Why are capitalists always so fucking terrible at capitalism? Raytheon would benefit from shifting into green energy because there's no one else in the US doing it. They know global warming is coming (we have the Exxon memos to prove it). Being the first ones in a market that can not only grow, but has to in order for humanity to survive, may as well be free money.

It's like if someone offered you the entire state of Texas in 1750 for 5 cents an acre and you could see the future. You'd be a fool not to gobble up the oil fields and cattle pastures.

[–] miz@hexbear.net 20 points 2 months ago

if higher profits can be made in the short-term, attempts to divert capital to a longer term investment will lose out

Before humanity came to harness fire, they could only react to fire. If they encountered fire in nature, they might run from it, but they could not control it. Over time, humanity has learned what causes fire, how to create it, and how to utilize it for human purposes.

You can think of electricity as well. Humanity used to just see lightning and run, or get a static shock and not be sure what caused it, and ignore it. They could only react to it. But as we’ve developed a greater understanding of electricity, we can now control it, to utilize it for the benefit of human civilization.

Engels had pointed out that there is a similarity between natural phenomena and social phenomena in this regard. In the same way that when humanity had lacked an understanding of natural phenomena and could thus only react to them, humankind does not fully understand its own social structure.

Take, for example, the laws of supply and demand. Capitalist societies do not fully grasp all the causes to supply and demand, and they thus are incapable of actually predicting them. As a result, individual businesses can only react to market forces. They do not control the market but instead react to changes in the social system that are far beyond their personal comprehension or control.

Things like this cause human societies to be somewhat “anarchistic.” Even the central government in capitalist societies cannot fully understand or predict what is going on capitalist societies, it instead just reacts to changes in the economic system and tries to make general corrections, but it does not control the economic system. As Engels once put it, "What each individual wills is obstructed by everyone else, and what emerges is something that no one willed."

The “anarchy of production,” in some sense, takes on a mind of its own. If you build a capitalist society, you cannot fully predict the outcome. It may sometimes grow, may sometimes crash, may lead to rapid industrialization, and may even lead to rapid de-industrialization. You just have to hope it turns out well.

A socialist system attempts to overcome this anarchy of production by making human economies deliberate.

from Is Juche a form of Marxism-Leninism?

[–] dkr567@hexbear.net 14 points 2 months ago

Capitalists do not know the word "long term investment" as those ghouls only think quarterly and infinite growth for every single thing.

[–] Pentacat@hexbear.net 9 points 2 months ago

Survival just isn’t profitable enough in the short term. “Long term” isn’t a thing in the US.

[–] CoolerOpposide@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago

Capitalists are exactly as good at capitalism as they can possibly be. It takes a socialist analysis to understand the inherent flaws of capitalists operating under a capitalist system in order to actually improve further. China is better at capitalism than the capitalists because it tends to throttle the system before it reaches the point that it begins inflicting irreversible damage upon efficiency (and thus development) just because it was operating unhindered.