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What worries me most about reading this is the section about Capitalism and how it's the reason America is great and essentially the key to moving forward. I do

by evo_9 10y ago

What worries me most about reading this is the section about Capitalism and how it's the reason America is great and essentially the key to moving forward. I don't disagree that in the past this was one of the key drivers of America's success, but today, hard to see it that way. In fact, in many ways capitalism is the root problem America now faces. In theory capitalism is great until you get far enough along its timeline and your reach present-day America. In present day America we have reach Capitalisms ultimate iteration and unfortunately unfettered, fully realized Capitalism is really greed run amok. The way forward is going to require a new way of thinking about how a country like America is structured at a fundamental level and I can't help but think Capitalism is holding us back and causing more harm now than good.

rconti 10y ago
America hardly has fully realized or unfettered Capitalism. It has Capitalism influenced by countless tweaks, patches, regulation, and special interests. Many regulations are necessary, but that does not mean that they were all well-implemented, well-thought-out, or still necessary.
blahi 10y ago
So what's the solution?
jwtadvice 10y ago
Capitalism isn't "one thing" - it has many implementations. From the Fascists in Europe in the early half of the last century, to 'dollar diplomacy', to "neoliberalism": Capitalism and state power have interacted in many different ways and forms. Today the interaction of state power and private market competition: * suppresses young and small businesses (small, non-multinational businesses don’t increase state power) * protects and subsidizes industries with strategic value, from foreign policy protectionism (e.g. TPP) to state espionage support (e.g. BP), to huge endowments of taxpayer dollars (news media for information warfare, boeing etc for military weaponry, agriculture industry so other nations starve without America) * circumvent each others restrictions by partnering closely and trading access to private and public arenas of law
bufordsharkley 10y ago
I can't help but read a line in the article like: > The world is more prosperous than ever before and yet our societies are marked by uncertainty and unease. Without feeling that Henry George was describing exactly this some 130 years ago with his "Progress and Poverty."[0] His solution was market-driven, but identified the cause of poverty to be economic rent, driven largely from the private holdings of natural resources such as land-- a Land Value Tax[1] would deliver the return of these scarce and valuable resources back to the community. It feels to me that this stream of thought should be far more visible in the 21st century, but it remains extremely fringe. The milk-and-water socialism of Bernie Sanders, etc, may help, but it really fails to fix things at a foundational level. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_and_Poverty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_and_Poverty [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax
djschnei 10y ago
> Capitalism's ultimate iteration Good god... Imagine you have a brand new Macbook Pro. It's awesome; you've become super productive because of it, your quality of life has increased. Then you piss all over it. Frustrated that your laptop no longer works as intended you bring it to the Apple store. "This is the Macbook Pro's ultimate iteration; covered in my piss. It works like crap! You made a shitty laptop!" Imagine the Apple Store employee's frustration.

by evo_9 10y ago

rconti 10y ago

America hardly has fully realized or unfettered Capitalism. It has Capitalism influenced by countless tweaks, patches, regulation, and special interests. Many regulations are necessary, but that does not mean that they were all well-implemented, well-thought-out, or still necessary.

blahi 10y ago

So what's the solution?

jwtadvice 10y ago

Capitalism isn't "one thing" - it has many implementations. From the Fascists in Europe in the early half of the last century, to 'dollar diplomacy', to "neoliberalism": Capitalism and state power have interacted in many different ways and forms. Today the interaction of state power and private market competition: * suppresses young and small businesses (small, non-multinational businesses don’t increase state power) * protects and subsidizes industries with strategic value, from foreign policy protectionism (e.g. TPP) to state espionage support (e.g. BP), to huge endowments of taxpayer dollars (news media for information warfare, boeing etc for military weaponry, agriculture industry so other nations starve without America) * circumvent each others restrictions by partnering closely and trading access to private and public arenas of law

bufordsharkley 10y ago

I can't help but read a line in the article like: > The world is more prosperous than ever before and yet our societies are marked by uncertainty and unease. Without feeling that Henry George was describing exactly this some 130 years ago with his "Progress and Poverty."[0] His solution was market-driven, but identified the cause of poverty to be economic rent, driven largely from the private holdings of natural resources such as land-- a Land Value Tax[1] would deliver the return of these scarce and valuable resources back to the community. It feels to me that this stream of thought should be far more visible in the 21st century, but it remains extremely fringe. The milk-and-water socialism of Bernie Sanders, etc, may help, but it really fails to fix things at a foundational level. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_and_Poverty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_and_Poverty [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax

djschnei 10y ago

> Capitalism's ultimate iteration Good god... Imagine you have a brand new Macbook Pro. It's awesome; you've become super productive because of it, your quality of life has increased. Then you piss all over it. Frustrated that your laptop no longer works as intended you bring it to the Apple store. "This is the Macbook Pro's ultimate iteration; covered in my piss. It works like crap! You made a shitty laptop!" Imagine the Apple Store employee's frustration.