jayeff

Greed and self-interest are among the strongest of inherent human traits. The main reason that capitalism seems to work better than socialism is because it utilizes these traits to provide its dynamic, rather than attempting to suppress them.

But we are also communal creatures and even were we not, there are many services and facilities that it is far simpler and more efficient to provide centrally. Unfortunately, greed and self-interest attempt to deny both these realities and because we are so good at deluding ourselves, capitalism may ultimately prove no more viable than socialism.

The very few people who are extremely wealthy can insulate themselves. They can switch their folios from company to company and from nation to nation. They can locate themselves wherever they wish and up to a point, create their own environments there. But the vast majority will never come close to that "portability". The best anyone else can do is get a home a few miles out of the ghetto and buy expensive toys to create the illusion that their lifestyles are not tied to the broader prosperity of the cities and countries within which they live.

Capitalism depends on mass markets. Simplistically, for someone to be able to afford a Ferrari (for the brand even to exist), the more people who can at least buy the cheapest Ford, the better. Thus it is almost always more productive to focus on baking a bigger pie than on trying to grab a bigger slice: especially if that means ignoring that the pie is shrinking.