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A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

washingtonpost.com

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Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#41

Post by RickJWag »

d1zzy wrote: post #16

I grew up in a Communist dictatorship in Eastern Europe. Capitalism is far from being perfect but it was much better for my friends and I than communism. It wasn't as good for older people that lived most of their life in the previous regime tho (but we cannot say how capitalism would have treated them if they haven't had lived almost all their lives in communism). I do not know what the solution to capitalism's prob…

Thanks for that post. It's an interesting perspective, from a background different than my own.

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#43

Post by pzone »

Crye wrote: post #9
ben_jones wrote: post #2

Sent from iPhone X

A product made possible by endless amounts of money being poured into state funded R&D for missile defense.

Hmm, research and technological innovation are a bit interconnected it seems.

Obviously, the implication is we should toss out capitalism!

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#44

Post by aylmao »

d1zzy wrote: post #16

I grew up in a Communist dictatorship in Eastern Europe. Capitalism is far from being perfect but it was much better for my friends and I than communism. It wasn't as good for older people that lived most of their life in the previous regime tho (but we cannot say how capitalism would have treated them if they haven't had lived almost all their lives in communism). I do not know what the solution to capitalism's prob…

I think the key term here is "dictatorship". There's been capitalist dictatorships as well, and they've been terrible (Franco in Spain comes to mind for example).

I wouldn't be worried by the modern rejection of capitalism, because it's definitely not a rejection of democratic systems. In fact, if anything, it's fueled by the failure of democracy in the face of the inevitable oligarchy product of capitalist economics. If anything, I see this as a wave of people trying to save democracy.

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#45

Post by aylmao »

incompatible wrote: post #11

It's not hard to see the flaws in capitalism, but hard to come up with a decent alternative. Capitalism is the private ownership of assets used for production, such as factories and land. One alternative is government ownership, but that has a terrible track record. What other systems are possible? Non-profit organisations controlled by their employees?

A mixture of both? It's ludicrous to assume all enterprises are equal, or that companies should be allowed to grow as big as they want. Yet here we are; Healthcare and university education is run like any other business, banks are so big that if they fail the whole economy falls with them, cable-providers are so big they can buy the FCC, etc.

There are enterprises that IMO are not meant to be run by private, for-profit orgs, or should be capped on size.

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#46

Post by aylmao »

andrenth wrote: post #39

People who oppose a free market economy are the ones who haven’t lived outside of one.

People who make broad assumptions are those who haven't looked into closely into the problem and the literature of different viewpoints.

Or so I assume, idk, my opinion.

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#47

Post by jjeaff »

goalieca wrote: post #29
gsam wrote: post #3

It's no surprise people reject concepts they don't adequately understand. I don't know who exactly you could blame here. But if they all understood what it meant, I don't believe nearly as many would be rejecting it.

That’s quite the accusation. I understand capitalism quite well. It often optimized the wrong thing. I have no problem with being in the socialist democracy of canuckistan with regulations and all.

Canada is still more capitalist than socialist. It has a few socialist Bells and whistles like socialized medicine, but really not that close to socialism over all.

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#48

Post by Turing_Machine »

Analemma_ wrote: post #4
ben_jones wrote: post #2

Sent from iPhone X

Are you only allowed to criticize capitalism if you own no possessions and live in a hut in the woods you built yourself?

If you're going to criticize it you need to propose something better.

Marxism demonstrably isn't it.

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#49

Post by m_alexgr »

gremlinsinc wrote: post #27
brucephillips wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? Didn't the people elect congress?

No, the people do not elect congress, until every congressman/woman runs without a single dollar from donors, and uses only public platforms to promote themselves. Money buys politicians, which buys elections which buys what they do/don't do in congress. It's all an organized but legal crime syndicate. Extortion, bribery, etc are legal in politics, because politicians make the rules.

Yes. Couldn't agree more. Politics in so called democracies is nothing more than legal organized crime syndication.

In other words, politicians run legal protection rackets. Mafias.

Re: A majority of millennials now reject capitalism, poll shows

#50

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

jjeaff wrote: post #47
goalieca wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s quite the accusation. I understand capitalism quite well. It often optimized the wrong thing. I have no problem with being in the socialist democracy of canuckistan with regulations and all.

Canada is still more capitalist than socialist. It has a few socialist Bells and whistles like socialized medicine, but really not that close to socialism over all.

Yet it's enough to provide a significantly better quality of life than the US. As a 24 year old, living in America is rough. I'm $30k in student loan debt, struggling to find a job in a non-coastal region, and can become bankrupt and homeless with an unlucky illness.

And my situation is not unique, if anything, I'm above average. I'm lucky enough to have some money in my savings, a middle-class upbringing, and some personal finance classes under my belt. For someone not as lucky, it would be obvious to them that something is incredibly broken in our society.

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