You're right, the central question we are facing is how to structure our society, what values, incentives we should use as its foundation.
The current (capitalist) system uses self interest and profit as an incentive, and we see where that got us. We can mitigate some issues with tweaks like regulation, but it's also valuable to ask more fundamental questions. Is there a different incentive other than profit we can use? What are the effects on society of the incentives we use? What values do we want to promote? How can we do that?
The difficulty of having this complex and nuanced discussion shouldn't discourage us from having it. We must find our way together.
The current (capitalist) system uses self interest and profit as an incentive, and we see where that got us. We can mitigate some issues with tweaks like regulation, but it's also valuable to ask more fundamental questions. Is there a different incentive other than profit we can use? What are the effects on society of the incentives we use? What values do we want to promote? How can we do that?
The difficulty of having this complex and nuanced discussion shouldn't discourage us from having it. We must find our way together.