I remember reading a book about the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. One passage which really stuck with me was when Germany had won Alsace-Lorraine from France, leading to Bismarck stating that Germany was now a “satisfied power”. I remember it still because it surprised me that a nation so used to expanding itself militarily could simply “stop” once it felt satisfied with its borders. I also remember it because it revealed to me the unsustainability of capitalism. If we look at what capitalism — a system where value creation is incentivized by profit — actually is, it becomes clear that it can't exist indefinitely without becoming detrimental to the countries it exists in. The problem with tying value creation to ever-rising expectations of profit is that value creation is finite. If we look at almost every industry 30 years or older, we can see this. At some point, every single one reaches a point of stability when profit stops increasing because value creation stops increasing. This isn't a failure but an inevitability. Once enough value is being produced, consumers don't pay for more because they don't need any more. A rational response to this fact would be for industries to simply accept their current profits as they are indefinitely, but capitalism isn't rational. There is no contingency in the system for profit to stagnate once enough value has been created. This has led to a world where profits increases are sustained at the expense of workers and consumers. Without being able to grow enough so as to satisfy profit expectations, industries have turned to maximizing the profit they currently receive from these two groups. You see it in the stagnation of wages, the overworking of employees, the increases in prices, and the decreases in quality. Furthermore, you see it as these industries boast about record-breaking profits. It is no coincidence. For their profits to increase every year, the quality of our lives must decrease in turn. Worse yet, they won't stop; they need to make more money next year than they did this year. Somehow, though, they don't realize that, like value creation, we are limited. They can't keep squeezing a little bit more money or a little bit more labor out of us each and every year, because eventually, we'll be empty. The idea that industries must always increase profits is both unsustainable and unethical, especially when that money could do so much more for so many. Bismarck knew when to stop; if capitalism doesn't, we may have to stop it ourselves