Democracy is a threat to capitalism.
Is capitalism a threat to democracy?
11–20 of 230 posts
Re: Is capitalism a threat to democracy?
#12Unregulated capitalism, perhaps. However, I don't think the US has capitalism (well-regulated or otherwise) today.
Today we have a system where gains are privatized, losses are socialized, and market-participants can coerce their elected officials to tilt the market in their favor. This is not capitalism.
Re: Is capitalism a threat to democracy?
#13For anyone who doesn't have time to read the whole article, the conclusion is pretty much "No, as long as we have a strong social safety net."
IE capitalism with some elements of socialism to preserve individual liberties and dignities when economies slow down. Which sounds reasonable to me as a capitalist but also as a human being.
Re: Is capitalism a threat to democracy?
#14Of course it is! That's like asking, is monarchy a threat to democracy? Capitalist corporations are basically just little kingdoms.
Re: Is capitalism a threat to democracy?
#15Jonah Goldberg has a good take on this in his new book.[1] His basic theory is that capitalism and democracy is not self-perpetuating (kind of like gains at the gym). Societies constantly have to defend and justify it in the face of new challenges and humans' innate tendency toward tribalism.
[1] https://www.weeklystandard.com/adam-keiper/in-suicide-of-the...
Re: Is capitalism a threat to democracy?
#16Simple answer: No. More nuanced answer: not exactly. Not Capitalism per-se anyway. But clearly you can see an unhealthy degree of commingling of big government and big business, in a way that is damaging to society at large. But to my mind: a. that's corruption, not capitalism b. that's an argument against big government, not an argument against capitalism
In the absence of big government, big corporate will become defacto government even more easily.
Re: Is capitalism a threat to democracy?
#17The subtitle:
> The idea that authoritarianism attracts workers harmed by the free market, which emerged when the Nazis were in power, has been making a comeback.
Makes me disappointed for the state of discourse that occurs today. The article itself is better than the subtitle made me infer - ending essentially with a nuanced 'No'.
But these transparent attempts to make you form an emotional response to an issue by eliciting images of Nazi Germany I find borderline disrespectful.
Re: Is capitalism a threat to democracy?
#18[deleted]
Re: Is capitalism a threat to democracy?
#19Well, I will not subscribe to the new yourkers for just an article, but my anwser wold be hell no. Intervencion of govern in the free market.... maybe.
I've gotten downvoted for mentioning paywalls as well. I think this is a very valid call out though.
While there are workarounds, I don't want to spend more than 2 seconds opening an article (most the time it isn't worth going to google cache, some archive, or doing the fb redirect). I dislike that it is effectively a dead link for many people and that it is being shared on the front page of a major aggregator. It is poor user experience to be opening dead links and really trains me against visiting certain sites.
I would absolutely pay 5 cents to read an article. There is no feasible way to do this small of a transaction with our current payment systems. I will absolutely not subscribe for 5 dollars a month.
Re: Is capitalism a threat to democracy?
#20for all it's ills, capitalism is very anti-fragile in the sense that regions that that fail (perhaps even because of capitalism) become cannibalized and therefore stabilized by the greater system.
It may not provide much security for individuals, but it is very effective at self-perpetuating the scheme.