About the Idea

This project will examine what could cause the decline of capitalism and three possible outcomes, those being extinction, regression, or a transition to what is effectively communism.

Capitalism is based on the idea that people make themselves survive. They work in some way and fend for themselves and themselves only. In nature, you'd have a hunter that hunts for himself and his family if he has one. He can use the pelts of his prey to fashion items for himself, or he can trade them to others for things others may have. This natural system works well in almost every situation. The exception that immediately comes to my mind is when a person is unable to work for their survival. This could be because they're physically or mentally incapable, and can't do what it takes to survive. Something like natural selection kills them off, which is what happens in nature. Another situation would be when there's no method of survival at all, which is often caused by domination by another force.

In modern society, survival doesn't occur with the hunting of deer to feed your family. Most people have jobs which pay them money, and the money is used to buy food. This happens because not everyone needs to focus on finding food--food is so plentiful only a small percentage of the population needs to find [grow] it. Instead, people work on improving the quality of life in some way (both directly and indirectly). One part of this is the production of goods that are useful and make life easier and more enjoyable, be it chairs, refrigerators, or chocolate. Because humans have advanced technologically, machines now do a lot of this work. Hundreds of years ago, when food was plentiful enough that not everyone had to be farmers, many people made their living as craftsmen. When the Industrial Revolution came around, many skilled craftsmen were replaced by machines, as the machines were a great investment--they were extremely fast and precise and didn't need to be paid. One person with enough money could build a factory, which could take the place of hundreds of, say, weavers and fabric makers. The factories did employ people, but they didn't need as many. The Industrial Revolution and the arrival of automated production displaced a lot of people.

To be continued sometime in the future.