Why Capitalism Is Inefficient

A short clip about capitalism that didn't make it to the latest cut of the Anarcats podcast.

Adam Ruins Everything - Why Flushable Wipes Aren't Flushable:

[BodeRiis]

inefficient
/ɪnɪˈfɪʃ(ə)nt/
adjective
1. not achieving maximum productivity; wasting or failing to make the best use of time or resources.

By this definition, capitalism is incredibly inefficient. It wastes people’s time, and it wastes a horrific amounts of resources in the name of profit. The goal of job creation for the sake of job creation is absurd, and leads to a waste of people’s time and of our planet’s resources. Full employment within the current framework of the 40 hour work week is incompatible with capitalism. If full employment were the goal, then dramatically cutting down the work hours of what constitutes a full time job is a key step toward that aim.

But I believe that a goal of maximum unemployment is more realistic, and will be fairer to people and kinder to the planet, and more efficient overall. It’ll help us conceptualize what a society that doesn’t create jobs just for the sake of creating jobs would look like.

To what extent can we automate work? About 25% of jobs are already in the process of being automated, while the job creation in terms of maintaining that automation is far lower (one person can monitor and repair 50 robots, rather than 50 people doing the job now done by the robots). Added to the 4.9% current unemployment rate (NZ 2021), we’re possibly looking at 30% unemployment in the near future- unless we continue to do what capitalism has been doing for decades and create jobs that are unnecessary (David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs, 2018) for the simulacrum of productivity and human development. Or, we can rethink the entire way we approach jobs and employment.

[mochynddu]

Lots of waste involved, both material and human. 🚽

[faktsutso]

ooooh can't wait to listen to the whole podcast! <3 ( i recently realised i was an anarchist bfr i knew what it meant :D )

[sharpenedge]

Yeaaa, it's terrible, but the best we have.