Maryland abolishes death penalty.

[kandrathe]

Well Kandrathe, you are looking at things very much form your local perspective.

Probably true in part, but I also look at demographics for the world.

Hans Roslings TED Talk

To play with various data of the world -- http://www.gapminder.org/world

The capitalist world (yes also China, Russia, India behave capitalist) contains a billion people who are at risk of starving and even a few billion below the poverty line.

Ok. What do you mean by that? Whose poverty line? What do you mean by poverty, and how does their standard of living now compare to the past? Why are they at risk of starving? Is it logistical, or political? For example, the people in DRC are starving due to the conflict disrupting the distribution of goods.

TED Talk - Josette Sheeran: Ending hunger now

We can't conclude that capitalism 'works'. Maybe we will in the future, maybe it is the best system possible, but there is absolutely no reason to be smug and satisfied about it. Well unless you live in the US and have a nice laptop with a 100MB internet connection of course.

I'm not smug about it. I'm trying to be rational. If someone says we should leap into the darkness, then I either want enlightenment, or some assurance there is something firm on the other side. I see niether, and the available evidence indicates that what we have (which is free market capitalism, with potential abuses moderated by regulations, and some socialism for key societal factors like education and healthcare) seems to be working marginally well in improving peoples standards of living.

From a pragmatic point of view; What I worry about is killing the golden goose.

That can be done with:

• excessive restraint on entrepreneurship through regulations,
  
• excessive drains on available investment capital through taxation,
  
• excessive waste of natural resources and efforts over producing things that are pretty unnecessary,
  
• or, by over burdening the environment with waste from the production process, thereby damaging the population.
  

From a philosophic point of view; I wonder if this system allows us to flourish in all aspects we might wish (e.g. artistically, spiritually, intellectually). Or, more simply, does it help us to be happy?

...he clearly lives in his privileged little bubble, so I won't waste my time anymore.

Thank God. Even in the bubble, you need to worry about bird poop (and sharp objects).

Kan, your post left me with a very important question. How did you get that post to work without barfing on so many quotes?!

Very, methodically. I'm still a programmer at heart, so I'm very careful with parentheses, braces, tags, etc.

So just like a real communist state has never had the chance of evolving, a real capitalist free society has also never been a reality.

There was pre-capitalism, before y'all in the Netherlands invented it. Before the "Age of Capitalism", there was mercantilism (or, bullionism), and pre-mercantilism. Before that, it was a barter system.

Once you have the exchange of value of goods or labor into money, and you have more money than you need to survive, then the opportunity exists for investment. Once you have a system supporting investments, you could develop capitalism. Capitalism relies on freedom to own and transfer property, contractual exchange of labor for money, and on the respect of lawful contracts.

So, yes, I do see the potential for a post-capitalist world; It would require the elimination of concerns from needs, like energy, food, water, health, housing, clothing. These things would be so freely abundant that they would have no relative value. This is a Star Trek like world where products are produced instantly as needed from basic atoms, but while a fantasy for me, may be possible for future generations. But, when basic necessities are scarce, we will value them, and negotiate with whatever means we have to get what we need in competition with other individuals. There will be "have" and "have not" until we figure out how to get everyone all that they need. And, therefore, inequality is a matter of where you are born, what physical traits you were born with, and how well you are nurtured, with a modicum of influence by circumstances.