• radio_free_asgarthr [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    Capitalism specifically incentivizes seeking maximum profit, which also means increasing profit growth at all costs. Finance and speculation, inherent to capitalism, further pushes and necessitates further expansion to cover the average costs of the gambling and speculation. You have to remember recessions and depressions are not always contractions in the economy, they are usually just caused by less than “necessary” amounts of growth.

      • QueerCommie [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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        8 months ago

        Many capitalists are losing their investments when the economy shrinks though, even if some benefit. The system as a whole needs growth, as all the propertied are expecting to continue accumulating constantly, as physical resources dry up, and workers can hardly be exploited any more.

          • QueerCommie [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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            8 months ago

            It literally is though. In the middle ages would you have said “it’s not all feudalism, there’s actually some merchants too!”

            So the current global market, as counted by GDP isn’t capitalism?

            an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.

            Oh, wait, you’re right. China’s socialist, so not the whole international system. Any given imperialist country still relies on growth to keep capitalism alive, though.