"Capitalism is a system dependent on perpetual GDP growth" is it? If it is, why does GDP matter - GDP is a highly abstract metric, so what is the underlying thing that capitalism needs? And to the extent that it exists, is it unique in that?

I am not sure why you are claiming that in particular, that's why I'm asking.

Also planned obsolescence doesn't have anything to do with a goal to increase GDP, it is an example of a somewhat perverse incentive, not a systemic issue. I mean people wouldn't buy a phone that breaks in a week, but they are indifferent between the one that breaks in 2 years or 10 years - there's a balance. It again has to do more with material success - my grandma used to constantly tell us to not throw away any glass jars - not out of high moral impulse to reuse/reduce/recycle, because she lived in the USSR where they apparently were hard to come by for pickling and making jams. I on the other hand just yesterday couldn't find my paint brushes, so to touch up a wall, instead of reorganizing the shed I ordered new ones on Amazon for $15. I can afford the waste. The way to make me care about preserving my paint brush instead of obsoleting it, or jars for jam, is to make me poor. Same is apparently true for most people.

> Capitalism is a system dependent on perpetual GDP growth.

Disagree. I'm a big fan of capitalism, and recognize that it can take different forms.

https://muslimheritage.com/capitalist-early-arab-islamic-civ... argues that "the capitalistic system indeed was the prevailing mode of economic activities in the early Islamic civilization."

Arab capitalism in this era did not depend on perpetual GDP growth.

Western capitalism, like so much of Western thought from around the Renaissance, draws deeply on the Arab tradition.

To go back to definitions, "capitalism" was defined by Max Webber. He saw it as part of the Reformation, individuals finding their own connection to God not mediated by the church. Not much GDP growth in that.