Are financial crises a necessary component of human societal progress?

嘿，关于这个问题，圈子里的看法一直都挺分裂的。它不像“1+1=2”那么绝对，更像是一个哲学问题。我谈谈我的理解，希望能帮你更好地看清这个问题。

Financial Crises: "Cleanser" or "Destroyer"?

You can imagine the economic system as an ecosystem, like a forest.

View 1: Crises are a "Necessary Evil," Like a Forest Fire

Those who hold this view believe that financial crises have several "benefits":

Clearing Deadwood: During periods of economic prosperity, many unhealthy, over-indebted, or poorly managed companies can still thrive, much like dead branches and leaves accumulating in a forest. When a financial crisis hits, it's like a large fire, burning away these "flammable materials" first. This eliminates inefficient enterprises, freeing up resources (capital, talent) for healthier, more innovative companies, making the entire "forest" healthier in the long run.
Exposing Systemic Issues: Without crises, many hidden risks and regulatory loopholes go unnoticed. For example, the 2008 financial crisis exposed the huge problem of "subprime mortgages." It was precisely because of this crisis that the world began to reflect on and strengthen financial regulation, introducing stricter rules. From this perspective, a crisis is like a painful but necessary "stress test," forcing us to mend the system's flaws.
Asset Prices Return to Rationality: The period before a crisis is often a bubble, with stock and housing prices soaring. Ordinary people simply can't afford them. When a crisis hits, the bubble bursts, and asset prices fall sharply, returning to a more realistic value. While the process is painful, it creates possibilities for a new round of healthy growth and wealth redistribution.

View 2: Crises are an "Avoidable Disaster," Not a Stepping Stone to Progress

The other viewpoint is entirely different; they believe:

The Cost is Too Heavy: This is the core of this viewpoint. Financial crises inflict devastating harm on ordinary people. Countless individuals lose their jobs, their life savings vanish, families break apart, and social conflicts intensify. This "pain" might just be a number in macroeconomic data, but for every family, it's a 100% disaster. To subject so many people to such immense suffering for the sake of so-called "cleansing" is inhumane and unfair.
Doesn't Always Lead to Positive Change: Not every crisis brings about positive reforms. Sometimes, bailout policies can exacerbate wealth inequality (e.g., prioritizing large banks) or lead to long-term economic stagnation, like Japan's "lost decades." After the "fire" burns out, what might grow back are more deformed plants, not a healthier forest.
It's a System Failure, Not a Necessary Function: A well-designed system shouldn't need to "collapse" to maintain itself. This is like saying car accidents are necessary to improve traffic safety, which is clearly absurd. Our goal should be to prevent forest fires through better design and smarter regulation (e.g., better weather forecasting and fire prevention systems), or to extinguish them as soon as they start, rather than waiting for everything to burn down before rebuilding.

My Take

To view financial crises as a "necessary" component of social progress feels a bit too absolute to me.

It's more like an "overreaction of the immune system." When problems arise within the economy (like a viral infection), the immune system (market mechanisms) starts to attack, but the reaction is too intense, severely damaging the body itself while killing the virus.

It certainly exposes problems and objectively eliminates outdated capacity.
But the destruction it brings is immense and indiscriminate, especially for the most vulnerable groups in society.

So, rather than calling it "necessary," I'd say it's an unavoidable "side effect" of the modern capitalist economic system.

The goal of human societal progress should be to strive to reduce the frequency and destructive power of this side effect through more comprehensive regulation and smarter macroeconomic control, allowing the economic ship to sail more smoothly, rather than having to endure several turbulent storms and shipwrecks before learning to repair the hull.

In summary, we learn from crises, but that doesn't mean we need crises. Just as we learn from illness how to stay healthy, but being sick certainly doesn't mean it's part of a healthy life.