4 ms·

> I'm not changing the subject. My claim is that it's a zero sum game of resource accumulation. We're now at the point where over half the resources in the worl

by oDot 7y ago

> I'm not changing the subject. My claim is that it's a zero sum game of resource accumulation. We're now at the point where over half the resources in the world have been accumulated with a handful of individuals. Capitalism is the engine that allowed this to happen. And here you just changed the subject. You again talk about the wealth gap. The wealth gap and zero sum game are not the same subject. > Cronyism is a necessary result of capitalism. People who have capital will always be able to influence the state, there is no way to separate the two. Capitalists are able to buy media, fund political campaigns, bribe politicians, and so on. This is why capitalist countries necessarily turn into oligarchies. But buying the state has nothing to do with capitalism -- it has to do with the existence of a state, and the existence of rich people. Rich people exist in every system we ever had in history, so unless you suggest we do something other than a state, all that is left is to strengthen our protection of capitalism with a better constitution. > Rich people in Western countries practically never go to jail for fraud and theft. Source please. But if true, is probably the fault of cronyism. > The most egregious example was the 2008 global economic collapse where millions of people lost all their savings and none of the people responsible were punished. What's more, the institutions and people responsible got massive bailouts at the expense of tax payers. That is the fault of government going hand the hand with the private sector. Without the government, the crisis couldn't have been that big. In short, the government had (1) very very low interest rates and (2) encouraged risky home buying (3) practically insured bad mortgages. Do you think a bank would loan to someone who can't pay back? Only if the government is there to the rescue. There's a reason many Austrian economists predicted that crisis to amazingly fine detail. Now, you may reply "they did it because rich people bought them". Maybe, but that's Cronyism, not Capitalism. > Vast majority of people under capitalism have to spend large portions of their lives working just to live. This idea that you can just go and do whatever you like is a total fantasy because the only people who have the means to do that are those who were lucky enough to be born rich. The rest of the population has to spend their lives subsidizing the lifestyle of these birth lottery winners. Any regular person needs to work for at least 40 hours a week just to live, this is majority of their week taken away from them. It's utter absurdity to claim that they're free to build themselves anything in the little free time they have remaining. I get what you're saying, but if you think there's a better way, a truly capitalist system doesn't stop you from implementing it inside of capitalism. So if you want that communist heaven, capitalism saves you the need for revolution, or the need to go find a large-enough desert island. You just build the commie heaven inside the capitalist land. > You appear to have an incredibly infantile understanding of the relationship between capitalism and society. That's bold, coming from the guy claiming Ghana is capitalist. Either way, it seems like we are in agreement that Capitalism is not the problem, Cronyism is. The disagreement is if the end of all Capitalist systems is Cronyism. I think Cronyism is independent of Capitalism. All it needs is a state (=monopoly on force) and rich people. Just look at every country we had in history, capitalist or not, they all had a ruling class. The solution to that is to have the constitution limit the power of government even more. That way, when rich people will come to buy favors, there will be none for the politicians to sell.

yogthos 7y ago
>And here you just changed the subject. You again talk about the wealth gap. The wealth gap and zero sum game are not the same subject. It's the same subject, the wealth gap is precisely what's being discussed here. This is my original comment: >The real question is towards what end those resources are being efficiently allocated. Capitalism is an incredibly efficient system for accumulating resources with a tiny percentage of the population at the expense of everyone else. This is precisely why late stage capitalist societies inevitably turn into oligarchies. If anything, you're the one who keeps trying to change the discussion from the original topic. >But buying the state has nothing to do with capitalism -- it has to do with the existence of a state, and the existence of rich people. Rich people exist in every system we ever had in history, so unless you suggest we do something other than a state, all that is left is to strengthen our protection of capitalism with a better constitution. In practice, some systems are much more unequal than others. For example, people like Gates or Bezos simply didn't exist in USSR, there was no generational wealth, and the highest gap in pay was around 10x. Saying that there is no difference between that and what happens in capitalist countries is simply false equivalence. >Source please. But if true, is probably the fault of cronyism. And cronyism is a direct byproduct of capitalism and inequality. And here's a breakdown of prison population by wealth in US. The prisons are predominantly filled with poor people, and you'll be hard pressed to find a CEO going to prison for any crime. Just recently Boeing killed two plane loads full of people due to criminal negligence, nobody's going to jail for that. The CEO got a golden parachute instead. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/income.html https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/income.html >That is the fault of government going hand the hand with the private sector. Without the government, the crisis couldn't have been that big. In short, the government had (1) very very low interest rates and (2) encouraged risky home buying (3) practically insured bad mortgages. Do you think a bank would loan to someone who can't pay back? Only if the government is there to the rescue. And why is the government going hand in hand with the private sector? It's as if, and bear with me here, the private sector bought the government with all that wealth capitalists have accumulated. It amazes me to no end that you're unable to make this connection. >Now, you may reply "they did it because rich people bought them". Maybe, but that's Cronyism, not Capitalism. Capitalism is the engine that creates a system of cronyism because it allows wealth to accumulate in the hands of the few. Again, this is not a complex concept that a fully grown adult should be struggling with. >I get what you're saying, but if you think there's a better way, a truly capitalist system doesn't stop you from implementing it inside of capitalism. So if you want that communist heaven, capitalism saves you the need for revolution, or the need to go find a large-enough desert island. You just build the commie heaven inside the capitalist land. Capitalism was the cause of the revolutions since it's been around. Meanwhile, you might want to read up on what USA does to communist and socialist countries around the world. Go read some history of South Asia, and Latin America for starters. No single socialist regime has been left unmolested in the past century. >Either way, it seems like we are in agreement that Capitalism is not the problem, Cronyism is. No, I'm saying that capitalism is a mechanism that allows wealth to be accumulated with a small percentage of the population, and these people end up running the country as an oligarchy as is the case with US, and other Western regimes right now. I don't think any system that allows large scale inequality is compatible with democracy. Meanwhile, limiting the power of the government achieves the complete opposite of what you're proposing. A democratic government answers to its citizens, while private interests only answer to their owners. Wealth inequality is the root cause for the corruption of the government, and that's what needs to be eliminated to have actual democracy and representation of the people by the government.

by oDot 7y ago

yogthos 7y ago

>And here you just changed the subject. You again talk about the wealth gap. The wealth gap and zero sum game are not the same subject. It's the same subject, the wealth gap is precisely what's being discussed here. This is my original comment: >The real question is towards what end those resources are being efficiently allocated. Capitalism is an incredibly efficient system for accumulating resources with a tiny percentage of the population at the expense of everyone else. This is precisely why late stage capitalist societies inevitably turn into oligarchies. If anything, you're the one who keeps trying to change the discussion from the original topic. >But buying the state has nothing to do with capitalism -- it has to do with the existence of a state, and the existence of rich people. Rich people exist in every system we ever had in history, so unless you suggest we do something other than a state, all that is left is to strengthen our protection of capitalism with a better constitution. In practice, some systems are much more unequal than others. For example, people like Gates or Bezos simply didn't exist in USSR, there was no generational wealth, and the highest gap in pay was around 10x. Saying that there is no difference between that and what happens in capitalist countries is simply false equivalence. >Source please. But if true, is probably the fault of cronyism. And cronyism is a direct byproduct of capitalism and inequality. And here's a breakdown of prison population by wealth in US. The prisons are predominantly filled with poor people, and you'll be hard pressed to find a CEO going to prison for any crime. Just recently Boeing killed two plane loads full of people due to criminal negligence, nobody's going to jail for that. The CEO got a golden parachute instead. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/income.html https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/income.html >That is the fault of government going hand the hand with the private sector. Without the government, the crisis couldn't have been that big. In short, the government had (1) very very low interest rates and (2) encouraged risky home buying (3) practically insured bad mortgages. Do you think a bank would loan to someone who can't pay back? Only if the government is there to the rescue. And why is the government going hand in hand with the private sector? It's as if, and bear with me here, the private sector bought the government with all that wealth capitalists have accumulated. It amazes me to no end that you're unable to make this connection. >Now, you may reply "they did it because rich people bought them". Maybe, but that's Cronyism, not Capitalism. Capitalism is the engine that creates a system of cronyism because it allows wealth to accumulate in the hands of the few. Again, this is not a complex concept that a fully grown adult should be struggling with. >I get what you're saying, but if you think there's a better way, a truly capitalist system doesn't stop you from implementing it inside of capitalism. So if you want that communist heaven, capitalism saves you the need for revolution, or the need to go find a large-enough desert island. You just build the commie heaven inside the capitalist land. Capitalism was the cause of the revolutions since it's been around. Meanwhile, you might want to read up on what USA does to communist and socialist countries around the world. Go read some history of South Asia, and Latin America for starters. No single socialist regime has been left unmolested in the past century. >Either way, it seems like we are in agreement that Capitalism is not the problem, Cronyism is. No, I'm saying that capitalism is a mechanism that allows wealth to be accumulated with a small percentage of the population, and these people end up running the country as an oligarchy as is the case with US, and other Western regimes right now. I don't think any system that allows large scale inequality is compatible with democracy. Meanwhile, limiting the power of the government achieves the complete opposite of what you're proposing. A democratic government answers to its citizens, while private interests only answer to their owners. Wealth inequality is the root cause for the corruption of the government, and that's what needs to be eliminated to have actual democracy and representation of the people by the government.