capitalism

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Capitalists destroying the US?

I think capitalism has gotten way out of hand.
Now companies want to own genes and forms of life.
There seems to be no end to what an ideology ownership desires.
Do the Elk own the land, squirrels the nuts, fish the water? How ridiculous that would seem. But humans live by another standard. Why?
I feel we made a wrong turn. Why do we need to own anything? Instead of sharing and having a collective owning society we have created the dog eat dog, rat race, gated communities, 24/7 security, always defending my stuff mentality.
What would it have been like had we remained on a more tribal system and had to share our resources instead of creating a system where companies got to charge monthly residual fees for things as basic as water and energy.

The fact that Bolivia and other South American countries are going back to state ownership of resources show us that we have headed them in the wrong direction. We were raping them of their particular regional resources. And making huge profits.
Most of our wood comes from other countries with hardline political structures that rape their environments to provide the west with wood for furniture and other products.
Cheap wood. We don't make cheap wood in America anymore.
And those profits don't go to the people of that country but to the corrupt leadership.
If we had a more sustainable business practices we could lead the word in more humane and positive societal/cultural/business models.
But instead we spend huge amounts on military and gouge taxpayers to pay for things that actually destroy our self sustainability.
We build huge Wal-Marts and shopping centers full of cheap mostly useless crap instead of huge community gardens and non-carbon emitting mass transportation.
I mean, look through your homes. How much of it is really necessary for a fulfilling life. Most of it is crap waiting to be thrown out and replaced with new and improved crap that will not make our lives any richer or more meaningful.
Capitalism has created a competitive society instead of a cooperative society.

-Drake, Bay Area

I think your view on socialism was very cool. Personally, I don't see anything to fear in socialism. The problems with it have arisen only in countries that went directly from a feudal, monarchical, dictatorship type of government to a socialist government. In those countries (like Russia and China), all they had to build on was top-down dictatorships. But in countries like in Scandanavia, where there was a democratic tradition, socialism has worked very very well. There are still rich people, but the vast majority of the people are comfortably middle class with all the things that make living pleasant and safe (good education, good medical care, good, affordable, housing) practically guaranteed. I think in the United States, socialism would be more like Scandinavia if people on the right would allow it to exist.
And what's capitalism done for us lately? 50 year mortgages. More corporate theft. And fewer and fewer people in the middle class every year.