4 ms·

No, but if you're enjoying products that would have never been developed without profit incentive, then there's hypocrisy in rejecting capitalism.

Analemma_ 9y ago
There's really, really not. I think you need a refresher on the definition of "hypocrisy", because yours is badly wrong.
- brucephillips 9y ago
  If you're willing to engage in respectful debate, rather than just vacuously claiming that I'm wrong, I'm happy to discuss any definition you'd like to proffer.
  - Analemma_ 9y ago
    We (I'm assuming you're not posting from North Korea) all live in a capitalist society, so virtually all the products we use are "made with profit incentive". Since it is not possible to live in society without consuming any products, your definition of a "hypocritical" capitalist critiquer implicitly includes all of them - which makes it useless as a definition, as it carries no informational content.
    - brucephillips 9y ago
      But many products would exist without profit incentive. This isn't a thought experiment. East Germany had bread and houses. They didn't have iphones. If you want the iphone, you have to accept profit incentive.
      - owebmaster 9y ago
        The same way if you want a welfare state you have to accept taxes.
DoreenMichele 9y ago
The Harvard University survey, which polled young adults between ages 18 and 29, found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Just 42 percent said they support it. The results of the survey are difficult to interpret, pollsters noted. Capitalism can mean different things to different people, and the newest generation of voters is frustrated with the status quo, broadly speaking. If you do a survey and ask if people are pro abortion, most of them will say "no." If you do a survey and ask if they support a woman's rights to have control over her body and have reproductive choice -- aka "pro choice" -- most people will say "yes." Most folks think a woman should have access to abortion services should she need one. They also think it should be an absolute last resort for when things go wrong and should not be used too casually as a primary form of birth control. The reality is that most women would never use it that way. But birth control methods fail far more often than most people imagine, plus sometimes someone is assaulted. TLDR: How you ask the question can skew the answers and also people often mean very different things with the same word. Communication R hard.
- brucephillips 9y ago
  By any definition of capitalism, the iphone wouldn't have happened without it, so you can't claim that ambiguity in the question would prevent hypocrisy.
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  - DoreenMichele 9y ago
    "The word 'capitalism' doesn't mean what it used to," said Zach Lustbader, a senior at Harvard involved in conducting the poll, which was published Monday. For those who grew up during the Cold War, capitalism meant freedom from the Soviet Union and other totalitarian regimes. For those who grew up more recently, capitalism has meant a financial crisis from which the global economy still hasn't completely recovered. "They're not rejecting the concept," Della Volpe said. "The way in which capitalism is practiced today, in the minds of young people — that's what they're rejecting."

Analemma_ 9y ago

There's really, really not. I think you need a refresher on the definition of "hypocrisy", because yours is badly wrong.

brucephillips 9y ago
If you're willing to engage in respectful debate, rather than just vacuously claiming that I'm wrong, I'm happy to discuss any definition you'd like to proffer.
- Analemma_ 9y ago
  We (I'm assuming you're not posting from North Korea) all live in a capitalist society, so virtually all the products we use are "made with profit incentive". Since it is not possible to live in society without consuming any products, your definition of a "hypocritical" capitalist critiquer implicitly includes all of them - which makes it useless as a definition, as it carries no informational content.
  - brucephillips 9y ago
    But many products would exist without profit incentive. This isn't a thought experiment. East Germany had bread and houses. They didn't have iphones. If you want the iphone, you have to accept profit incentive.
    - owebmaster 9y ago
      The same way if you want a welfare state you have to accept taxes.

DoreenMichele 9y ago

The Harvard University survey, which polled young adults between ages 18 and 29, found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Just 42 percent said they support it. The results of the survey are difficult to interpret, pollsters noted. Capitalism can mean different things to different people, and the newest generation of voters is frustrated with the status quo, broadly speaking. If you do a survey and ask if people are pro abortion, most of them will say "no." If you do a survey and ask if they support a woman's rights to have control over her body and have reproductive choice -- aka "pro choice" -- most people will say "yes." Most folks think a woman should have access to abortion services should she need one. They also think it should be an absolute last resort for when things go wrong and should not be used too casually as a primary form of birth control. The reality is that most women would never use it that way. But birth control methods fail far more often than most people imagine, plus sometimes someone is assaulted. TLDR: How you ask the question can skew the answers and also people often mean very different things with the same word. Communication R hard.

brucephillips 9y ago
By any definition of capitalism, the iphone wouldn't have happened without it, so you can't claim that ambiguity in the question would prevent hypocrisy.
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- deleted 9y ago
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- DoreenMichele 9y ago
  "The word 'capitalism' doesn't mean what it used to," said Zach Lustbader, a senior at Harvard involved in conducting the poll, which was published Monday. For those who grew up during the Cold War, capitalism meant freedom from the Soviet Union and other totalitarian regimes. For those who grew up more recently, capitalism has meant a financial crisis from which the global economy still hasn't completely recovered. "They're not rejecting the concept," Della Volpe said. "The way in which capitalism is practiced today, in the minds of young people — that's what they're rejecting."