Richard Posner: “The Real Corruption Is the Ownership of Congress by the Rich”

Re:Richard Posner: “The Real Corruption Is the Ownership of ... by codydh on Friday April 14, 2017 @07:37AM (#14113848)

I'm deeply skeptical that capitalism is a sensible long-term way to run our world. When everything can be made about money, everything is made about money. It doesn't matter how much we've taxed a corporation (especially in the recent environment of skyrocketing corporate profits), if the environment is ruined we're all in trouble.

Capitalism drives the conversion of everything into money, so it's no surprise to me when anything from votes to the air we breathe are turned into money.

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Re:Richard Posner: “The Real Corruption Is the Ownership of ... by maxerickson on Friday April 14, 2017 @08:31AM (#14114056)

The extremely capitalistic US has a relatively clean environment. Compared to China because we are already rich and compared to Europe because we have much lower population density.

We generate a lot of carbon dioxide but the consequences of that are more long term, not experienced as contamination of things we interact with day to day.

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Re:Richard Posner: “The Real Corruption Is the Ownership of ... by codydh on Friday April 14, 2017 @08:46AM (#14114124)

This is an interesting point. Is this because industrial growth happened more quickly? In more concentrated areas?

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Re:Richard Posner: “The Real Corruption Is the Ownership of ... by maxerickson on Friday April 14, 2017 @08:59AM (#14114177)

It's because government isn't completely inert.

Even members of US Congress are extremely responsive to issues they think will get them kicked out of office.

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Re:Richard Posner: “The Real Corruption Is the Ownership of ... by WalterBright on Friday April 14, 2017 @04:28PM (#14117047)

Other systems not about money have been tried, and they are worse for the environment.

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