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What exactly does it mean when people blame “capitalism” for something? I see this a lot on Reddit and I have never really understood what people mean by it. I see it most often in the context of people blaming capitalism for some sort of exploitative behavior by corporations or individuals, or that capitalism is the reason for all sorts of mental health issues and other struggles with modern life. But I don’t see how “capitalism” specifically can really be blamed for any issues. Anything related to exploitative behavior can easily be attributed to human nature and the inherent problems that result from competition for finite resources. And most of the distinctly modern problems of atomization and things of that nature seem to be a result of technological changes. Basically I find “moloch” to be the best explanation for what’s causing most people’s complaints about modern society but I’m wondering if there is something I’m missing when people attribute problems to capitalism itself
Their complaints probably have more to do with capitalist ideology instead of the literal system itself. Capitalism as an institution could not have reshaped society as it did, it needed an ideology to actually encourage people to partake of it instead of staying on subsistence or whatever else. That ideology says the people who accumulate lots of money and wealth through the system are actually praiseworthy. It didn't introduce the idea of wealth or status envy to us, but it did provide a path upon which accumulating wealth was not seen as immoral.
This is not all it did, of course. Another change it wrought was the idea that the markets should be as free as possible, and from there, that economic growth is a terminal value.
I'm not going to say all of the things above are so easily blamed on capitalist ideology. But when people are blaming capitalism for something, it's very likely they're complaining about how, for example, it has reshaped how we actually go about determining if something is or is not a problem, let alone what the solution might be.
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In my experience "capitalism" in these kinds of discussions just means "all the ways in which society has failed to live up to my expectations."
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Whatever you decide to call it, it’s undeniable that the “current social/political/economic order of the West” is a peculiar thing and deserves a descriptive name. Capitalism has meant a million different things in the last 200 years and arguably isn’t the best definition as the current society would be utterly alien to a 1890s capitalist. But it’s definitely better than “Moloch”. If you can use a word to describe both 2022 German society and the Mayan society than it’s not a good word. If we didn’t decide to loathe intellectualism as a civilisation we could probably come up with a better one and stop relying on 19th century definitions for everything.
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Deprived of organized religion, man inevitably turns back to dualism, and the good god Progress needs her dark sibling. Call him Ahriman, Moloch, or Capitalism, the name reflects the namer more than the reality.
Less tongue in cheek, I think the fact that poverty is the natural state of humanity is what people miss. It's very easy to see negative consequences of our economic system, and I can't/won't try to refute those. On the other hand, the billions of children not dying in poverty and starvation because of economic liberalization are easy to miss.
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To steelman their complaints, I think the signal they're trying to transmit is "There is no natural law that this had to be this way, it is our flawed human systems that are to blame". It occupies the same kind of space as "If god is all powerful and good then why do bad things happen to good people?". I understand that this is not fair. Capitalism, and I'm even not a fan of the word as I find it contains a false claim in its very formulation, never claimed to have anything like the omnipotence and benevolence of a god. But there is some substance to the criticism, the system of markets and state allowed monopolies(think remotely owned private property rather than microsoft) rely on our collective consent as a bargain for the greater good and yet the great good has these very noticeable gaps where occasionally rather than be uplifted thousands of poor black people get lead contaminated water or games publishers ruin or disable their own products to great disutility to the common man so that they won't compete with their future titles and it causes people to wonder whether this system really serves them and deserves their continued consent. A question to which I think the answer is a clear yes because I am informed on the alternatives and the history of the before times and the people making this criticism generally aren't. There is some kernel of truth there, this economy of ours is powerful but feral, it will just as thoughtlessly uplift billions and give us wealth unfathomable to our ancestors as it will reduce us to radioactive rubble.
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Back when I was on the other side, "capitalism" was simply a fighting word used to describe a state of affairs in which people or other entities who commanded capital are able to act in self-interest instead of the interests of society.
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