> the benefits to society is … only because that’s directly aligned with … profits.
Yeah, that’s the magic of capitalism. You make society more efficient and get paid for that.
You say that being crammed into planes isn’t a benefit. But the opportunity costs should be taken into account. Every resource not spent on airlines is a resource spent on something else.
> Yeah, that’s the magic of capitalism. You make society more efficient and get paid for that.
you get paid for giving people what they want, not necessarily making society more efficient. It's more profitable to sell a car to everyone than it is to sell them bicycles, even if the latter is "more efficient" in terms of space, mineral and fossil fuel resource usage, pollution, health of users...
and God forbid you just tell people to walk.
I used to work at H&M - getting low quality disposable clothing from Bangladesh isn't "more efficient" then buying a sewing machine and making your own clothing, at least not if you consider transport or environmental costs. But people are lazy, and they're easily bored, and they like "new" looking things, so H&M keeps on selling clothes.
I guess basically what I'm getting at is tragedy of the commons. You let people mindlessly pursue their short term interests, it doesn't necessarily lead to efficient behavior at the aggregate level.
Arguably what has made society more efficient, at least for automobiles, has not been "capitalism", but government regulation - safety, environmental, and cutting down on drunk driving. If you consider "dying en route" to be "inefficient", then you'd agree that while just building nicer looking cars with bigger tailfins to please the market didn't really do much to reduce this inefficiency, government mandating bumpers and seatbelts and airbags did.
> buying a sewing machine and making your own clothing
But why stop there?! Cultivate your own cotton, make your own cloth. Mine and smelt your own iron. Cut the woods and build your tools, then build your sewing needles from scratch.
Funny enough during communism here it was close to impossible to find modern sewing machines - they were the product of the evil capitalist countries, of course. So the old foot-operated Singers were selling at quite the premium.
And yes, we did walk quite a lot - car production and gas distribution in a planned economy meant tens of years on waiting lists.
there is no magic to capitalism, only greed. when that aligns with your definition of efficiency it’s a coincidence.
capitalism can also be very harmful and inefficient for society. companies draining aquifers and producing tons of disposable plastic bottles to sell people that water for profits is a net negative for modern society. that money should go towards improving our water infrastructure so no one feels that their water is unclean. so much plastic pollution is the result of capitalism too.
It certainly was magical after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe to be able to visit capitalist countries and wonder at the shelves full of products and the countless affordable offers.
Starving under communism on the other hand was not magical at all. We were told incessantly that we were making the world a better place, improving the society unlike the evil capitalism that was destroying everything - but we were starving.
Funny enough the capitalist countries looked better and were less polluted too. Turns out rich societies tend to care more about the environment and invest accordingly too.
Yeah, that’s the magic of capitalism. You make society more efficient and get paid for that.
You say that being crammed into planes isn’t a benefit. But the opportunity costs should be taken into account. Every resource not spent on airlines is a resource spent on something else.