Study: Brains of liberals & Conservatives may work differently

[AlexM]

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If you look deep in you heart ( [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]) and philosophically consider the implications of capitalism: do you really think it isn't exploitative?

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Free exchange that benefits everyone... nope, not remotely exploitive.

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In theory, I agree with your sentiment. However, in practice, much of the wealth generated by capitalists is ultimately due to a claim on natural resources -- a mine, a forest, a river, vast sums of farmland, harvesting of wildlife, etc. It isn't really "free" exchange if a capitalist plunders a natural resource and adds some labor and then sells it back when he doesn't truly "own" the resource to begin with. Example: Those who hunted the buffalo to near extinction and profited handsomely by selling buffalo products never owned the buffalo to begin with, and their plundering of it robbed an entire people of an important natural resource which they were using sustainably. To say it was a free exchange between buffalo hunter and buffalo consumer is to completely neglect those adversely affected by the exchange who got no benefit whatsoever. Example: A capitalist company which lays claim to a mountain range and mines it for ore and profits handsomely only profits because they laid claim to a part of the earth and extracted its value -- they don't "own" the earth, they merely are able to hold this territory and exploit its value through social convention or superior force. If the source of private property is ultimately an exploitation of earth's resources (which can be argued to be "public" in the sense that our species both those living and those for generations to come as well as millions of other species depend on for existence and satisfaction), then private property is indeed exploitive in some sense. At least private property as it concerns fencing off a portion of the earth and its resources greater than needed for subsistence and saying "mine -- I call it first -- you don't like it? eat my guns".

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Rather than fruitlessly disagreeing with that opinion, I will simply say that capitalism is simply people freely trading with each other. It does not necessarily have to involve monopolization of natural resources. If I painted a picture and you wove a basket and we traded them, that's capitalism.

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So in other words, you don't know how to defend capitalism when it comes to natural resources

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Yeah, sorry I didn't fall for your red herring. I know you had your heart set on it.