We Are Here To Create, Not Merely Survive
Life is not just some duality with death, about mere biological drives of reproduction, living, dying, consuming, generating waste... No, human society is about thriving and evolving, it's about seeing how far we can progress, how much flourishing we can create, how many mysteries and frontiers of reality we can discover. Even if "surviving” was our highest aspiration as a society, current systems aren't even meeting that very basic goal; but rather are negligent and complicit in world deprivations.
Economists just say, "there's scarcity", "we have to compete to survive”, "selfishness is a virtue which serves the common good", "we have infinite wants", and declare these laws of nature. But these are ideals and views reflective of earlier periods and different technical and sociological circumstances entirely. They reflect the people of that time's own unique response to evolve out of systems of centralized rule in the form of Feudalism, which preceded them. Private ownership and a self governance of individual actors trading openly in the market WAS their form of liberation and radical change, to create a more free and collaborative world, and to expand a more robust and enlightened civilization. Of course today, we must work to reduce our footprint. And centralized power & control has since manifested through markets; through the freedom to privatize everything, bascially. But again, the Free Market Methodology was the most progressive new system at the time. Today's economists have no excuse.
Defenders of Capitalism maintain massive, dated economic caveats, assumptions, and contradictions to piece together a defensible model, and justify the continued accumulation of capital/profit, and the externalizing of unsustainable and inhumane effects.
We need to reorder civilization from technical/scientific realities, from proper priorities of sustainability and human well being, and from the premise of flourishing, not simply surviving.