Alberta election 2015: Why political change could make economic sense - Business

Okay, kiddo.

Of course, that actually says nothing about the incredibly unequal distribution of that wealth. Or about how wages and individual spending power (outside of the wealthiest few) has stagnated or declined while our productive capacities (in other words our ability to create wealth) have exponentially grown. Essentially, generating tremendous benefit to the already wealthy while creating a situation where workers of today have to work longer hours for stagnating pay just to survive.

What you say is true. Well in part at least, it's actually quite a bit more complex than that. However, this does not mean that Capitalism does not generate wealth at the expense of other groups. Adam Smith discusses this very point at great length. He readily admits that exploitation (i.e. benefiting at the expense of another) is an inherent tendency in Capitalism. Though, his hope was that the mechanism of the invisible hand would regulate this tendency. In essence, he hoped that the social pressure of not wanting to seem like a dick combined with the negative repercussions of being perceived as a dick, would be enough to stop the worst exploitative abuses. Unfortunately for all of us, this has not been the case. The invisible hand is not enough.

Capitalism is an extremely powerful system, and has achieved wondrous things. No other system or ethos has achieved nearly as many marvels. Not even Karl Marx disputes that. But this does not mean that it doesn't generate benefits at the expense of other groups. This is an inherent tendency of Capitalism, not even Adam Smith disputes that.

Of course, I'm sure you knew all that since you're clearly not ignorant about this subject at all.

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