termist view and do what’s best for everyone, but it will protect itself. Whether that means government acts on its behalf, in the form of it acting on behalf of the insurance companies, or by shifting consumerism towards consuming solar panels and electric cars, it will ultimately find a way to exist. Literally no one on earth benefits from human extinction, corporate or otherwise, and eventually human decline WILL hurt sales. That’s when all the nations and corporations of the world will act. It’s bleak but true.
ploot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
Or, facing conditions where it can no longer do this, it will boil off into fascist autocracy, which seems to be where we’re headed.
artificialfish@programming.dev 1 week ago
Meh, a nation, just like a corporation, must protect itself. Either way, political economy will eventually “go green”. In a lot of ways it already has.
taladar@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
It looks more like people have to fight a constant battle to keep capitalism in check because capitalism itself is incapable of rational behavior and just does the same things to optimize profits regardless of consequences for any other indicators.