• nexguy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    14 hours ago

    I don’t see how we would have smartphones without capitalism. We’d still all be farmers.

    • redwattlebird@lemmings.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      11 hours ago

      Without capitalism, we’d all have the ability to swap out parts and create a phone for the purposes that we need. Some people want the best while others want the minimum, and most want something in between. Every part would be replaceable.

      With capitalism, we have planned obsolescence without the ability to repair or replace parts and every conceivable thing to reap more money off us and force us to continually consume.

      • nexguy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        11 hours ago

        I’m saying without the greed of capitalism we wouldn’t have phones to swap out parts. We would have very limited technology because the incentive to innovate is much less when you do it because you want to rather than earning extra resources to raise standards of living(greed). Not as many people will volunteering their entire lives to come up with new technology while living the same standard of living as a farmer.

        • redwattlebird@lemmings.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          8 hours ago

          I get what you’re saying but, respectfully, I think you’re incorrect. The field of science is not about capitalism but the goal of understanding everything around you. Aqueducts were not the result of capitalism. Russia won the space race. Innovations happen regardless. Capitalism drives innovation in specific directions.

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            3 hours ago

            Also id argue that the creation of the smartphone is the result of market forces, which arent unique to and predate Capitalism by millenia. The bronze age collapse happened largely due to the collapse of the grand trade networks and markets that birthed the bronze age, most bronze age societies predate currency as we understand it outright.

        • nomous@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          9 hours ago

          I’m saying without the greed of capitalism we wouldn’t have phones to swap out parts.

          This might be a hot take but I’m not sure we all need a phone in our pocket or that it’s inherently a good thing.

    • uis@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      10 hours ago

      “When they say ‘there is no alternative to capitalism’, they do not make a observation. They make a demand. They demand to not think about alternatives.”

      You missed patch 1917 on eurasian servers.

    • clarinet_estimator@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      12 hours ago

      You know capitalism is really new in the scale of human history right? It wasn’t until the industrial revolution in the 18th century that the means of production could be privately owned which then allowed for further speculative capital (stocks, land value, etc) to be equated to power.

      The people of the past weren’t inherently stupid. Plenty of scientific and cultural progress was made prior to capitalism being our economic model.

        • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          10 hours ago

          Most were farmers because humans needed food, and food productivity was low before the age of industrialization. Not really sure what you are trying to argue other than it took a long time for enough progress was made to free humans to presue other things other than farming their land.

          • nexguy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            6 hours ago

            Capitalism incentivises rapid progress in all fields.

            I’m not cheering for capitalism, just saying it takes advantage of the inherent greed of people to quickly speed innovation. There would be no industrial revolution without capitalism. At least not on the short scale of just a hundred years or two.