The Cultural Shift towards Democratic Populism

I believe that the profit-driven motive that is inherent to the capitalist model has robbed us of our true humanity. I hear people argue that capitalism is just human nature and it is the best system we have. And I take issue with both of those statements.

First of all, I do not believe competition is inherent in human nature at all. Fossil records at the Peabody Museum at Yale tell the story of how the evolution of humanity from homo erectus to homo sapiens depended on massive cooperation. When mankind first conquered the wooly mammoth, it was not because of who could sell the better spear, but a coordinated effort built on cooperation, communication, trust and ingenuity. Humans are social beings, not individuals on mountain tops separated from one another. Society is built on cooperation. Without cooperation we would not have roads from our residences, to our workplaces. Capitalism conflates the idea of individualism and individuality. Individuality is about self expression, having your own thoughts and ways of solving problems. Individualism focuses on forcing the collective needs of living onto the individual in search of more profit. I have 6 neighbors on my street. We all never mow the lawn the same time or day. If we embraced community over individualism, we could all get away with having 1 lawn mower, and share the costs of repairs. However, Home Depot would only be able to sell 1 lawn mower and would miss out on the profit of selling 6 additional lawn mowers. Individualism takes care of that problem and now my neighborhood has 7 lawn mowers instead of just 1! Commerce is important in any economy We should be working toward democratizing more workplaces by expanding worker co-ops and limit big corporations to ensure small businesses remain locally owned.

Second of all, a system that has led to the largest wealth inequality throughout most of modern history, to a planet on the verge of ecological and climate collapse, to a society where people are too busy surviving instead of being given the time to thrive and experience the richness of human existence hardly deserves to be hailed as the best system we have. Scientific studies have shown us that “good lives can be achieved for all without requiring large increases in total global throughput and output. Provisioning decent living standards (https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/living-standard) (DLS) for 8.5 billion people would require only 30% of current global resource and energy use, leaving a substantial surplus for additional consumption, public luxury, scientific advancement, and other social investments. Such a future requires planning to provision public services, to deploy efficient technology, and to build sovereign industrial capacity in the global South.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452292924000493. In essence, abandoning capitalism is just good science. I imagine a world where the actions that people take are not only to their own benefit, but also to the benefit of society as a whole. Where a person who contributes to the well being of society gets more than those who contribute only to the benefit of themselves. Competition encouraged by the profit driven motive has only led to unfathomable greed. Greed is rightly recognized as one of the seven deadly sins, and today we can see why. We need to prioritize people over profit and the working class over the Oligarchy. They cannot thrive without our labor, and we outnumber them 1000 to 1!