Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just started reading it last night, really enjoying it
Capital in the 21st Century or Capital and Ideology?
Misread your comment, haha. Capital in the 21st Century
‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’
21–30 of 39 posts
Re: ‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’
#22I believe it’s a good thing if the HN crowd steps out of their bubble and inform themselves a bit more on topics of capitalism, socialism and communism. I feel more and more that those in power - the capitalists - have done a tremendous job of conditioning us from birth in the last 100+ years that capitalism is “the only way”. Yet if you read a book like “Debt: the first 5000 years” by David Graeber, it put things in…
For those who say things like "what about USSR or North Korea": the problem there is/was not the socialism (or communism) but the authoritarianism. They're different axes on the political compass. Authoritarian state socialism is but one of many forms. Social democracy is structurally anti-authoritarian. "Laissez-faire" policies - the pseudo-populist alternative - actually gravitate toward government/industry collusion, often in the form of faux privatization of government functions. That's a cornerstone of fascism, which has its own sordid history and also seems to be where we're headed.
Also, learn the difference between a political system and an economic one. Of course they're related (see "collusion" above), but it's a mistake to act as though they're the same thing.
Re: ‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
ChatGPT and friends look magical, but as yet no great revolution in working practices or whatever has occurred. So the excitement about AI is based on 'very large future promise', which is exactly the kind of thing that ultra low interest rates tend to pump.
I know a bunch of people who are very excited about AI and using it in a professional context. Their feelings are inspired by demonstrated and past performance, the future promise is so big that I don't think anyone can process it. I don't think they understand what exponential growth in processing power implies.
> future promise is so big
Indeed! But as yet it is still just future promise - not much has materialized at large scale so far (to my knowledge - maybe copy writing? Seems to be a push back against obviously AI scripted content though).
A counter example might be spreadsheets - their introduction revolutionized book keeping (and lots of other things too). We wait to see whether AI will have a similar impact (I suspect it won't).
Re: ‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’
#24I believe it’s a good thing if the HN crowd steps out of their bubble and inform themselves a bit more on topics of capitalism, socialism and communism. I feel more and more that those in power - the capitalists - have done a tremendous job of conditioning us from birth in the last 100+ years that capitalism is “the only way”. Yet if you read a book like “Debt: the first 5000 years” by David Graeber, it put things in…
For those who say things like "what about USSR or North Korea": the problem there is/was not the socialism (or communism) but the authoritarianism . They're different axes on the political compass. Authoritarian state socialism is but one of many forms. Social democracy is structurally anti-authoritarian. "Laissez-faire" policies - the pseudo-populist alternative - actually gravitate toward government/industry collus…
I agree, it's ridiculous that the majority of comments about socialism or communism end wit comments about authoritarian leadership.
I do think we've been heavily trained to do this however.
Re: ‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’
#25Ultimately I've firmly believed that the problem is investors and public companies. Investors tend to warp the economy solely to suit their needs as the rent-seeking class, which results in negative effects on how a company is ran because the needs of the shareholder are often against the needs of the customer and the worker.
Both privately owned companies and worker owned companies tend to have far less issues in this regard and helps stymie the cycle of capitalism. Grocery stores are an example of where our choice is increasingly non-existent because all grocers operate under the same company.
Re: ‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’
#26I believe it’s a good thing if the HN crowd steps out of their bubble and inform themselves a bit more on topics of capitalism, socialism and communism. I feel more and more that those in power - the capitalists - have done a tremendous job of conditioning us from birth in the last 100+ years that capitalism is “the only way”. Yet if you read a book like “Debt: the first 5000 years” by David Graeber, it put things in…
For those who say things like "what about USSR or North Korea": the problem there is/was not the socialism (or communism) but the authoritarianism . They're different axes on the political compass. Authoritarian state socialism is but one of many forms. Social democracy is structurally anti-authoritarian. "Laissez-faire" policies - the pseudo-populist alternative - actually gravitate toward government/industry collus…
How can a socialist system exist that is not inherently authoritarian? If someone refuses to follow the coordinated economic plan (e.g. contributing to a welfare state) then ultimately the state will have to punish them somehow.
Re: ‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know a bunch of people who are very excited about AI and using it in a professional context. Their feelings are inspired by demonstrated and past performance, the future promise is so big that I don't think anyone can process it. I don't think they understand what exponential growth in processing power implies.
> the future promise is so big that I don't think anyone can process it. Sounds like a sentence that was taken from some pulpiteer's sermon when talking about god or afterlife. In other words: this promise is rather some nice fairy tale for some naive nerds and investors who love to believe in it. > I don't think they understand what exponential growth in processing power implies. This is very easy: for the data poin…
Although "we do linear regression ... in this transformed space" is correct, it also isn't an attempt to understand what exponential growth in processing power implies. That is an attempt (really, a success) at providing a definition of what exponential growth is [0].
Implications involves things like https://ourworldindata.org/brief-history-of-ai + little extrapolation. Interestingly, as I look at that article, it appears AI is actually solving college level math now - https://blog.research.google/2022/06/minerva-solving-quantit.... I wish I'd had that when I was at University.
[0] Ironically, ChatGPT doesn't usually make that mistake, because it always tries to be calm and helpful it consistently makes a better-than-human attempt at reading comprehension whenever I've interacted with it.
Re: ‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
For those who say things like "what about USSR or North Korea": the problem there is/was not the socialism (or communism) but the authoritarianism . They're different axes on the political compass. Authoritarian state socialism is but one of many forms. Social democracy is structurally anti-authoritarian. "Laissez-faire" policies - the pseudo-populist alternative - actually gravitate toward government/industry collus…
How can a socialist system exist that is not inherently authoritarian? If someone refuses to follow the coordinated economic plan (e.g. contributing to a welfare state) then ultimately the state will have to punish them somehow.
How can a capitalist system exist that is not inherently authoritarian? If someone refuses to follow the rules ... you get the idea. The only difference is that they become the authority instead of being punished by it, but the practical effect on the vast majority is the same. See: Stalin's USSR vs. Putin's Russia. Different in theory, but both authoritarian and both imperialist and both (not coincidentally) very oppressive toward any kind of minority.
Again, this issue is orthogonal to the economic model. Authoritarianism can and does exist in every economic system. The antidote IMO is institutions which define and enforce rules without bestowing permanent favor on any one group. Democracy, federalism, checks and balances, yadda yadda. I even mentioned social democracy already. But don't take my word for it. I suggest you actually study the issue for yourself, not just polemics from one side but the actual history of how these systems have developed and the theories that have been developed with them over centuries, then reach your own conclusions. They might not be the same as mine, but I guarantee they'll be even further from the laissez-faire extremists.
Re: ‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know a bunch of people who are very excited about AI and using it in a professional context. Their feelings are inspired by demonstrated and past performance, the future promise is so big that I don't think anyone can process it. I don't think they understand what exponential growth in processing power implies.
> the future promise is so big that I don't think anyone can process it. Sounds like a sentence that was taken from some pulpiteer's sermon when talking about god or afterlife. In other words: this promise is rather some nice fairy tale for some naive nerds and investors who love to believe in it. > I don't think they understand what exponential growth in processing power implies. This is very easy: for the data poin…
Investors in the dot com bubble looked at a straight line and thought it would extend forever.
Now investors are looking at an exponential line, expecting it to extend forever. It probably won’t and some will be disappointed.
Ultimately, predictions of the future always look rosier and more advanced than reality.
Progress is inexorable, undeniable, and arrives in unexpected ways.
Re: ‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’
#30"More precisely, I will come to the following conclusion. Whenever the rate of return on capital is significantly and durably higher than the growth rate of the economy, it is all but inevitable that inheritance (of fortunes accumulated in the past) predominates over saving (wealth accumulated in the present). In strict logic, it could be otherwise, but the forces pushing in this direction are extremely powerful. The…
This gets at where I disagree with Varoufakis (and Zuboff). The rent-seeking dystopia we have is not something "beyond" capitalism, unless one conflates capitalism with free markets - which is and always has been a mistake. The distinguishing feature of capitalism is in the name: a disproportionate favor given to capital. This is especially evident in tax laws, but also IP law, labor law, etc. As Piketty points out,…
Technology has alas eroded property rights. We no longer own our vehicles, our cars, our tvs: anything with a computer now has an elaborate contract outlining whatever rights the seller seems to grant us, which can be changed at any time.
Anti-circumvention law applied massive legal weight to this, preventing the world from delving in & understanding the various devices around us. Which is now often defined by millions of lines of code, compiled down to devices, anyhow.
Whether the seller is free to create arbitrary restrictions & constraints on usage during sale, or whether the buyer is free to use purchases as they may is a huge tension here.
And there have been so few corrective actions or regulations to tilt things back in people's favor. GDPR a small collection of rights to data, but does nothing to help enlighten us as to the machines & their functioning. This all feels so infernal, trapped by law which doesn't let us look, trapped by machines where the mechanism inside is often inaccessible & invisible.