this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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I wouldn't say capitalism is based on the notion of infinite growth, but it is an inevitability of there being no limits on capital accumulation. The notion that humans have endless desire for more, always needing a stronger hit to maintain personal satisfaction, is more psychological than something inherent to private ownership itself. Capitalism feeds the natural animal reward system to disastrous effect, but it isn't required for capitalism to work. In fact, insatiable desires are the reason capitalism doesn't work, because if people could be satisfied with a reasonable amount of resources, never trying to acquire more than they need, capitalism would be a fairly decent system.
I think there's one important distinction.
Capitalism is a "rich-get-richer" system.
In any finite economy, this is immoral, because one person (or small group) wins, and everybody else loses. By definition. And once you're a loser, you're sunk.
So capitalist apologists rely on the illusion/dream of limitless growth because it means they get to pretend that when they steal from you they are somehow "creating value".
Just because the rich get richer doesn’t mean the poor get poorer. Look at the data.
... The data that shows that as worker productivity increases, worker income doesn't increase proportionally?