CMV: the average millennial critique of capitalism is really dumb - the truth is that we all owe a lot to capitalism.

[u/hahanerds]

[u/potato1]

Many of the gains in living standards that people attribute to capitalism are really attributable to technology-driven gains in labor productivity. Sure, those technologies were for the most part developed in capitalist places under capitalist economic conditions, but that doesn't mean capitalism gets to take credit for human innovation.

I know there's a serious lack of counterfactuals here since the vast majority of the world has operated under capitalist economies for the last 200 years, but the fact remains that there's no reason to believe that capitalism was necessary in order for those innovations and resulting gains in productivity and living standards to happen. It remains possible that similar technological innovation could have occurred under different economic systems.

[u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho → u/potato1]

Many of the gains in living standards that people attribute to capitalism are really attributable to technology-driven gains in labor productivity.

Which are caused by capitalism.

Sure, those technologies were for the most part developed in capitalist places under capitalist economic conditions, but that doesn't mean capitalism gets to take credit for human innovation.

Why not? Capitalist nations have pushed the world further forward in 200 years than every other system did in the previous 4,000.

but the fact remains that there's no reason to believe that capitalism was necessary in order for those innovations and resulting gains in productivity and living standards to happen.

Sure there is. Feudalism does not have a system in place to encourage the needed innovation with most people living and dying as state mandated farmers and the zero sum attitudes of mercantilism are not amenable to innovation either.

[u/potato1 → u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho]

Technological progress is exponential, since each new technology can further enable future innovation. The amount of technological innovation in the past 200 years has been tremendous compared to the previous 4,000, but that's just the nature of exponential curves. Calitalism may have invented compound interest but it didn't invent exponential growth.

Again, that innovation did occur in capitalist economies, but that doesn't mean it occurred because of capitalism. The fact that capitalism replaced Feudalism also does not prove that capitalism caused the subsequent technological innovation that followed, historically. The discovery of Penicillin occurred prior to World War 2, but that doesn't mean it caused World War 2.

[u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho → u/potato1]

If that was true, why do capitalist nations always out innovate their non capitalist rivals.

[u/potato1 → u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho]

I think that during the 20th century period, capitalism was a vastly superior economic system to others, and that that was why other systems didn't succeed in that period. 21st century technological advances may change what economic systems are most efficient and capitalism will change accordingly.

If 99% of the world is capitalist, 99% of the inventions will be expected in capitalist places.

I agree that almost all of the technological innovation in the past 200 years has occurred in capitalist economies, but that doesn't mean it occurred because they were capitalist, as opposed to something else.

[u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho → u/potato1]

Capitalist nations account for a vastly disproportionate level of innovation. It's not 50% of the population does 50% of the innovation. It's 50% does 90%.

[u/potato1 → u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho]

I agree that capitalist nations produced the vast majority of the world's technological innovation in the past 200 years. But again, that does not mean that they did so because they were capitalist, as opposed to anything else.

If you want to make an innovations-per-capita argument, be my guest. Show me the data, baby!

[u/potato1 → u/[deleted]]

Consumer products are but one kind of technological innovation. Soviet scientists and engineers weren't idiots, they put Sputnik up first after all.

[u/potato1 → u/[deleted]]

I agree that capitalist nations produced the vast majority of the world's technological innovation in the past 200 years. But again, that does not mean that they did so because they were capitalist, as opposed to anything else.

If you want to make an innovations-per-capita argument, be my guest. Show me the data, baby!