Ethical Capitalism Debate | Simon Mundy, Opposition (6/8) | The Oxford Union

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The Motion: This House Believes There is No Ethical Consumption Under Capitalism.
Simon Mundy continues the case for the opposition, as the sixth speaker of eight in the debate.
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[@johanngambolputty5351]

My favorite opposition argument by far, though he still seems to somewhat use socialism as a crutch/straw-man. Are we 100% certain there is no non-socialist and non-capitalist alternative? That said, I don't think we need to dump capitalism, just bolster it with safeguards as he suggests. Its far from perfect in its current state, but in its current state it violates its own principles, do I really have the right to own things in the age of anti-repair and ridiculous house prices? Maybe I have the right in principle, but in practice the possibility is vanishing for many of us due to too much convergence of wealth. I'm not arguing for equality, just not to have singularities.
With so many of the big companies, especially in big tech, swallowing up the little ones, we can't even take advantage of one of its most beautiful, elegant, self regulating aspects... competition, which is the only thing that ensures the consumer has some power and can actually send any signals...

[@PtolemyXVII]

This was a thoughtful argument and I agree that a system needs to be reformed and tweaked in every generation to function optimally. However, the example of South vs. North Korea is a bit misleading as North Korea has been under sanctions and cut off from the global central banking system and free market economy, hence for obvious reasons, their economy stagnated whereas, South Korea flourished, not necessarily as a byproduct of capitalism, because one can also argue that South Korea has an economic system that is closer to feudalism than capitalism due to the dominance of their “chaebol” or family owned corporations.

[@SwamiNetero]

if someone tried to implement market economics within their home, everybody'd call em crazy. most people agree the entire concept behind NFTs is ridiculous, but -- for some reason -- many of those people have a problem applying that logic to society as a whole lol

[@SwamiNetero]

sanctions are a very important issue to note in reference to north korea. they're still cringe af, but we can't just leave that out

[@samihans1469]

I see capitalism as a monster, which in its pure form has a lot of problems but also very good side effects. To prevent the problems and strengthen the good things we have to tame the monster. And this is possible. The state has to rise above the market and must step in when the monster gets to wild (e.g. market failure).

[@Killibum]

I agree as long as the solution is not to kill the monster.

[@samihans1469]

@@Killibum I think you could kill the Monster only if you Bad another option

[@mick947]

The discussion is on ethical capitalism not which system is the best of two evils. As a world we can’t rely on a system that is destroying our planet and is making 90% of humanity miserable. We now have the technology to enable us to really find a better way than all the rest.. if the 1% will allow it.

[@aliss4781]

Hi Simon Mundy; very impressed with your views. I made some commets on Noga Levy's video and invite you to take a look at things i have posted as i can't copy and paste them on your comments and i feel you might find them interesting.