The Neurodivergent Professor
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The Neurodivergent Professor
KEW Episode 143: The Thing Capitalism Gets Wrong
Lately, I’ve been wondering about capitalism and competition. As I have mentioned in other episodes (links below), competition only occurs when resources are limited. Also, capitalism requires competition to protect consumers from monopolies. While I argue in older episodes that this protective feature often doesn’t work, the fact remains that capitalism requires competition.
That competition is a requirement of capitalism is critical BECAUSE competition only occurs when resources are limited.
When there are plenty of resources, there is no reason to compete. Evolution works the same way. Organisms will opt to avoid competition at all costs, at least at the species level, and will only compete if there are no other options. In fact, speciation results from niche diversification associated with this avoidance.
In other words, when two species share a similar niche and require similar resources, they will not compete until those resources are limited (i.e., not enough to meet the demands of both species). When resources become limited, the species will look for other resources. As a result, their niches will change and one or two new species can form. This is how evolution works. It is natural law.
When thinking about natural law and capitalism, then, I can’t help but wonder why humans would design such a system. Why would capitalism require resources to be limited? Or, asked a different way, what is the result of this requirement if, perhaps, it was not understood a priori? It’s more probably an oversight than an evil plan.
When resources are required to remain limited, inequality happens. There will be haves and have-nots. I wonder if this is what led to things like the caste system, kings and paupers, masters and slaves, and the rulers and peasants. These systems are common to nearly all, if not all, modern human societies.
In this episode, I ponder what would happen if we altered capitalism to be more egalitarian. This is the beginning of a developing idea so please forgive the incompleteness of my ramblings.
Links to older episodes about similar issues:
Episodes 117–119 are all about why sexual selection evolved to replace asexual selection (cell division) and can be found on this page of my website.
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