Capitalists Should Be Removed From All Our Systems, Not Just Health Care

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/19/capitalists-should-be-removed-from-all-our-systems-not-just-health-care/

40 comments

  1. It’s time that we as a society viewed our necessities as non-negotiable. Everyone should have the right to a safe home, healthy food, clean water, health care, and electric energy without expense or fear of ruin for their needs.

    There are people who do not care if our lives are ruined, so long as we enrich their lives. We should be standing up against these people and the systems of capitalism that continue to enrich them at the cost of our lives.

    Every human life if precious, not just the people who make the most money.

  2. How about you win an election first? Then we can talk about “ending capitalism” and populating Nebraska with unicorns.

    Or is it a new strategy to mirror Trump’s BS, like his inane pledge to “end inflation” forever?

  3. “The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently”

  4. gotta overturn Citizens United first and get rid Lobbyists second.

  5. I read a sci fi once where the practice of capitalism was restricted to only fringe or borderland areas, where people were still figuring out how best to deal with new challenges unique to such regions. Then, after such best practices looked to have been found, normal social institutions adopted them, and capitalism would be banished from those regions.

  6. Good god this is stupid. I don’t even care about the downvotes I’ll get, this is pure delusion.

  8. Weird time for this message, eh?

    You know, after the country decided six weeks to go **ALL IN** on 100% cutthroat capitalism, the croniest and griftiest the better?

    America’s bipolar nature is agonizing.

  9. Uh, sure, just one teeny tiny little problem:  Americans elected the GOP and Trump?

  10. Name an alternative to capitalism. Communism failed miserably.

  11. It’s interesting that all this stop the billionaire end capitalism talk is coming right as the worst capitalist vulture sharks are about to take power and half the country voted for it . wtf?

  12. What is wrong with removing the goal of profiteering from programs and systems that serve citizens? It seems like a logical move. But then again, look who you all voted in to become president.

  13. This is how movements end: when you make it about everything and stop focusing on specific demands.

  14. I think political and governmental agendas should go more along these lines,-

    Money is meant to be used as a tool., it’s worthless with no people to value it.

    A nations greatest treasure should be its people, this means their happiness health security education and well being are paramount, the more abundance of these the people have the more they tend to prosper and grow. these things should be socialized and institutionalized by the government free for all to benefit from.

    as well as instead of charging people into debt for their educations they can get paid for continually improving them selves, no more (or vary little) unemployed, more for people to spend spreading the wealth, as well as being better enabled to keep up with upcoming advances in robotics and AI taking over our job markets.

    The more wealth people accumulate (with the less debts) the more they can use and spread it, creating a well rounded capitalism to profit from, as well as enough to help pay for supports and infrastructure the system would be based upon.

    Much of our debt now days is caused by the greed and corruption in our system, esp when they think they can get a guaranteed profit, when the people, not profits, should always come first.

  15. Start with the media. You cannot have democracy without an informed populous, and you cannot have an informed populous with profit driven, audience captured, access journalism, if-it-bleeds-it-leads infotainment. Delivering information to the electorate must be a service the same as the USPS.

  16. Why capitalism has proven to spark so much innovation…think of all the products USA has made that changed your life

  17. Capitalism is the greatest creator of prosperity this world has ever known. But like any other powerful force, it HAS TO BE KEPT IN CHECK. We stopped doing that under Reagan. Look around the world and throughout history to what has happened when angry starving masses reject capitalism. It does not (and never could) go well. Humans are greedy, but that greed can fuel broadly-shared prosperity under strong tax and regulatory policy. Let’s not overreact and increase our shared suffering. Let’s take back control of American capitalism.

  18. People don’t see it but we went from the Divine Right of Kings to the Divine Right of Capital.

  19. Yeah I’d love it if money wasn’t the driving force behind the life of a human within our society.

  21. All insurance should be heavily regulated as non-profit. Profiting on human suffering should not be allowed.

  22. It took a long time to throw off the chains of feudalism and it will take time for those that are the most abused by the system of capitalism to see that their conditions will never improve under this rapacious system. The current late stages of capitalism will help drive its ultimate demise.

  23. Europe & Canada have regulated Capitalism they have universal healthcare, education, and good working conditions. American has a bunch of greedy bastards with their hand in our pocket for everything. Our Congress is a bunch of greedy bastards that take money from special interest to write laws for the rich and leave the rest of us to fend for ourselves. Both Parties are only worried about holding on to their power, with very few exceptions, over helping all Americans.

  24. Ehh, I think the premise is a gross exaggeration. A capitalistic framework doesn’t work for a lot of the vital components of society—the military, healthcare, welfare, education, the judicial system (prisons), etc.—but as an economic mechanism for producing wealth for the greatest number of people, it’s the most effective. Should it be elevated to the religiously tinged ideology we see in the US? Absolutely not. But neither should socialism, or communism, or any other set of economic mechanisms. As to the problem of corrupt capitalism, we can also pull up examples of similar corruption in other systems where the ideology is placed above fundamental human welfare and the rights of citizens. I like practical systems, like the German Sozialmarktwirtschaft, where the cruel edges of capitalism are humanely softened by social care.

  26. There’s just certain things that shouldn’t have a profit motive. I don’t feel like that should be controversial, but here we are.

  29. The problem with capitalism is that people go into business making some Thing©. We get good at making the Thing© because we like the Thing©. But capitalism comes along and says the point of the Thing© should not be to make the THING©, the point is to make *money*. So it ruins the Thing© because it’s not optimised for profit.

  31. – If it has to do with life, health, housing, food, education – it should not be allowed to profit.

    – If it profits it should not be allowed to layoff.

  32. Hard to believe that this sub supported Ron Paul in 2012.

  33. I don’t hate capitalism I hate the perversion of its ideals

    It feels an awful lot like the idea was “Lets have a middle class so strong that they won’t care about the few who float to the top, and they won’t care about taxes to help those at the bottom”

    But now its “Funnel everything upward at all times, The number must always be bigger at any cost.”

  34. Ok sure, but could we please start with Health Care? We have to start somewhere, right?

  35. PUtting aside the absurdity of this statement and the fact that without capitalism we wouldn’t have any systems at all. ….

    Perhaps the OP should atleast try to explain how any system would run without money being involved at all

  36. Capitalists do not exist really. It’s just market forces applied to gullible individuals. If people were less idiots capitalism would have strong regulation. And would work well.
    The issue de have is that too many people are (1) too religious to look beyond anything,(2) too stupid to understand that advertising is a lie, (3) too focused on getting their own dopamine not based on what they like but on how much they dislike others.

    And the results is that populists win promising impossible outcomes from free market capitalism instead of strongly regulated capitalism which is the only alternative to destructive Marxism and destructive unchecked capitalism.

  37. Sure, just tell us the economic system that has brought more prosperity to a broader portion of society than capitalism, and we’ll go with that one.

  38. They keep you alive just enough to be a profit unit

    Healthcare in the U.S. is, in effect, a subscription service with few fixed terms, where debt can be added at a moments notice.

    The U.S. healthcare and food systems operate as interdependent economic ecosystems, wherein individuals are effectively commodified. Their value is tied to their capacity to generate revenue through health insurance premiums, medical payments, and pharmaceutical consumption. This creates a bifurcated dynamic: individuals classified as “fixable sick” are prioritized because they offer a potential return on investment through recovery and reintegration into the labor market. Conversely, those deemed “permanently sick,” whose conditions are chronic or terminal, are often deprioritized due to their negative profitability, leading to limited access to care. If you are unable to re-enter the labor market due to sickness, or are not potentially wealthy enough to take on the debt, you will very likely be denied care.

    They wish for you to be on permanent prescriptions to ensure revenue streams.

    The food industry plays a pivotal role in sustaining this economic structure. The dominance of processed, nutrient-poor foods—driven by subsidies for low-cost inputs like corn and soy—creates a predictable pipeline of diet-related chronic illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. These conditions generate consistent demand for pharmaceutical interventions and ongoing healthcare services, which form lucrative, long-term revenue streams for both insurers and providers. The low cost and wide availability of unhealthy foods in economically disadvantaged areas exacerbate this feedback loop, ensuring a steady supply of patients with preventable illnesses who require, you guessed it, costly treatment.

    They do not want you to be healthy. This profit-driven calculus prioritizes short-term economic gains over long-term health outcomes, perpetuating systemic inefficiencies and inequities.

    The commodification of health outcomes intersects with a cost-externalization strategy that shifts the burden of systemic failings onto individuals. Poor food standards and limited access to healthy options are framed as matters of personal choice, absolving both industries of accountability while reinforcing demand for reactive medical interventions. This ensures that the economic value of individuals remains extractable, even as their quality of life diminishes under the strain of a system that incentivizes disease over well-being. In some cases when you are no longer of monetary value to them and will infact cost them substantial sums to “fix” you, you are a loss-making entity to them and your death is desirable.

    They keep you alive just enough to be a profit unit.

  39. Meh. Just says “capitalism bad” without really proposing a better alternative.

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