Capitalism creates an irreparable rift in the metabolism between humans and nature. The production of commodities alienates both the worker who creates a commodity and the earth, the source of all material from which commodities are made. Both the earth and the worker are degraded when exchange value breaks the connection between what is produced, and the process of production of what is produced. The essence of capitalism. The generation of surplus value.
Capitalism fuels the vicious circle principle laid out by Craig Dilworth. Both are circular and exploit resources. A cycle of commodity generation fuels new cycles of commodity generation, with profit adding to available capital to make capital grow. Growth is a natural result of the capitalist process, resulting from the generation of surplus value. Capitalist institutions become as large as they can as fast as they can to increase surplus value and profit. Increasing profit is what a capitalist cares about. There is no other concern than the generation of profit for appropriation by the capitalist.
As resources deplete from increased use, new capitalist ventures exploit substitute resources as capital moves to find new means to generate profit, and abandoning previous activity. Once money eats a resource, it moves on. Capitalism has no loyalty.
Many people in America consider themselves 'left' by various definitions. Many are deluded, these people do not know a defining characteristic of a leftist is someone who is anti-capitalist. The definition of left in America has been distorted, so criticism of capitalism became impossible. A consequence of being anti-capitalist, upon reflection, is to oppose exploitation of all kinds. In America, the definition has been degraded to include only those who oppose exploitation of some kinds. Whatever your personal flavor might be. Ask a random gaggle of American leftists what it means to be a leftist, and they won't be able to come up with a definition. 'Oh I think it is this.' 'Oh I think it is that.' Meaning, they are not leftist. It can't mean anything else. You can't just make up definitions, and if you don't know what something is, chances are you certainly are not whatever that thing is.
Capitalism continually generates surplus value by transforming use value into exchange value. The process disrupts social metabolism, creating a self-reinforcing capitalist class from a money trick surplus. The capitalist class became parasites who pushed production of commodities to planetary limits, and the meta-crisis is no more than the product of capitalism hitting the planetary limits to growth.
Industrial farming is not natural. The drive to maximize profit ruined natural metabolism, creating a dependency on fossil fuels that can't be sustained and which will lead to disaster when capitalism can no longer shift to a new resource to exploit. In America, 'the market' was reified into a conscious entity that works to everyone's benefit. Capitalism became a religion, and all alternatives to it became satanic blasphemy.
This is until substitution is no longer possible. Then people die. Unless social measures of success are changed. Indicators of well-being must replace the drive for profit with wages generated from economic activity distributed on a fair basis. With the basic needs of everyone being met. Seeking health and happiness must replace competition and the drive for money.
Family should endure, but large families must be taxed out of existence. We have the technology to not breed like rabbits, but most people have been doing exactly that for 100 years. Consequently human livestock, outweighs wild mammals and birds by a factor of ten. The human race is in overshoot. Large families have become a crime and a voluntary decrease in population by natural attrition must be embraced so human population can fall to a sustainable level.
This requires a new vision and a radical commitment to make it happen. It demands that the American conception of the virtues of capitalism be recognized as distorted reality. A product of propaganda sponsored and facilitated by greed centered around a money trick.