In response to:
bluelinchpin.wordpress.com The Capitalism Death Toll Project
I can see where some of this is coming from, but this looks like “the pursuit of money” is often being blamed here.
People are psychologically incapable of doing something that doesn’t benefit them in some way; greed and charity are two takes on this, as greed allows you to have more things that make you happy, and charity is an action that makes people happy (the charitable person included, “I’m glad I was able to help those people!”). You fighting something you see as a threat to people makes you feel good (and rightfully so) that you may get the word out to someone important or in a position to make a change, just as I feel good about standing up for something that produces wonderful results most of the time (not every time, I know).
Some people will end up making a lot of money if the opportunity is there, and if what they do with it is up to them (both of these things motivate creative people). Some people do end up helping others directly, others keep it for themselves. Additionally, this system can drive down the cost of things, (I’ve seen the cost of tooth cavity fillings, music, and especially computer technology drop in price) making these things available to more people.
Having a capitalist system in place does indirectly cause deaths (as with pretty much any economic/governing system), but it also indirectly saves lives. If one mechanic hurts someone with a tool, taking the tool away from every mechanic may prevent people from getting hurt (with tools), but a bunch of people now aren’t able to fix, make, or do things effectively. Bad people do bad things, and no governing system currently available/conceived is immune to that.
With that being said, I don’t think an honest death toll could be established for capitalism. Not only that, but under the title of “Capitalism Death Toll” it ropes in people that used capitalism for good, and lets those who used it poorly remain not called out. If you really worked at this, you could actually help make capitalism work better, which I think would make everyone happy.
