Will there be an end to capitalism?

Question

If capitalism collapses, will the world enter anarchy? By collapsing, I mean the day the prols see that they are being exploited and rebel. Will this happen and what happens if it does?

Answer 1

I think, hope, that what happens is that people see the exploitation and decide the use the system against the system.

Basically what people find wrong in capitalism is the single minded drive to profits/bonuses (which need not be correlated, but that's a different issue). The problem with that is that it ignores stuff such as the impact on the environment, tries to pay workers as little as possible while keeping acceptable productivity... ...

What I mean by using the system to beat the system is to only buy products from companies whose policies we agree with. May be those who give farmers in the underdeveloped countries a fairer deal, may be those who do not cause wars, or may be those who minimise their impact on the environment, may be some will just be purely rpice dirven... What type of companies we choose depends on each and every consumer's value system.

I think that's the only way capitalism can change; a revolution like the rising of the masses is unlikely to happen. A quiet green (as in dollar driven) revolution is more likely, and the advantage is that it will allign what the consumers want with the interests of the organisations (or the board of directors). Therefore, changing the face of capitalism, without killing it.

I see more of an evolution of capitalism, rather than a revolution.

Answer 2

...which would be replaced by? Basically, there would need to be something more stronger, organised, and thorough in terms of impact and control etc that would constitute a new social order that would have the ability to finish off capitalism. If you're unhappy with capitalism and this seemingly normal way of living in the modern world, what would you replace it with? Capitalism won't collapse because the left wing side of the world revolt, there are too many people involved in capitalism and hence economies are solidified not fragile because of it. If you want a "yes" answer to the question, then presumably the proletarians rebel, hmm, and then there are numerous power vacuum and some well organised military group(s) take over and we are back to square one, i.e., dynasties and ruling elites. We are limited to the freedoms that we have by virtue of how much cash or influence we have. Each potential rebel is restrained by this perception of reality. An end to world wide capitalism is unlikely to occur.

Answer 3

of course this depends on how you define capitalism.
The sure thing is that slave economy came before feudalism, after came capitalism. And within capitalism, we ve seen distinction between mercantilist policies, industrial capitalism, post industrial capitalism.
all things are mortal, individuals, buildings, social system or species. Since the human specy may die, of course capitalism will.

Now why and when it will happen ? ANd what next ?

Capitalism is the private property of the means of production, and the correlated exploitation of labor by holders of the means of production.
How may it end.
One way is gradual collectivisation of the means of production. May be, there are signs in this direction in long economic trends.
Another way is a return to small scale production and no capitalist allowed to exploit labor, an increasingly egalitatirian distribution of capital. May be this could be the case with networked knowledge workers;
The most probable way would come frm acombination of a knowledge economy with decentralised energy sources (solar, wind and potentially fusion). Once most of the production is non material and requires little equipment and little energy, once most the energy can be produced in a decentralised manner, workers can have access to the control of their own means of production.
This may kill capitalism.

Of course another solution is a major world war destroying all economies and peoples;

Answer 4

Unlikely that it will happen anytime soon. If capitalism does come to an end, it will be through mankind reaching a state of enlightenment where we are no longer driven by the accumulation of wealth.
Or a nuclear holocaust. That would also do it.

Answer 5

Only in the fact that it will be called my another name.
Capitalism has gone on since the beginning of time and even the countries that shout and scream so much about capitalism are in fact themselves capitalists but only in a lesser state. I think a lot of their problem is that they are jealous of not being able to be more capitalistic.

Answer 6

It may end in the form it represents to-day, but it will immediately return, because when someone has something that some one else wants, they may find the temptation of a quick sale and profit impossible to resist.

Answer 7

I shouldn't worry, it will never happen. There are too many greedy people on this planet.

Answer 8

There's an end to everything, so yes.