this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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Degrowth

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[–] anonymous111@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just use the tax system. We don't need these huge movements to fundamentally change global economics. We just need to tax the things we don't like and it'll be unprofitable for businesses to keep doing them.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Problem is, the people who pass tax law are corporate captured, ensuring such hefty tax laws are not enacted.

[–] anonymous111@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Agreed, but how is removing these elected officials easier than removing the profit system?

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"Part of capitalist ideology is that no matter what the problem, there is a technical fix. Because if there is no technical fix, then there is something wrong with the society, and the defenders of the society do not want to believe this."

Honestly, that's a pretty generous take.

Part of today's capitalism is "fuck you, I got mine".

I don't know if capitalism can or cannot be compatible with a living life supporting planet, but I agree that, forced to pick between the two, I'll choose the living planet.

Capitalists who love capitalism need to get their asses in gear and prove it can save the planet, if they want to keep capitalism.

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You know, people are inherently selfish. Don't know how do you want to design effective non-capitalist system around that

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The "selfish human nature" meme was basically invented as a post-hoc justification for the dysfunctional social systems that lead to people behaving that way, it doesn't actually hold up to scrutiny. Thomas Hobbes for instance was taking the cultural memory of the horrors of war and giving people an easy to swallow explanation, he wasn't an anthropologist.

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The "selfish human nature" meme was basically invented as a post-hoc justification for the dysfunctional social systems

No, it's a biological reality rooted all the way in theory of evolution. It's an inherent part of nature of any living being

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Taking survival of the fittest and using it as evidence of vaguely analogous principles for how human society works has a long history of being wrong. That the way we behave is biased towards survival and reproduction in our native habitat does not imply that the concept of self interest must be at the foundation of how our minds function.

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You're trying to throw away milions of years of evolution that shaped us, because why exactly? Evolution is a well established scientific theory, what's your counterargument?

[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You may want to take a look at the book "The Dawn of Everything" by David Graeber and David Wengrow. It provides a compelling argument that past human societies were quite egalitarian, cooperative and non-authoritarian, and that the human civilizations of recorded history being the way they are is actually an aberration from the norm.

Quick video summary of the book by one of the author's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SJi0sHrEI4

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago

You should look into "Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. Cooperative strategies are perfectly viable for selfish reasons - don't mistake cooperative efforts with altruism

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

we must end the profit system

That totally worked before.

[–] Feyd@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So what? Just don't try to make anything better? What a pointless comment

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So what? Just don't try to make anything better?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

[–] azolus@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 month ago

Like we maintain capitalism while it's destroying our environment? It sure is insane how we keep on doing the same "capitalist innovation will fix this" shit while we are eroding the basis on which all life on earth depends.