how to improve capitalism?

Question

Hey everyone. I'd like people to suggest some impovements to the problems of the current capitalist syste. ie relentless pursuit of profit has meant great destruction of the environment, exploitation/ slave labour of people at home and abroad, extensive corporate intervention in our democracy/ influencing policy too much, avoiding tax and responsibility for actions, and generally creating a culture of greed. How can we make changes to our capitalist system to address all these problems?

Answer 1

I'd suggest making government regulate the markets more effectively to avoid large numbers of monopolistic or oligopolistic
markets. A country may do better by such markets in some instances, but usually you want as much competition as possible.

Another thing would be to make the user pay by making the polluter pay. If smog, effluent etc, are causing health problems, include those costs in the production process. The taxes, fines, etc that are accrued by these processes can be distributed to lower income groups most hurt by these increases in prices.

Stop giving out corporate welfare to companies that are making billions in profit. Put low spending limits on political campaigns so that politicians are less in 'debt' to richer interests. Increase voting participation by educating/encouraging younger/lower income people to vote. This would increase their political cache.

Peace

Answer 2

The best way is to force the negative externalities that you speak of to be paid for in the price of a given good or service, which would force consumers and producers to take these externalities into account when making economic decisions, an end which is usually achieved through taxation at various points in the production process.