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Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
41–50 of 261 posts
Re: Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
#42[flagged]
And what is your solution?
You can say something is flawed, but compared to what, and how would you improve it?
Re: Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
#43Not a shocker that corruption ruins things. I guess then the question is how you can design a broadly distributed system that removes the incentives for corruption and minimizes its impact. My guess is that such a system won't be found in capitalism
Government and NGO can also be corrupted too, just look at the recent doctors without borders sex for food scandals.
Right, it's not something unique to corporations. It's a consequence of concentrated power
Re: Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
#44Capitalism describes Capitalism doesn't prescribe We should praise Capitalism for describing humanity better than other *ism
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Re: Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
#45Capitalism is not something that exists outside of government, governments create capitalism through property (and other) laws. And since capitalism forces firms to focus only on profit, it similarly forces them to attempt to corrupt government to increase their profits. The problem of cronyism exists inside of capitalism, not outside of it and not separable from it.
Of course Capitalism exists outside of the government. Look at the extremes: Capitalism : Mercantile Exchange were value is created by the providers and users. Socialism : Central Government sets values and controls every single aspect of your life.
Re: Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
#46[flagged]
It's more complex and doesn't always go like that. If X' is a superior product objectively, then company B can find investors willing to back them and take on company A. Company A could itself be an investor in company B
Re: Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
How exactly would automation assist in making an economic system more democratic and beneficial to the general population? Greater automation would simply push people further away from any wealth generated, creating more powerful cronies, and continuing the trend of low paid, low quality, serf like jobs in the service industry.
That is a problem that needs cracking but you are starting to see the solution emerging on the crypto and DeFi work.
What solution?
The DeFi space is a lot worse than the traditional economy by just about any measure right now: inequality, theft, fraud, instability, market manipulation, etc are all way worse.
Re: Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
#48[flagged]
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Re: Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Capitalism quite clearly requires strong regulation. At least, any sort of positive capitalism that doesn't immediately succumb to monopolies, cartels and corruption. The problem is that the loudest voices arguing for capitalism, also tend to argue against regulation, accountability, and that sort of thing.
Who regulates the regulator ? If it is the government then it goes back to the people being aware of their interests and not allowing themselves to be manipulated. Which is never going to be the case.
In theory the regulators, as part of the government, serve the will of the people. But the state under capitalism serves no one but the massive corporations which these regulators are meant to govern. So we end up with fossil fuel guys running the EPA and Verizon lawyers running the FCC.
There is no one to regulate the regulators because the state in its entirety is isolated from accountability to the public.
Re: Blame Cronyism, Not Capitalism
#50[flagged]
What you're describing here is not capitalism but rather a single unwanted scenario that can come from it, specifically when there are too few producers in a category or, in your example, when there is only one.
Market consolidation seems to be the mechanical conclusion of the current rules of the capitalist system, thanks to compounding effects.