4 ms·

Both examples of socialized losses.

• natmaka 6y ago
  "Someone pays for losses" is always true. "Socialized losses", as far as I understand it, means that the group paying for the losses is the same one as the one which is/was the beneficiary. Does someone think that EU citizens were set to benefit from the Chernobyl plant?
  • Can_Not 6y ago
    The saying is usually more like "privatize the profits, socialize the loses", which is derived from "socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor". The point of the phrase is that the people who are paying for the costs (tax payers) are not the ones who received any benefit or were going to benefit (profits, shareholders, CEOs, etc.). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_socialism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_socialism
    • natmaka 6y ago
      Indeed, however the case in point is the Chernobyl disaster, and in the USSR there AFAIK were no profits/shareholders/CEOs... My point is that such scam isn't specific to the degraded version of capitalism so common in our nations, which is in fact "crony capitalism".
      • Can_Not 6y ago
        I always found the tribalistic "crony capitalism" vs "crony socialism" debate to be a convenient escape from actually discussing the removal of cronyism.
        • natmaka 6y ago
          So often true! We patently cannot tackle cronyism thanks to any powerful institution. In fact anything powerful nurtures it.