# Socially Desirable Capitalism By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2022-10-06 Capitalism does some things amazingly well. Perhaps better than any other economic system it responds to changes in tastes and preferences. Additionally, capitalism tends to produce products of increasing quality at decreasing prices. These are some significant benefits. Additionally, for anybody who has ever worked on a committee, capitalism generates these outcomes without the incoherence associated with bureaucratic decision-making. Left unchecked, capitalism produces negatives as well. Capitalism can amplify inequality, generate market failures, damage the environment, focus attention on materialistic concerns, contribute to economic cycles of expansion and contraction, and produce oligarchies. Collectively, these negatives are socially undesirable. Capitalist societies attempt to balance these pros and cons. Determining what might constitute socially desirable capitalism is a challenging problem. One that might benefit from analysis. What makes a society great? This isn’t an easy question to answer. What makes this, particularly challenging to answer coherently is that elements that contribute to a great society might not align well [[together]]. As an example, having the ability to advance and succeed based on individual talent and hard work is likely part of a great society. Also, the ability of every person within society to have basic needs met is likely part of a great society. America used to have a strong middle class. It no longer does. It is shrinking and increasingly precarious. How much policy should be designed to protect the gains of those who win in our capitalist society? How much policy should be designed to ensure that nobody loses as a consequence of capitalism's inhumane [[Consequences]]? These aren’t easy questions for a society to answer. America has held different views in the aggregate at different points in time. The current course suggests an economic oligarchy awaits. If this isn’t what we want, we need to stop playing political games as if it is only [[rhetoric]], or we can adjust when a “real” [[crisis]] hits and get serious about what we are doing. Analytics can help inform our deliberations as to what socially desirable capitalism will look like for us, but only we can determine what we want our society to be. #### Related Items [[Economics]] [[Capitalism]] [[Society]] [[Inequality]] [[Policies]] [[Analytics]]