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Capitalism is an economic system and an ideology based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. You want creativity? Leav

Capitalism is an economic system and an ideology based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. You want creativity? Leave capitalism.

demonshalo 9y ago
I mean... say what you want about communism but it's full of creative people who know how to get things done. I am sure anyone reading this will find the list below very creative :D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_Communist_regimes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_Communist_...
- philippnagel 9y ago
  Communism is not the only alternative to Capitalism. Also it is worth to discuss whether a self-described communist system was truly communist.
  - pault 9y ago
    Also, pure communism, enlightened despotism and all other political ideologies that require top-down control, seem to all have the same failure mode. The violence is a side effect of the authoritarianism, not the economic model (I think). More democratic societies have fewer and less lethal political purges. I don't know what a fully democratic pure communist system would look like but I'd be very interested in seeing how it played out.
    - 24gttghh 9y ago
      Maybe it can't exist as long as there are those who seek the aggrandizement which leads to a consolidation of power. If you have a state that owns everything, there will be people that will abuse such authority. Could there be a communist economic model alongside a multi-party state model?
  - KekDemaga 9y ago
    Communism Light, all that great communism flavor with less murder (so far)
    - sctb 9y ago
      Please stop trolling.
- sctb 9y ago
  We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - demonshalo 9y ago
    what guideline was violated? -___-
matt4077 9y ago
> Capitalism is an economic system and an ideology That's the problem right there: Capitalism has proven to be excellent at organising an economy. It's excellent! It works with human nature. The largest problems automatically provide the largest reward for solving! It locates decisions at the lowest possible level! The problem is when people use it as an ideology, i. e. as an end to itself. Intellectual property, for example, with its zero marginal costs, isn't as good a fit for capitalism as wheat: When you're charging $10 for a movie, many people will not watch it because it's only worth $5 to them. That's an inefficiency as glaring as communism ever produced, because it is value lost as a tribute to keeping the structure intact, even though no work would be required for it at all. There are many more inefficiencies of capitalism that we conveniently ignore. The complete finance sector is nothing but the bureaucracy needed to organise capitalism. Competition is a great method to get better results, but it also involves a lot of duplicated efforts. Advertisement is–and this is the usual argument of people defending it-neccessary for the functioning of capitalism because it spreads information the market needs. The inequality needed to serve as motivation breeds unhappiness and crime. These aren't arguments to abandon capitalism, because it quite obviously is the best system we've found so far. But that shouldn't preclude us from trying alternatives, especially in niches that are so different that the outcomes may be different from the traditional production of physical goods.
- PoachedSausage 9y ago
  Capitalism works well with, and propagates some aspects of human nature (whatever that is). Due to our evolutionary past, humans are more focused on the physically nearby, the present and very near future, so capitalism fails when we have longterm wide-scale problems to solve, like climate change.
- pmontra 9y ago
  > The largest problems automatically provide the largest reward for solving! In principle yes, but there are ways to game the system. Marketing is very good at creating false problems and aim consumers at them. Many of the things we work at are pretty much useless.
- wu-ikkyu 9y ago

Capitalism is an economic system and an ideology based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. You want creativity? Leave capitalism.

demonshalo 9y ago

I mean... say what you want about communism but it's full of creative people who know how to get things done. I am sure anyone reading this will find the list below very creative :D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_Communist_regimes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_Communist_...

philippnagel 9y ago
Communism is not the only alternative to Capitalism. Also it is worth to discuss whether a self-described communist system was truly communist.
- pault 9y ago
  Also, pure communism, enlightened despotism and all other political ideologies that require top-down control, seem to all have the same failure mode. The violence is a side effect of the authoritarianism, not the economic model (I think). More democratic societies have fewer and less lethal political purges. I don't know what a fully democratic pure communist system would look like but I'd be very interested in seeing how it played out.
  - 24gttghh 9y ago
    Maybe it can't exist as long as there are those who seek the aggrandizement which leads to a consolidation of power. If you have a state that owns everything, there will be people that will abuse such authority. Could there be a communist economic model alongside a multi-party state model?
- KekDemaga 9y ago
  Communism Light, all that great communism flavor with less murder (so far)
  - sctb 9y ago
    Please stop trolling.
sctb 9y ago
We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- demonshalo 9y ago
  what guideline was violated? -___-

matt4077 9y ago

> Capitalism is an economic system and an ideology That's the problem right there: Capitalism has proven to be excellent at organising an economy. It's excellent! It works with human nature. The largest problems automatically provide the largest reward for solving! It locates decisions at the lowest possible level! The problem is when people use it as an ideology, i. e. as an end to itself. Intellectual property, for example, with its zero marginal costs, isn't as good a fit for capitalism as wheat: When you're charging $10 for a movie, many people will not watch it because it's only worth $5 to them. That's an inefficiency as glaring as communism ever produced, because it is value lost as a tribute to keeping the structure intact, even though no work would be required for it at all. There are many more inefficiencies of capitalism that we conveniently ignore. The complete finance sector is nothing but the bureaucracy needed to organise capitalism. Competition is a great method to get better results, but it also involves a lot of duplicated efforts. Advertisement is–and this is the usual argument of people defending it-neccessary for the functioning of capitalism because it spreads information the market needs. The inequality needed to serve as motivation breeds unhappiness and crime. These aren't arguments to abandon capitalism, because it quite obviously is the best system we've found so far. But that shouldn't preclude us from trying alternatives, especially in niches that are so different that the outcomes may be different from the traditional production of physical goods.

PoachedSausage 9y ago
Capitalism works well with, and propagates some aspects of human nature (whatever that is). Due to our evolutionary past, humans are more focused on the physically nearby, the present and very near future, so capitalism fails when we have longterm wide-scale problems to solve, like climate change.
pmontra 9y ago
> The largest problems automatically provide the largest reward for solving! In principle yes, but there are ways to game the system. Marketing is very good at creating false problems and aim consumers at them. Many of the things we work at are pretty much useless.
wu-ikkyu 9y ago