Comment by consumer451

I've been think about these broad critiques of Capitalism, and while I sometimes find myself nodding in at least partial agreement, I worry that it's far too blunt a critique.

If you look at Soviet or Chinese Communism, they also stifled innovation, and they also destroyed entire ecosystems. They also had extreme concentrations of power, which allowed psychopathic leaders to commit atrocities.

If we want to come up with real long-term solutions, maybe we need to be honest about underlying human traits, and address those via systematic controls. Otherwise, it feels like we are going to keep bouncing from extreme to extreme. That tendency towards extremes seems like another easily exploited human trait that needs to be identified and addressed.

I guess my point here is that maybe it's not entirely specific systems at fault here, as much as it is universal human traits and group dynamics.

Disclaimer: I thought we had already found the beginnings of an answer, and it was Social Democracy with a regulated market economy. However, this system appears not to be extreme enough for many people to get excited about it.