Environment & Energy
In reply to the discussion: Stewart Brand: Why Environmentalists Must Accept Nuclear [View all]GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Capitalism is just the most effective economic system we have yet discovered. "Effective" in this case means effective at harnessing all the power currently available, and making new power sources available as efficiently as possible. Many other economic systems have been used over the last 10,000 years. While they were less effective than capitalism, they served the "system of civilization" quite well to harness the energy available at the time. They were successively out-competed by other systems that were more effective.
"Capitalism" doesn't give a flying fig about people's values and dreams though - especially if they lie outside its core activity of harnessing power effectively. Capitalism isn't about our values and dreams, it's about being the most effective power-use system ever developed by mankind.