[Osterbaum]

Originally Posted by Aero

The other is someone is going to be in charge. Part of this is practicality. When dealing with hundreds of millions, or even billions, you need some oversight.

Oversight might be necessary, but I do not think this oversight needs to be authoritative. People are perfectly capable of getting together and reaching decisions about subjects that affect them all, even on a global scale. Though the logistical hurdles to overcome should not be underestimated!

People starve on a large scale because of the first two reasons. Food is not scarce. We have enough for everyone, but getting food to them is very difficult.

What's so difficult about getting the food to people? We have the technology to efficiently both grow and transport food. There is also no reason why food production could not be localized. It is again the search for profits that has lead to food production centering in the hands of large corporations, often more or less tied to some specific geographic area.

Capitalism is a broken system. One that leads to human misery, to environmental destruction and for what? For the profits of a relative few? That right there is enough reason for me to abolish it once and for all.

Originally Posted by Kim

My perspective is that Capitalism is Evil and I would like it gone forever.

Also that hierarchies lead to exploitation and abuse, and capitalism is just the latest form of that. I think of capitalism in many ways as an attempt at a secular, merit-based hierarchy.

Thing is I don't know how to structure things in ways that won't inevitably form new hierarchies, and those hierarchies will always lead to abuse and exploitation.

Even if you get down to the family unit, families are hierarchical. Parents effectively own their children, and because we live in a patriarchy the father is at the top of the pyramid. I think this encourages abuse in many forms.

I don't like it, but I don't know how to fix it, and I've resigned myself to the fact that even if I get to live a long life we probably won't fix this problem in my lifetime.

As an anarchist (greek "an-" = without + arkhos = leader), it is indeed a big part of my opposition to capitalism that it is an immensly hierarchical system. It not only creates it's own economic based hierarchies like boss/employee & rich/poor, but also supports the existence of other hierarchies.

I would suggest you look more into anarchism if hierarchies piss you off. That is unless you already have.

It's a difficult thing to structure things in ways that wont lead to hierarchies. It would require a complete change in thought, in the way people view things. But I believe it's possible. By striving towards a world free of hierarchies we can at least get as close as is humanely possible. You mention family hierarchy as an example, but I believe that in our current society it's at least possible these hierarchies are informed by the existence of other hierarchies. Hierarchy is also something we learn, they are largely social constructs or based on such.

And in questioning all authority it does not mean anarchists necessarily reject all authority. As demonstrated by this Mikhail Bakunin quote:

Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the boot-maker.

In a sense one could think that a child defering to the authority of their parents would be similarly justified, at least until they reach an age where they can understand and choose for themselves.