Earlier quoted context omitted.
You completely dodged addressing the main point - capitalist systems have made the most progress in terms of freedom and human rights.
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Texas power crisis revealed flaw in market’s design
221–230 of 296 posts
Re: Texas power crisis revealed flaw in market’s design
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or maybe some of us are aware of huge amounts of public grants that went into building up the foundations of that industry till it could operate without induced demand. And many of us also are aware of different constraints impacting monopoly creation and how capital intensive areas behave differently.
Sure, the military bootstrapped the semi-conductor industry, but we’re a long fucking way from the 8088 processor - thanks to capitalism. I mean for $1,000 I can have effectively a 1990’s supercomputer in my pocket. The government didn’t do that, greedy capitalists did.
You can only have that because said supercomputer is manufactured in China, with semiconductors manufactured in Taiwan. Greedy capitalists absolutely did that, you’re right - and gutted the US in the process.
Re: Texas power crisis revealed flaw in market’s design
#223I don't know much about the situation in Texas but where I live (Australia) the typical situation - it differs from one state to another - is that you have a semi-deregulated market but with ceilings on rates "to avoid price gouging". This means that it is basically illegal to provide a capacity for backup power that is only used intermittently. This is because the backup power needs to be priced high to justify havi…
Texas also had it capped, just at "gouging" levels - $9/kW when regular price is about $.1/kW or so.
Re: Texas power crisis revealed flaw in market’s design
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
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It's an objective historical fact. The overwhelming majority of ethical and moral progression in human history coincided with the extension of private property rights to more and more of the general population, and retracted when those rights were rescinded. This occurred both because of the recognition of humanity that goes along with granting these rights, and the technological progressions enabled by allowing oppo…
You're just describing class struggle and industry, not capitalism specifically.
Capitalism was once revolutionary against feudalism, as the bourgeoisie replaced the nobility as the ruling class. But that hasn't been the case for centuries.
Re: Texas power crisis revealed flaw in market’s design
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's an objective historical fact. The overwhelming majority of ethical and moral progression in human history coincided with the extension of private property rights to more and more of the general population, and retracted when those rights were rescinded. This occurred both because of the recognition of humanity that goes along with granting these rights, and the technological progressions enabled by allowing oppo…
You're just describing class struggle and industry, not capitalism specifically. Capitalism was once revolutionary against feudalism, as the bourgeoisie replaced the nobility as the ruling class. But that hasn't been the case for centuries.
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Re: Texas power crisis revealed flaw in market’s design
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quoted post unavailable.
It's an objective historical fact. The overwhelming majority of ethical and moral progression in human history coincided with the extension of private property rights to more and more of the general population, and retracted when those rights were rescinded. This occurred both because of the recognition of humanity that goes along with granting these rights, and the technological progressions enabled by allowing oppo…
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Re: Texas power crisis revealed flaw in market’s design
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're just describing class struggle and industry, not capitalism specifically. Capitalism was once revolutionary against feudalism, as the bourgeoisie replaced the nobility as the ruling class. But that hasn't been the case for centuries.
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You're conflating the ideology capitalism uses to justify and maintain itself with its actual material reality. It's not a surprise, considering this ideology (liberalism) is fundamentally idealist and not materialist.
Have you actually read Marx or Engels? You'll find a holistic understanding of capitalism and its roots, its upsides and its downsides.
Re: Texas power crisis revealed flaw in market’s design
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, the military bootstrapped the semi-conductor industry, but we’re a long fucking way from the 8088 processor - thanks to capitalism. I mean for $1,000 I can have effectively a 1990’s supercomputer in my pocket. The government didn’t do that, greedy capitalists did.
One of the most important things for a modern cell phone is the GPS receiver. Most couldn't function without it. GPS was and continues to be a system funded by the US government. In fact, the opening of GPS civilian use in 1999 directly corresponds with the global rollout of cell phones in general.
A modern cell phone can function perfectly fine without a GPS receiver; only things like map functionality would be lost without it. What needs a GPS receiver (or other timing synchronization source; GPS is a simple and inexpensive one) are AFAIK the cell phone base stations.
Re: Texas power crisis revealed flaw in market’s design
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're the same tyranny, no? Someone else claims an amount of your money that they choose to be spent as they choose and you get an 1/N vote in the matter. You can leave whenever you sell.
> They're the same tyranny, no? It's much easier to replace local politicians or constrain/require local government action via the courts than it is to do the same to an HOA, isn't it? In either case, you can vote with your feet, but I prefer being able to vote with a ballot
Do the courts show up less for HOAs because owners sign arbitration clauses? I don't otherwise see why the courts should be less relevant to HOAs.
Well, except no one wants to be the guy suing the neighborhood but somehow suing the government lacks that stigma. But that's peer pressure not courts.
I sat on an HOA board as president with no prior experience. Getting involved usually isn't hard. One just has to be willing to show up and to do grunt work.
I am doubt there are many non-democratic HOAs so voting seems a wash between the two.
Re: Texas power crisis revealed flaw in market’s design
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
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> No, they did it because they viewed "others" as less than human, or less deserving of dignity and respect, no different than a beast of burden. Slavery predates capitalism by millennia, so viewing others this way clearly doesn't share a causative relationship with capitalism. To contend that capitalism caused slavery is absurd. It's the only economic system in history that resulted in the enduring abolition of slavery. Modern, alternative economic systems still devolve into utilizing slavery to this very day.
Darwinism predates "Darwinism". Yours is not an argument.
People traded before states existed.
Rational actors didn't appear at the date when the model description of capitalism was defined. People kept slaves because they could (obviously). We can argue that they either did this for profit or for laughs. I know what I'd bet.
> You should also read George Fitzhugh, the most prominent representative of anti abolitionist plantation owners. He was a staunch anti-capitalist specifically because the moral framework it is built on humanized black people and this sentiment was a primary driver in the abolitionist movement. Capitalists and abolitionists were extremely closely associated during the abolitionist movement.
"We treat the Abolitionists and Socialists as identical, because they are notoriously the same people, employing the same arguments and bent on the same schemes. Abolition is the first step in Socialism: the former proposes to abolish negro slavery, the latter all kinds of slavery - religion, government, marriage, families, property - nay, human nature itself. Yet the former contains the germ of the latter, and very soon ripens into it; Abolition is Socialism in its infancy." - George Fitzhugh
> > Maximizing rights and freedoms on the macro scale means limiting some people's edge freedoms on the micro scale.
> No it doesn't. It means preventing others from stepping on universal freedoms of others, which is exactly the philosophical foundations of private property.
Meaning someone enforces your right to property from someone else having a different idea of freedoms.
You're not contradicting me. We can only have rights and freedoms by collectively agreeing where those limits are, and enforcing them as a society. That's what laws and regulations do.