Will our Capitalist society be the fall of human civilization?

Question

In the Yahoo news today they had an article about "humans living far beyond our planet's means". After reading it, a question sparked into my head:
Capitalism thrives on consumption; buying and spending. The more we consume, the better the economy. So we are not encouraged to conserve, or to create long lasting products (like the lightbulb that never burns out - which have already been invented). In return we are using up our resources at an astronomical rate.

Do you think capitalism will be the fall of the human race?

and

Do you think that when we have obviously grown to big for this planet, that capitalism will propel us to the next?

You should read the article first:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061024/ts_nm/environment_wwf_planet_dc

Answer 1

consumption is only viable so long as there are resources to consume. as darthdad noted, we will always find something to exploit. as consumers, it's our nature.

whether the human race will fall ("fail" might be a better term for it?) because of our ways remains to be seen: but we will have to make changes. capitalism squelches those things which would improve our quality of life at the expense of profit (like the light bulb you mentioned).

the oil companies are a popular scapegoat, but they're likely not the only ones keeping something 'better' under wraps. have we reached peak oil? are we able to sustain the planet's present population using today's food producing technology? do we know the real answers to these questions?

capitalism may propel a select few capitalists to the next stage when this planet has grown too small for us (!) but as for the general population, i fear we'll be left behind in a stinking quagmire of global warming and pollution when that day arrives.

Answer 2

SCIENCE IS BEAUTIFUL!!

CONSERVE and learn how to conserve and live off little and be productive than we would have light bulbs that use very little of our natural resources. That is why science is BIG!!! Eat enough but create things from our elements to help save the earth. Well it's cool that using electricity we can split molecules in water. THat is why everyone should at least know what particles and lipids and triglycerides are.

Answer 3

We will always have resources to develop, even if we have to mine asteroids to get the materials we need. Capitalism means that we will reward the people who can come up with the ways and means to bring us the things we want and need for our economy. Capitalism is merely the least awkward and least harmful of many possible human social conventions.

Every society eventually changes to the point of unrecognizability to its founders or else dies due to invasion.

But human civilization itself soldiers onwards.

Things change.

Also, every species eventually goes extinct, humans are no exception.

But I suspect we have some time before our silicon based descendents replace us.

You probably won't live long enough to see it happen, but you will probably see it begin, if it hasn't already.