Estamos vivendo melhor no capitalismo? Sobre o “progresso” do capital

Is Life Better Under Capitalism?

Felipe Miranda argues that many measurable indicators—including life expectancy, sanitation, education, and income—have improved. He says these gains should be acknowledged and questions whether earlier social arrangements or socialist experiments offered better alternatives.

Vladimir Safatle agrees that modern societies have achieved important improvements, but challenges the idea that these amount to universal progress. He argues that the gains have come alongside intensified and alienating work, insecurity, and suffering, and that they are distributed unevenly.

Comparisons with Indigenous societies, Safatle says, raise questions about whether longer working hours and greater material output necessarily mean a better quality of life. He also warns that the consumption patterns enjoyed by a small portion of the world cannot be extended to everyone without severe ecological consequences.

Technology and Historical Narratives

Safatle disputes the assumption that technological development moves in a single, steadily improving direction. In his view, capitalist societies have sometimes displaced or destroyed other forms of knowledge and technology.

He also questions familiar accounts of human history—such as a simple, inevitable shift from gathering to settled agriculture—arguing that they can make today’s economic system seem natural or unavoidable. Drawing on contemporary anthropology and David Graeber’s work, he suggests that past societies were more varied and complex than such narratives imply.

Imagining Alternatives

The conversation concludes that imagining alternatives is neither abstract nor unrealistic. Safatle argues that preserving the present is itself unrealistic, given interconnected ecological, economic, political, social, and psychological crises. He describes crisis as a condition of governance and calls for opening political space beyond the current system.

Presenters and Contributor

• Maria Homem — Presenter
• Felipe Miranda — Presenter
• Vladimir Safatle — Contributor