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A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

washingtonpost.com

11–20 of 135 posts

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#12
post #4

In my experience, people who criticize this article are probably benefiting from "capitalism" (the majority of people on here, I reckon, do), meanwhile those struggling from inequality, not being here, will fail to have their voice heard. And so the echo chamber ensues. That being said, capitalism and having things like free healthcare and education are hardly mutually exclusive. So I think the article's conclusion,…

"...capitalism and having things like free healthcare and education are hardly mutually exclusive..." -- good point.

It's also important to note that the semantics on capitalism is almost always misleading in discussions:

https://chomsky.info/20130305/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9XFBN5X1JU

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#13
post #4

In my experience, people who criticize this article are probably benefiting from "capitalism" (the majority of people on here, I reckon, do), meanwhile those struggling from inequality, not being here, will fail to have their voice heard. And so the echo chamber ensues. That being said, capitalism and having things like free healthcare and education are hardly mutually exclusive. So I think the article's conclusion,…

alright. I'll bite. I have made almost no money in the past year, and my bank account is nearly zero. I had a relatively middle class upbringing (but for reasons I'd rather not go into) my family is currently bankrupt.

Capitalism (in the free markets sense) is great. The problem is that gobs of money are stolen from poor people like me by the government through various processes, the biggest of which is inflation. This money is largely redistributed to cronies - the easiest of which to see are the big contractors. Less obvious are the banks and directly profit off of low-interest loans by flipping them to higher-interest borrowers, and even less obvious is wall street (whose coffers are filled by middle class people pushed into protecting their assets from inflation).

This is Capital-ism (in the marxian sense) -- the philosophy deciding that the pursuit of capital is a good unto itself. Unfortunately, the state has decided to attempt to 'harness' capitalism for its own idea of 'social good' which of course basically taints the non-zero-sum nature of free exchange with the zero-sum game of political hierarchy. The more this happens, the greater there will be inequality. It's a direct consequence of the first principles, and is unavoidable.

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#14
post #4

In my experience, people who criticize this article are probably benefiting from "capitalism" (the majority of people on here, I reckon, do), meanwhile those struggling from inequality, not being here, will fail to have their voice heard. And so the echo chamber ensues. That being said, capitalism and having things like free healthcare and education are hardly mutually exclusive. So I think the article's conclusion,…

I can tell you that if you asked the poorest in America if they believed private ownership of property should be illegal in the US they would disagree. Socialism to most Americans is free healthcare and college. Capitalism is lobbying and the abuse of government sponsored monopolies.

Which is unfortunate, because government involvement in business is a socialist idea, not a capitalist one.

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#15
post #6

So, what they really mean is that they want less globalization... rather then less capitalism... and we know many older voters also voted for less globalization... so it's like both young and old, stung by globalization and financial crises want to retrench?

Why would they want greater capitalism with less globalization? Wouldn't that be de facto less capitalist?

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#17
post #4

In my experience, people who criticize this article are probably benefiting from "capitalism" (the majority of people on here, I reckon, do), meanwhile those struggling from inequality, not being here, will fail to have their voice heard. And so the echo chamber ensues. That being said, capitalism and having things like free healthcare and education are hardly mutually exclusive. So I think the article's conclusion,…

alright. I'll bite. I have made almost no money in the past year, and my bank account is nearly zero. I had a relatively middle class upbringing (but for reasons I'd rather not go into) my family is currently bankrupt. Capitalism (in the free markets sense) is great. The problem is that gobs of money are stolen from poor people like me by the government through various processes, the biggest of which is inflation. Th…

If you have a bank account of almost zero, inflation can't possibly be stealing money from you (unless you also have gobs of cash under a mattress somewhere).

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#18
Did we not learn that Capitalism failed a long time ago? Why else will we have an Insurance system that is deeply incentivized to not cover your conditions? Why else will we have an Education system that is deeply incentivized to profit off your education and put you in debt for your life?

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#20
post #4

In my experience, people who criticize this article are probably benefiting from "capitalism" (the majority of people on here, I reckon, do), meanwhile those struggling from inequality, not being here, will fail to have their voice heard. And so the echo chamber ensues. That being said, capitalism and having things like free healthcare and education are hardly mutually exclusive. So I think the article's conclusion,…

Your first paragraph manages to sort of dismiss both sides without really engaging with them. No one wants to be typecasted, even if they have legitimate biases. There's plenty more nuance to contribute to the discussion than simply characterizing most of the participants the same way Upton Sinclair would: by their salaries.

I think you do raise a legitimate point about echo chambers, but how does that observation on its own help us? It's pessimistic. In my opinion, you've not really contributed to a resolution here except to be cynical.

I support capitalism, and I admit it has done very well by me. I don't come from a privileged upbringing whatsoever, but it's now likely my children will. But your binary characterization of the inevitable functions as sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy here - will my opinions on capitalism be viewed as coming from someone who benefits from it because that's the way you framed it? By starting the conversation off in the way you did, I believe your framing antagonizes it prematurely. Why not decry an echo chamber when it actually emerges?

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