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AftyOfTheUK t1_j37ajs7 wrote

Reply to comment by shiftystylin in Degrowth can work — here’s how science can help: Wealthy countries can create prosperity while using less materials and energy if they abandon economic growth as an objective. by nnomadic

>From my understanding economic growth has it's roots in capitalism

No, economic growth is simply what happens when we do more for each other, or do existing things for each other better. It can happen under capitalism, communism, anarchism etc.

>Neoliberalism's singular objective is to maximise profit whilst cutting costs.

That's not a singular objective, that's two objectives. Your sentence would be more accurate if you just left it at "Neoliberalism's singular objective is to maximise profit" - however, that's not the objective. Profit is simply an incentive within the neoliberal system, used to promote it's actual objective - to create as much wealth as possible.

The problem is that neoliberalism (for the most part) is concerned primarily with creating wealth, and doesn't really get involved with how fair the distribution of that wealth is. That's why we need progressive taxes on that wealth creation, to redistribute some of it.

>I often wondered if you built a business where you... have the sole ambition of providing stable work for people

Command economies have been attempted many times, and they generally result in terrible conditions for the workers and people within the system, except perhaps a small number of people at the upper echelons of "the party"

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shiftystylin t1_j37jpt9 wrote

Thanks. You often don't learn anything without exposing your ignorance and having someone come and slap you with the truth.

I guess I'm trying to say it feels like Neoliberals focus on economic growth is solely to ensure they're gaining more profit. There doesn't seem to be any other benefit to economic growth if all the additional 'money' (for lack of the educated term) is just being funnelled away in untouchable dragon hoard's and not put back into the economic system us normy's share?

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AftyOfTheUK t1_j37kt3q wrote

>I guess I'm trying to say it feels like Neoliberals focus on economic growth is solely to ensure they're gaining more profit.

I think that's a fair statement about some neoliberals - though it's worth pointing out that only a tiny percentage of people make big profits, and there are a lot more neoliberals than that.

It's worth pointing out that many people push whatever scheme or system would make them the most money - capitalists voting for capitalism to make more profit is (in my opinion) no more or less evil than communists voting for communism because they are incapable of exchanging their time/skills for the money they want, so they desire a system that takes it from others by force.

>There doesn't seem to be any other benefit to economic growth if all the additional 'money' (for lack of the educated term) is just being funnelled away in untouchable dragon hoard's and not put back into the economic system

It is put back into the system though. These people don't keep 20 billion in cash. They invest it in new companies/ventures all the time. Those new companies (and the services/goods they offer) are economic growth. And their employees and customers are gaining from that growth.

Now, whether or not those people should CONTROL such a huge amount of the system is another discussion. But the profits they make don't go away.

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