The problems with capitalism

The problems with capitalism

By devin, 17 January, 2016

I have a surprising number of friends who want to do away with capitalism entirely. The hope is to create a new economic order, with the aim of achieving some or all of these goals (among others):

  • Freedom to work on what you want, for greater job satisfaction
  • Decrease income inequality, by allowing the poor and middle class a larger share of income

A major new technology that we have now that will enable this new economic order is the internet. Because of the internet, we'll be able to abolish corporations and make everyone happy. A great example of this was the now defunct bettermeans.org (which is still on github). I was captivated by its description of a world where we didn't need managers. In the new economy ushered in by Bettermeans, teams of smiling people would 

I've had a small amount of experience with actual, putting our money where our mouth is, experiments in two "new economy" projects, and I've learned a few things. Mostly, it's that 

 - Value of time

 - Two points:

    - Trust is the most important factor

   - People aren't good at evaluating the relative value of others' contributions.

 - maybe talk about direct democracy

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