The problem is industrial-scale capitalism within the context of globalized mass society
When we critique capitalism the anti-critics say: Why shouldn’t someone be able to have an idea for a good or a service and endeavor to offer it to others in the marketplace? A new or better product can be beneficial for the consumer and profitable for the entrepreneur. Some people find building a business to offer a good or a service a satisfying means of self-expression.
That being undeniable, few socialists talk about the socialization of all businesses. There is surely nothing wrong with the paradigm of personal-scale, locally-based enterprise.
Businesses that grow large enough to have a wide social/ecological impact affecting many consumers, workers, communities, and the environment should be made socially and ecologically responsible either through strict regulation or socialization.
But the problem with modern industrial-scale capitalism goes beyond mere economic relations. It goes beyond irresponsibility or injustice. It goes into the realm of insanity.
The idea of a healthy capitalism is based on an image of an original marketplace in a town center — booths, vendors, peddlers, storefronts. An enterprising person or couple or family would endeavor to offer a good or a service. There might be three competing bakeries. Success was a function of creative self-expression — the quality of the goods offered, the ambience of the store, etc. — and could be rewarded with neighborly appreciation, strong sales, and deserved profits.
The consequence of facing a “marketplace” that is now for all intents and purposes infinite (global-scale) is a distortion of perspective, imagination, endeavor, striving, ambition, wealth, and power . . . to the point of insanity.
And we can generalize: Our hypermodern reality is not simply unjust and alienating . . . it’s insane. It distorts everything.
The problem is industrial-scale capitalism within the context of globalized mass society.
