61–70 of 230 posts
Unregulated capitalism, perhaps. However, I don't think the US has capitalism (well-regulated or otherwise) today. Today we have a system where gains are privatized, losses are socialized, and market-participants can coerce their elected officials to tilt the market in their favor. This is not capitalism.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a bit similar to claiming that communism is great, because all the times when it was tried and there were problems weren't real communism. If capitalism tends to inevitably lead to corruption of government and the undermining of democracy etc in the long run, then that's an interesting critique, which can't just be swatted away with "yes but the result isn't capitalism".
If capitalism tends to inevitably lead to corruption of government That's a pretty big if.
Simple answer: No. More nuanced answer: not exactly. Not Capitalism per-se anyway. But clearly you can see an unhealthy degree of commingling of big government and big business, in a way that is damaging to society at large. But to my mind: a. that's corruption, not capitalism b. that's an argument against big government, not an argument against capitalism
Sounds like a "No True Capitalism" defense to me. Capitalism, like all other systems, can't exist in a vacuum. You must consider the human factor and the likelihoods it will produce.
Capitalism and free market are two things. I wished people would be more specific with words. Many things happened together so things were conflated. The core idea of capitalism is that ownership of companies is based on invested capital not people. Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company I think it's better to discuss individual things like private property, capital ownership of companies, monopoli…
"Is freedom a threat to democracy?" is another way to word the headline.
For the love of all that is holy, please don't comment unless you've read the article and want to discuss what it is trying to say.
No.
In fact, you cannot have the one without the other.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a bit similar to claiming that communism is great, because all the times when it was tried and there were problems weren't real communism. If capitalism tends to inevitably lead to corruption of government and the undermining of democracy etc in the long run, then that's an interesting critique, which can't just be swatted away with "yes but the result isn't capitalism".
If capitalism tends to inevitably lead to corruption of government That's a pretty big if.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a bit similar to claiming that communism is great, because all the times when it was tried and there were problems weren't real communism. If capitalism tends to inevitably lead to corruption of government and the undermining of democracy etc in the long run, then that's an interesting critique, which can't just be swatted away with "yes but the result isn't capitalism".
If capitalism tends to inevitably lead to corruption of government That's a pretty big if.
Farmer A gives free goats (or his daughter in marriage) to farmer B who is in charge of allocating newly acquired tribal farmland. Farmer A gets a good, fertile pasture with a stream, farmer Z might get a bunch of rocky hillside.
Simple answer: No. More nuanced answer: not exactly. Not Capitalism per-se anyway. But clearly you can see an unhealthy degree of commingling of big government and big business, in a way that is damaging to society at large. But to my mind: a. that's corruption, not capitalism b. that's an argument against big government, not an argument against capitalism