Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yea I mean nothing is perfect. While capitalism doesn’t lend well to maintaining open source software (which I find to be a surprising comment given that GitHub exists) it does lend well to things like having a house, or being able to save money for retirement, or to creating markets where you get products you want. YC for example has enabled lots of founders to create brand new companies and services we all use. So…
> While capitalism doesn’t lend well to maintaining open source software (which I find to be a surprising comment given that GitHub exists) Github doesn't maintain the open source software they host. > it does lend well to things like having a house Capitalism isn't the originating point of houses though. However, it is the originating point of mortgages, and the massive profits banks draw off of them. I'd say it's a…
Right but they host it. And before Github hosted it and made money doing so we didn't have a great distribution mechanism for open source software.
> Capitalism isn't the originating point of houses though. However, it is the originating point of mortgages, and the massive profits banks draw off of them. I'd say it's a double-edged sword on that front
It's a hard thing because you also can't just go into the woods and cut down trees and build your own house anymore right? There's no "free property" so the times have changed. Banks might make massive profits on home loans, but at the same time without making a profit you won't give someone a loan for a house. Making a profit isn't really a big issue anyway.
The scenario here is not: "get a free house" or "banks make massive profits on houses". So it's a bit of a false dichotomy you've created.
> Those countries are social democracies - they invest a lot into welfare and the state. The US is probably the world's most capitalist country, that or South Korea. Both have terrible standards of living for poorer people.
> Fundamentally, the incentives of capital drive towards maximising profits and minimising costs - everything else is surplus to requirements. I'm not on board with the people who think capitalism is the worst thing ever, but its incentives are pretty bad and it's usually better off mixed with taxes, regulation, nationalisation etc into a mixed economy.
Yea this happens from time to time but people confuse government and economic systems. The US for example is a constitutional republic (or similar idk exactly) and uses the private means of production (capitalism) as its economic system. Take Norway or another country and while they do have democratic socialism as a government system, they still employ capitalism as their economic model. They have a stock market, people own factories or houses, and they sell their labor. And if you do some research (if you're interested) countries like that tend to rate even higher than the US on metrics of things like "the worlds most capitalistic economies", "the most entrepreneurial economies", the most "free economies", etc. I think your comment about regulation and taxes highlights this misunderstanding. Highly capitalist economies (Denmark, Singapore, United Kingdom, United States, etc.) have different levels of taxation and for different items, rules and regulations, etc.
I think the biggest failure of capitalism (if you'll allow) is that it does very bad with things that can't be or haven't been priced appropriately. We see this with pollution and the environment right now.