*I believe Capital needs to be regulated, the machine of Capitalism needs to serve Man, Man doesn’t serve it.
Of all the places we disagree, I feel like we've found some common ground here. I agree with you on this point which is why I'm not an anarcho-capitalist. Capitalism on its own won't discourage human ambition, greed, or pure selfishness. This is why we have actual laws and regulations in place to help ensure market fairness so that the "invisible hand of market forces" can actually operate. This was how the US has historically taken down monopolies and regulated the quality of goods/services.
In our modern society, technology has far outpaced legislation, and as such many companies that grew in the 90's and early 2000's are now monopolizing their section of the market. We have laws in place to prevent this, but these laws were written well before something like the internet was even theorized. Even worse, most of our legislators in the US are old and thus completely out of touch when it comes to the reality of the situation.
let’s talk about living conditions in 19th century working class England,
The whole reason it got so bad was because so many people were fleeing life as peasant farmers to go into the cities. As such the supply of affordable housing was not even nearly enough to satisfy demand. This led to cramped cities. And in the early/mid 19th Century before proper sanitation was a thing, this led to disease spreading.
However once these problems were recognized we went to work trying to solve them and alleviating these conditions. And considering where we now, I'd say Capitalism has overall been a net positive with social stratification being very reduced from where it was 200 years ago.
Read any articles today about how too much life in the life work balance is bad. A good employee today is one that literally has no life outside the company, and whose whole identity is built around it.
This is pretty much your opinion rather than anything really objective. I'm sure for every dissatisfied company employee, there are probably hundreds of thousands of other corporate employees perfectly content with how they are living. The people dissatisfied are often a very vocal minority of people.
Besides, if not capitalism, what sort of economic system would you prefer? Before capitalism we had what was essentially serfdom and no-one wants to go back to that (well except for some crazies who want a "Great Reset").
Fundamentally there is no innate value to human life in capitalism-beyond the ability to work. And even then, you aren’t valued.
Again these are opinions. I mean there are millions of people perfectly content with their own professions.
Man’s social being, his spiritual being, his intellectual being-all these things are degraded and utterly ruined by the grind and rat race of capitalism.
I mean company culture can't really be blamed on Capitalism. Besides over time news will get out about how bad it is to work for a certain company which will see it lose out on potential new hires and thus profits. This would motivate even the shallowest of companies to change their ways.
As I understand it, workers's wages and living standards went up after the Industrial Revolution. It's almost like living standards are heavily dependent on technological progression...
Exactly! John D. Rockefeller whose net worth adjusted for inflation today is over $400 billion, would be utterly marveled by our world today. Rockefeller who grew up poor in the 19th century would be astounded well poor people in the 21st century live compared to those in his time (he died in 1937). From his point of view people today live like Kings with access to cars, heating/cooling, running water, etc.
As opulent as Louis XIV and his court was, he'd be envious of us today. For all the grandeur of his court in Versailles, he didn't have actual plumbing in it which meant he wined and dined in a foul smelling palace. Louis XIV late in life nearly died from various infections because of the poor hygiene accompanying his own living accomodations.
