Consider that vast amounts of capital come from pension funds that invest in companies which have a duty to provide returns to shareholders. Would pension fund stakeholders agree on having lower pensions when they get old so that current workers earn more? Economics is far more complicated than altruism supposes.
Are You Ready to Consider That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?
51–60 of 71 posts
Re: Are You Ready to Consider That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?
#52Socialists/Communists not satisfied with 200 million+ deaths, must want to hit an even 1 billion. Blows my mind people can even be calling for socialism while we have a real time implosion going on in Venezuela right now. It's ending like every other socialist regime in history, cannibalism, famine, riots, and murder. Meanwhile one of the United State's biggest problem is obesity due to being so prosperous. Actually…
This time they'll get it right. Don't worry comrade, ignore that in order to make it work, the government will take property from one person and give it to another at the barrel of a gun, whether they agree or not. This is more equitable.
property is defined by the government. unless you can defend it yourself.
Re: Are You Ready to Consider That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keep up the good work. You are such a great example of Poe's law. I can't even
What's with the ad-hominem? At least in the healthcare market, There are good reasons to believe that the massive government intervention is a bad use of resources. People on Medicaid claim to value the services at only 1/5 of their cost. If you taking that estimate at face value, if you shut down medicaid entirely and just paid each former recipient 20% of the price you'd been paying to provide health insurance, the…
[deleted]
Re: Are You Ready to Consider That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you think that everyone who disagrees with you has spent less time considering these sorts of questions than you have? As a counterpoint, I'd suggest the thousands of political-science, economic, and philosophy scholars who all disagree with you (as do the vast majority of humans who have ever lived and appreciate the social contract). You may be correct and everyone else may be wrong, but I don't think it's accur…
Overall you make a good point. In the context of this article, I tend to think the OP comment has thought about it harder than the author. These articles like "Down with capitalism, didn't you hear 51% of millennials don't like it! And what about that fire in london?" are invariably written by radical left-wing disciplines where the authors have no evidence of deep understanding of the issues - here anthropology.
This article is not scholarly or deep. I'm not sure we could (or should) expect more, given its medium. It's a pop-politics article, so I found the scope to be appropriate. I also felt the implied intent was to inspire people to read deeper dives written elsewhere.
As for "radical left-wing," I don't disagree with the terminology. But I do disagree with the implication that the radical left-wing is a niche in the US. I'd say that it's quite mainstream, which you yourself support by suggesting that it's popular among Millenials (almost half the US population).
The author of the article also suggests that radical left-wing ideas are now mainstream, and I'd propose that that's the whole point. These ideas have become mainstream, so let's start calling them what they are: socialist ideas.
Re: Are You Ready to Consider That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?
#55There's a quip in the show "Archer" (forget exactly the words) where Mallory tells everyone something along the lines of "move up to my tax bracket and see if you keep spouting that socialist propaganda". I found it hilarious because it is true for many out there that if you suddenly find yourself moved from your minimum wage job with Obamacare insurance into a position of making a huge salary with legit benefits, yo…
yes, people are always motivated by self interest, even for what seems like altruistic actions the underlying motivation is that it makes them feel good about themselves.
possibly or maybe there are actually a emotions called sympathy and empathy.
Re: Are You Ready to Consider That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?
#56I think the deeper problem is that labor has no pricing power. Capitalism works for more people when people who earn a salary can buy things that increase real demand for companies. But workers are strapped for money, and have no real political assistance or prospects for a better future. Earning a living is increasingly a sucker's game. Unfortunately, America's political system doesn't allow for a nuanced solution t…
but, it's more than that because true competitive capitalism would allow prices to come down, but technology companies designing system that don't pass wealth on to consumers. google advertising costs a fortune who pays for it in higher prices? why do companies need to keep upgrading excel?
Re: Are You Ready to Consider That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?
#57Everybody knows that capitalism has problem. The trick is figuring out what the next better bad system would be. And as far as I can see the richest, smartest and most powerful people are currenlty all thinking hard exactly about that question. So far nobody has found the answer, but suggestions are welcome.
No one has a concrete answer, but capitalism could work better if the market were freer -- and by "freer" I don't mean less regulated. I mean that people have more freedom to make choices. For example, we don't currently have a free labor market because it's extremely expensive (in terms of time and money) for a low-wage worker to find a new job. Those people are trapped. If we had a better safety net for people at t…
The problem is if you're priced out of decent healthcare and/or education options it really doesn't matter how much extra spending money you got.
Re: Are You Ready to Consider That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keep up the good work. You are such a great example of Poe's law. I can't even
What's with the ad-hominem? At least in the healthcare market, There are good reasons to believe that the massive government intervention is a bad use of resources. People on Medicaid claim to value the services at only 1/5 of their cost. If you taking that estimate at face value, if you shut down medicaid entirely and just paid each former recipient 20% of the price you'd been paying to provide health insurance, the…
As the article mentions, if you take away Medicaid people still have access to the prime mechanism for socialized medicine in the US: the law that prevents hospitals from turning away emergency patients.
Re: Are You Ready to Consider That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
No one has a concrete answer, but capitalism could work better if the market were freer -- and by "freer" I don't mean less regulated. I mean that people have more freedom to make choices. For example, we don't currently have a free labor market because it's extremely expensive (in terms of time and money) for a low-wage worker to find a new job. Those people are trapped. If we had a better safety net for people at t…
The problem is if you're priced out of decent healthcare and/or education options it really doesn't matter how much extra spending money you got.
If you're arguing that health care and education should be free, then I agree with you.
If I were running a society, my goal would be an even playing field. Everyone has the same access to health care, education, and any other opportunity that affects their happiness. Beyond that, they would have the choice to pursue whatever they wanted.
My society could not exist now, nor could it exist in the past. Miserable, oppressed people were required to support everyone else (e.g. coal miners).
We're getting to a point in history where that may change. Robots might be able to do all the bad, boring, dangerous jobs.
Basically Wall-E.
Re: Are You Ready to Consider That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?
#60This article reads to me like a long list of problems caused by government and blamed on capitalism. I'm biased though - I'm an anarcho-capitalist, and I've spent orders of magnitude more time considering these sorts of questions than the vast majority of people who are not so politically involved.
Do you think that everyone who disagrees with you has spent less time considering these sorts of questions than you have? As a counterpoint, I'd suggest the thousands of political-science, economic, and philosophy scholars who all disagree with you (as do the vast majority of humans who have ever lived and appreciate the social contract). You may be correct and everyone else may be wrong, but I don't think it's accur…
> Do you think that everyone who disagrees with you has spent less time considering these sorts of questions than you have?
Of course not, that's why I qualified that statement; to be clear that I was speaking about the general public, not those who hold a contrary worldview that merely disagree with me.
> You may be correct and everyone else may be wrong
I actually don't think it's a matter of "correct" or "incorrect" so much as one of values. I value individual liberty over all else, while others are more utilitarian in their approach.
> but I don't think it's accurate to dismiss other people as not having considered things as much as you have.
Of course not - that's why I enjoy talking about political and economics. One or both of the people involved are likely to learn something in the process :)