this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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So how did pollution, sickness, and war happen before capitalism?
The past having problems does not invalidate criticism of our current system
Did they?
Before the Industrial Revolution, pollution was extremely localized to a single property or maybe a city; the biggest impact I can find any reference to is the burning of soft coal in London causing thick smogs from the 1200s through the 1900s, but even that only affected a single city. Since the Industrial Revolution, all large-scale pollution has been caused by a capitalistic endeavor, with the possible (debatable) exception of Chernobyl.
And sickness? The Black Death--still the largest pandemic ever--was likely caused after a conflict between Mongols and Genoans over trade routes led to the Battle of Caffa, where the Mongols deployed Bubonic plague as a biological weapon to overwhelm the city. Fleeing ships then spread the plague throughout Europe. Capitalism started the Black Death.
War is also a common bedfellow of capitalism; by some estimates, most wars are waged in pursuit of economic gain (or territorial gain, which is just economic gain with extra steps). Even if the stated reason for a war is religion or defense, oftentimes behind the curtain you'll find economic or territorial gain as the true reason for the war. Capitalism starts most wars.
Capitalism has been defined as a lot of different things, but at the end of the day it's people with a lot of money trying to protect that money or increase it. That, coupled with a latent sociopathy (or at least an empathy deficit) can lead to some pretty awful things.
That's an entirely different world. There's barely any comparison to modern-day problems.