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I’m a fan of capitalism with tight regulations and checks on corruption, personally
The very nature of capitalism facilitates concentrations of power, which will utilize that power to accumulate even more in any conceivable way. The system is fundamentally flawed and needs to be replaced if we care at all for basic human rights and a future for this species.
What is your proposed alternative? I struggle to think of any system that doesn’t inevitably result in concentrations of power
Social Democracy. Commerce is key to strong economies, not capitalistic wealth hoarding.
Is there a country that you'd consider a good example of this?
as a solution to capitalism i propose capitalism (but you get 20 euro of ubi once per financial quarter)
Concentrations of power is made from the greed of people. Honestly, I beliefe that any sufficiently large society will eventually fall into capitalism, and the other way around, capitalism encourages border-less states, making effectively bigger communities.
However, with the current economic trend of de-globalization, things may eventually change.
Trend of de-globalization? If anything things are more global then ever…
I'd agree, but I think public sentiment for globalization is souring. Right wing populists have been gaining in elections the last 10 years because of this, running largely anti-immigration and economically protectionist. I think they're predicting a future reduction in globalization based on this.
Hmm, to me it seems like the populist wave has been dying out. At least in the US where they have been getting shit on for the last couple elections
so what is needed is a system that doesn't allow the concentration of power into one entity that is using this power for personal benefit.
The very nature of capitalism facilitates concentrations of power
No. Capitalism is one thing and one thing only: the private ownership of the means of production. The very nature of private ownership, means private citizens have the freedom to own what's theirs, and trade it with whoever. The nature of capitalism, meaning its logical end state, is a free market in the truest sense. This is the opposite of concentrating power, because the means of power are completely disunited. In less favorable terms, the logical end state of capitalism is anarchy or chaos
Socialism is the common/public/collective ownership of the means of production. Holding the means of power in a collective is another way of saying it's being concentrated. The logical end of socialism is the concentration of everything.
Of course, I don't think we need to take either extreme too seriously. They both have faults, clearly, and they both devolve into something that more resembles the other with time. Capitalism adopts regulations or develop a state to concentrate their power against and enemy. Socialism reduces state power when civilians want more freedoms.
Point is, your characterizing of Capitalism seems misinformed, and it's incredibly silly to think a fundamental replacement of our current system is in order, as if there's some perfect ideology we can obviously replace it with
the private ownership of the means of production
You recognize how that itself is a concentration of power, right
No, disunited private actors are not a concentration of power
If you own the source of wealth, you can buy more in a positive feedback loop, thus concentrating wealth and therefore power. Them being private actors means they are accountable to nobody.
I feel like you are both arguing different things. The simple fact of ownership isn't the concentration of power, it's the fact that we don't put limits on that ownership that causes concentration of power. People always argue for or against systems by taking those systems to their absolutes instead of arguing how they should be in practice. If we put a high tax on anyone with a high net worth, high yearly earnings, high estate value, etc., and also take anti-trust laws seriously, then we can largely solve much of that and still operate under capitalism. The problem is more how we are currently operating under capitalism more than capitalism itself, imo.
I'm a fan of monogamy with multiple sexual partners.
anarcho-capitalism is not the only form of capitalism that exists
Anarchist Capitalism is a delusion. You're always going to have someone with a bigger gun telling other people what to do. That's a de facto state whether Peter Thiel and Murray Rothbard want to admit it or not.
Once you sever democratic control of capital and allow landlords the freedom to raise rents, the ball only continues to roll downhill. People will keep looking for chinks in the regulatory armor (or create them through brute force) until the market system collapses. There is no "regulated capitalism" that endures continuous contact with the corruptive influence of the profit motive.
Gotta be able to get one sexual partner first bud
You cite an opinion piece out of Reason magazine and another written by a CATO fellow?
Come on, dude. Do better.
That's not a rebuttal.
What am I rebutting? You linked to an opinion piece and a slander.
They're both articles making arguments. The fact that you don't like who the arguments came from isn't very persuasive nor particularly interesting.
Teaching the controversy worked so well when we were debating Evolutionary Theory and Climate Change.
That’s some copium if I’ve ever seen it
Ghodsee, an acclaimed ethnographer and professor of Russian and East European Studies, spent years researching what happened to women in countries that transitioned from state socialism to capitalism. She argues here that unregulated capitalism disproportionately harms women, and that we should learn from the past. By rejecting the bad and salvaging the good, we can adapt some socialist ideas to the 21st century and improve our lives.
shrug
Casinos have to have rules.
I'm not a fan of any overarching system, however capitalism is the one I, and I suspect most of the people reading this, live in. Therefore the best way of addressing the problems our society faces is to do so using the tools that our capitalistic system provides (such as regulation and oversight) rather than twiddle our thumbs waiting for some grand revolution to fix everything.
Claiming that the only way to improve our situation is to completely overturn the system does nothing but promote inaction.
Sitting my kids down and telling them that the only way to send them to college is to keep buying scratch-off lottery tickets.
Angrily insisting that the only other alternative is to tear up the entire higher education system. Its either gambling on scratchers or doing a bloody uprising. No other alternatives.
Silver lining, college is much less needed today than it was 10 years ago in many industries.
Depends heavily on the career path. You can't really be a registered nurse or a professional engineer or practice law without higher education. The service sector is a complete dead-end. Sales jobs are increasingly miserable and scammy. So much of the economy just... sucks. The jobs that aren't completely soul-sucking tend to be the ones you need a degree to pursue.
Good take. I think you could apply that logic to a lot of things, that accepting only extreme change is a recipe for nothing getting done.
You're a fan of exploitation of the working class?
I am a fan of using ignored and undervalued resources, the unemployed (aka exploitation) in order to give people employment and a stepping stone into better jobs while also providing cheaper products for the 'working class'.
You aren't?
Honestly I think capitalism works so long as you can make sure greedy people can only satisfy their greed through productivity rather than insider trading and buying companies that are competitive or implementing micro transactions into fully priced games infact that's the reason why I've been against stock markets just like how are these people improving life for others
You can't have it. It simply does not work like that. We saw what happens when you try that and it's the world we're living in. And when I say 'the world we're living in' I mean exclusively the west. This kind of thing gets you and your entire town killed if you try it where the US is allowed to set off bombs.
Yes, with corruption, we can't have anything. So what I need to do is become the most powerful man in the universe and be loving and kind, but with fair and swift judgment. There is no I ther way. No way possible. OR, we can keep trying.
Adam Smith even said: “every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man, or order of men.”
So, we need to constantly keep fighting against corruption and harm towards other humans. If not, you are the problem. Instead of always saying how that will not happen, maybe come up with an answer. I mean, since humans keep causing problems, maybe we should get rid of humans? Right?
Yours is a failure of imagination. There's no alternative between the current order and god from heaven coming down to smite the bad people? Because I say a strategy that was tried in the past didn't work, and has observable and learnable outcomes, that saying it's not the path to achieving what you want is the exact same as saying we should kill off the human race? Right?
Batshit reply. Not sure what the Adam Smith filler is for.
No
Why did you think a well thought out thought would get you upvotes? I mean, it did. But that's not normal! 🤣
They're sharing an opinion. Upvotes don't matter.
I'm joking. Replies don't matter either.
Actually, very little that we do is important.
But still, just try and laugh when you can (to compensate crying at night)
You're not joking. You're saying "I agree with you" in the most obnoxious smarmy way possible.
Thanks man for the compliment! It really means something to me :) And I'm not even being sarcastic. Just lack of attention & human affection I guess.
They currently have 9 upvotes and 1 downvote...
I literally said, 'It did'