Luxury spending is less than 1% of spending in the U.S.
To understand how it’s mostly a zero sum game, you’ve got to ignore numerical money metrics and look at real resources used by, and provided by people.
That’s misleading, first of all. “Luxuries,” as in Gucci, Prada, etc, aren’t the only way capitalists spend their money. They also consume greater quantities of other commoditied, and higher quality versions not deemed “luxuries.” More than that, thry buy land, companies, factories, etc in a large feedback loop of greater and greater money, pay off politicians, and more.
Secondly, your entire argument that the reason we can’t provide for everyone is because we don’t produce enough is thwarted by the simple fact that vast amounts of commodities go unsold or are even destroyed. I’m aware that there’s a finite amount that is produced, I’m also aware that we have more empty homes than homeless people and more.
That larger feedback loop is bad yes, but it’s mostly independent of the resources and services that people need and provide as part of normal life. Yes rich people also use more non-luxury items, but the working class also buy some luxury items, which I suspect more than offsets that since there are so many more of the working class.
I’m not sure what commodities you are talking about that get destroyed. I know some agriculture gets wasted and I understand that to be mostly a shipping issue and because of huge mostly automated farming systems, or artificial government investment for the sake of job creation. I’d be curious to know what percent of the overall economy this destruction that you mention is. Empty homes is a big problem resulting from people gaming the system for monitory profit instead of real productivity - and that’s where we need more government regulation - which is actually happening now in a number of North American cities.
Look, I’m not saying capitalism is so great. But just that the billionaires raking in more and more isn’t inherently a problem - unless they also controll the government so that there can’t be meaningful regulations. Of course, that’s about where we are now in the U.S., and as soon as we are no longer effectively a democracy and the government no longer adjusts rules to ensure the working class gets enough benefits of the productivity, then it will all fall apart and those billionaires and politicians will end up with their heads on pikes, and rightly so.
It’s well-documented that unsold product gets destroyed. Capitalism works on a cyclical process, the boom-bust cycle. Economic booms gradually accelerate with increased production and consumption, until too much is produced to possibly be consumed, causing mass layoffs and destruction of unsold commodities sitting on shelves, taking up space in warehouses. This is made even worse by the tendency for the rate of profit to fall.
The US Empire has never been a democracy, truly. Democracy means rule by the majority, but as a matter of fact the US Empire has, since its inception, been controlled by the capitalist class and landlords, slavers, etc. Candidates are pre-approved, or otherwise torn down. The government cannot be run in the interests of the working class, what needs to happen is the destruction of the capitalist state and replacement with a socialist state.
Luxury spending is less than 1% of spending in the U.S.
To understand how it’s mostly a zero sum game, you’ve got to ignore numerical money metrics and look at real resources used by, and provided by people.
That’s misleading, first of all. “Luxuries,” as in Gucci, Prada, etc, aren’t the only way capitalists spend their money. They also consume greater quantities of other commoditied, and higher quality versions not deemed “luxuries.” More than that, thry buy land, companies, factories, etc in a large feedback loop of greater and greater money, pay off politicians, and more.
Secondly, your entire argument that the reason we can’t provide for everyone is because we don’t produce enough is thwarted by the simple fact that vast amounts of commodities go unsold or are even destroyed. I’m aware that there’s a finite amount that is produced, I’m also aware that we have more empty homes than homeless people and more.
That larger feedback loop is bad yes, but it’s mostly independent of the resources and services that people need and provide as part of normal life. Yes rich people also use more non-luxury items, but the working class also buy some luxury items, which I suspect more than offsets that since there are so many more of the working class.
I’m not sure what commodities you are talking about that get destroyed. I know some agriculture gets wasted and I understand that to be mostly a shipping issue and because of huge mostly automated farming systems, or artificial government investment for the sake of job creation. I’d be curious to know what percent of the overall economy this destruction that you mention is. Empty homes is a big problem resulting from people gaming the system for monitory profit instead of real productivity - and that’s where we need more government regulation - which is actually happening now in a number of North American cities.
Look, I’m not saying capitalism is so great. But just that the billionaires raking in more and more isn’t inherently a problem - unless they also controll the government so that there can’t be meaningful regulations. Of course, that’s about where we are now in the U.S., and as soon as we are no longer effectively a democracy and the government no longer adjusts rules to ensure the working class gets enough benefits of the productivity, then it will all fall apart and those billionaires and politicians will end up with their heads on pikes, and rightly so.
It’s well-documented that unsold product gets destroyed. Capitalism works on a cyclical process, the boom-bust cycle. Economic booms gradually accelerate with increased production and consumption, until too much is produced to possibly be consumed, causing mass layoffs and destruction of unsold commodities sitting on shelves, taking up space in warehouses. This is made even worse by the tendency for the rate of profit to fall.
The US Empire has never been a democracy, truly. Democracy means rule by the majority, but as a matter of fact the US Empire has, since its inception, been controlled by the capitalist class and landlords, slavers, etc. Candidates are pre-approved, or otherwise torn down. The government cannot be run in the interests of the working class, what needs to happen is the destruction of the capitalist state and replacement with a socialist state.