Know your root problem (and it’s not Capitalism) || with IIT Delhi

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner: Do you think that capitalism is at the root of the problems we face today? If yes, what can the individual do? For example, at societal level, income inequality has kept on increasing; at the economical level, greed drives many business decisions; at the individual level, we are put in a race to achieve more levels in monetary gains, and this extends also to how we deal with education, housing, travel, and healthcare, which are very expensive nowadays. So, I want your opinion on this. Do you think that capitalism is the core issue to be addressed, and how should we go about it?

Acharya Prashant (AP): It’s not as if human beings are alright within themselves and pure of intention, simple and innocent beings, and then somehow an alien system called capitalism invades them and victimizes them. But somehow that’s how a lot of us would like to think, because this line of thought places the blame of our present condition on something alien to us. So, we are then happily able to justify being what we are and claim innocence.

Where does capitalism come from? If we say capitalism is to be blamed for our situation as it is, where does this economic and social system come from? It comes from the…