It's not hard to see the flaws in capitalism, but hard to come up with a decent alternative. Capitalism is the private ownership of assets used for production, such as factories and land. One alternative is government ownership, but that has a terrible track record. What other systems are possible? Non-profit organisations controlled by their employees?
A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows
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Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you only allowed to criticize capitalism if you own no possessions and live in a hut in the woods you built yourself?
No, but if you're enjoying products that would have never been developed without profit incentive, then there's hypocrisy in rejecting capitalism.
There's really, really not. I think you need a refresher on the definition of "hypocrisy", because yours is badly wrong.
Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows
#13This sure disappeared from the front page in a hurry.
Here’s your scheduled reminder that, no matter what benevolence they claim, a news site run by a venture _capitalist_ fund may not have your best interests at heart vis-à-vis discussions about capitalism.
Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you only allowed to criticize capitalism if you own no possessions and live in a hut in the woods you built yourself?
No, but if you're enjoying products that would have never been developed without profit incentive, then there's hypocrisy in rejecting capitalism.
The Harvard University survey, which polled young adults between ages 18 and 29, found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Just 42 percent said they support it.
The results of the survey are difficult to interpret, pollsters noted. Capitalism can mean different things to different people, and the newest generation of voters is frustrated with the status quo, broadly speaking.
If you do a survey and ask if people are pro abortion, most of them will say "no." If you do a survey and ask if they support a woman's rights to have control over her body and have reproductive choice -- aka "pro choice" -- most people will say "yes."
Most folks think a woman should have access to abortion services should she need one. They also think it should be an absolute last resort for when things go wrong and should not be used too casually as a primary form of birth control. The reality is that most women would never use it that way. But birth control methods fail far more often than most people imagine, plus sometimes someone is assaulted.
TLDR: How you ask the question can skew the answers and also people often mean very different things with the same word.
Communication R hard.
Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, but if you're enjoying products that would have never been developed without profit incentive, then there's hypocrisy in rejecting capitalism.
There's really, really not. I think you need a refresher on the definition of "hypocrisy", because yours is badly wrong.
If you're willing to engage in respectful debate, rather than just vacuously claiming that I'm wrong, I'm happy to discuss any definition you'd like to proffer.
Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows
#16I grew up in a Communist dictatorship in Eastern Europe. Capitalism is far from being perfect but it was much better for my friends and I than communism. It wasn't as good for older people that lived most of their life in the previous regime tho (but we cannot say how capitalism would have treated them if they haven't had lived almost all their lives in communism).
I do not know what the solution to capitalism's problems is but I do know it's not communism. I also realize that rejecting capitalism doesn't imply embracing communism but in practice I don't see anyone suggesting any other alternatives to it.
With the rise of social-nationalism/right-wing activism again in Europe and elsewhere I sometimes wonder if this isn't just collective memory forgetting the horrors of the past that were brought upon by hate and simplification (to me most political ideals like communism and nationalism are the result of minds that refuse to view the world in the highly complex state it is in and are looking for simplifications/shortcuts), we are forever doomed to repeat those mistakes. :(
Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's really, really not. I think you need a refresher on the definition of "hypocrisy", because yours is badly wrong.
If you're willing to engage in respectful debate, rather than just vacuously claiming that I'm wrong, I'm happy to discuss any definition you'd like to proffer.
We (I'm assuming you're not posting from North Korea) all live in a capitalist society, so virtually all the products we use are "made with profit incentive". Since it is not possible to live in society without consuming any products, your definition of a "hypocritical" capitalist critiquer implicitly includes all of them - which makes it useless as a definition, as it carries no informational content.
Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows
#18This sure disappeared from the front page in a hurry. Here’s your scheduled reminder that, no matter what benevolence they claim, a news site run by a venture _capitalist_ fund may not have your best interests at heart vis-à-vis discussions about capitalism.
To be fair, it's an old article that was already discussed years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11578841 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13760557.
Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, but if you're enjoying products that would have never been developed without profit incentive, then there's hypocrisy in rejecting capitalism.
The Harvard University survey, which polled young adults between ages 18 and 29, found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Just 42 percent said they support it. The results of the survey are difficult to interpret, pollsters noted. Capitalism can mean different things to different people, and the newest generation of voters is frustrated with the status quo, broadly speaking. If you do a survey…
By any definition of capitalism, the iphone wouldn't have happened without it, so you can't claim that ambiguity in the question would prevent hypocrisy.
Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're willing to engage in respectful debate, rather than just vacuously claiming that I'm wrong, I'm happy to discuss any definition you'd like to proffer.
We (I'm assuming you're not posting from North Korea) all live in a capitalist society, so virtually all the products we use are "made with profit incentive". Since it is not possible to live in society without consuming any products, your definition of a "hypocritical" capitalist critiquer implicitly includes all of them - which makes it useless as a definition, as it carries no informational content.
But many products would exist without profit incentive. This isn't a thought experiment. East Germany had bread and houses. They didn't have iphones. If you want the iphone, you have to accept profit incentive.