Why capitalism fails

[Thornapple]

Wasn't sure if I should put this article here or in Political & Social. But here it is.

Basically its article about Minsky's view of why capitalism is bound to have bouts of collapse that end in Great Depression like scenarios. The first couple pages just give Minsky's history, you don't get to his reasoning till about page 3. (Not for the TL;DR crowd) Not sure I would agree with Minsky on his viewpoints before all this, but at this point some of his predictions look more valid. An interesting read on his ideas regardless of your personal viewpoints on economics.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas ... ism_fails/

[N.U.]

it's much like building a house of cards. If built carefully in a very measured way with a clearly defined plan, there's no limit to how big a house you can make. Once you start letting it get built up haphazardly with no oversight, the house gets less and less stable until it collapses under the weight of it's own ineptitude.

[Deedub]

Periods of growth and failure are part of any healthy market.

[Thornapple]

Periods of growth and failure are part of any healthy market.

I agree with that, the concept of an ever expanding market where everyone makes ever infinitely growing profits each year is isn't feasible or even logical. Once in a while the reset button gets pushed.

[Deedub]

The problem is, everyone is like WTF WE ARE LOSING MONEY when it happens. I am not sure that people understand that the world is not permanently growing (Economically).

[N.U.]

The small investor has finally gotten educated enough to really understand the purpose of the market after the excesses of the 1990s; it's not just gambling.

[WROOT]

It doesn't... it has been the single most positive force on economies throughout the history of man.

[Weyalan]

It doesn't... it has been the single most positive force on economies throughout the history of man.

I think that you are (wilfully) misconstruing the title of the thread here. It is not being suggested that capitalism is a failure overall, merely that it goes through periods of failure. Thats my take anyway.

[MHA]

Quite the random necro there.

[Bahb3]

It's not all about profits. Capitalism has social costs as well. I think when you hold greed up as a virtue, society suffers.

[Weyalan]

It's not all about profits. Capitalism has social costs as well. I think when you hold greed up as a virtue, society suffers.

I am inclined to agree with you. The devil's advocate would say that when greed is help up as a virtue and is utterly unregulated, society suffers. Greed, as a motivator can be useful, if regulated appropriately.

[N.U.]

greed is instinctual, IMO. A dog wants the other dog's bone, even though they have one already. One should not be slave to pure instinct, lest we risk devolving society to a pack mentality.