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No, capitalism is realizing that Zillow.com can find you a host of cheap properties in minutes, and HomeDepot.com or Tumbleweed.com can put a house on it cheap.

No, capitalism is realizing that Zillow.com can find you a host of cheap properties in minutes, and HomeDepot.com or Tumbleweed.com can put a house on it cheap. ...while you start a company.

eli_gottlieb 10y ago
You're dodging my actual point, which the other replier definitely understood. Once Upon a Time, we Westerners looked at Communism and laughed. We justified our system (democracy for the state, capitalism for the economy) by pointing out all the obvious material benefits we reaped from it: * High economic growth * Cheap, varied, available, high-quality consumer goods * High and climbing wages * A class structure that looked more like a Gaussian curve than an exponential distribution, with greater actually-existing, de-facto equality than the Communist countries * Workers' rights and the free formation of unions * Public infrastructure, parks, and transit * Cheap, acceptable housing for families, leading to widespread owner-occupancy becoming the norm, something rarely seen in civilized human history * Ever-climbing life expectancies at birth, thanks to rigorous public health, sanitation, and disease control measures In contrast, the Eastern Bloc promised that Real Soon Now, actually-existing socialism would be transformed into Full Communism, and people could have nice things. All they had to do was make a few sacrifices today to defeat the fascist capitalists and experience great rewards tomorrow! They promised "jam tomorrow" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_tomorrow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_tomorrow), but we had jam today. Whereas nowadays, the spectrum of jam-promises has shifted. Nowadays, the capitalist West promises its people, "Jam tomorrow, for the deserving", while most of the Second and Third World have switched to promising, "Jam never, it was always a lie meant to lead you away from God and Putin." We can still kinda say we've got the cheap, widespread consumer goods, but not so much the rest of it.
- eru 10y ago
  Remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_will_bury_you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_will_bury_you and Sputnik? Communism seemed to have higher growth rates for a while.

No, capitalism is realizing that Zillow.com can find you a host of cheap properties in minutes, and HomeDepot.com or Tumbleweed.com can put a house on it cheap. ...while you start a company.

eli_gottlieb 10y ago

You're dodging my actual point, which the other replier definitely understood. Once Upon a Time, we Westerners looked at Communism and laughed. We justified our system (democracy for the state, capitalism for the economy) by pointing out all the obvious material benefits we reaped from it: * High economic growth * Cheap, varied, available, high-quality consumer goods * High and climbing wages * A class structure that looked more like a Gaussian curve than an exponential distribution, with greater actually-existing, de-facto equality than the Communist countries * Workers' rights and the free formation of unions * Public infrastructure, parks, and transit * Cheap, acceptable housing for families, leading to widespread owner-occupancy becoming the norm, something rarely seen in civilized human history * Ever-climbing life expectancies at birth, thanks to rigorous public health, sanitation, and disease control measures In contrast, the Eastern Bloc promised that Real Soon Now, actually-existing socialism would be transformed into Full Communism, and people could have nice things. All they had to do was make a few sacrifices today to defeat the fascist capitalists and experience great rewards tomorrow! They promised "jam tomorrow" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_tomorrow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_tomorrow), but we had jam today. Whereas nowadays, the spectrum of jam-promises has shifted. Nowadays, the capitalist West promises its people, "Jam tomorrow, for the deserving", while most of the Second and Third World have switched to promising, "Jam never, it was always a lie meant to lead you away from God and Putin." We can still kinda say we've got the cheap, widespread consumer goods, but not so much the rest of it.

eru 10y ago
Remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_will_bury_you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_will_bury_you and Sputnik? Communism seemed to have higher growth rates for a while.