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Imagine living in 2021 and still thinking this propaganda talking point from 1949 still holds any weight with anyone. We know competition doesn't work. Competi

Imagine living in 2021 and still thinking this propaganda talking point from 1949 still holds any weight with anyone. We know competition doesn't work. Competitors get bought out. We know the stock market doesn't work. Money raised gets used to automate away jobs, not expand and increase the number of human beings actually needed by the company. We know pricing doesn't get corrected, at all, because everyone who runs businesses or owns property is so rich they are able to self-sustain and ignore any market signals urging them to adjust prices. None of the free market capitalist tenets actually work the way they're described, and there's a growing proportion of the population realizing this finally. It's just unfortunate they're being steered towards communism because the communists are currently the loudest opponents of this absurd system built on lies.

exabrial 5y ago
This is one of the stupidest comments I've ever read on hacker News. Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other political system in the history of mankind.
- q3k 5y ago
  > Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other political system in the history of mankind. Not really: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/29/bill-gates-davos-global-poverty-infographic-neoliberal https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/29/bill-g... , https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/2/3/pinker-and-global-poverty https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/2/3/pinker-and-global-...
  - kyberias 5y ago
    This is an opinion piece from a 39 year old economic anthropologist.
    - millsmob 5y ago
      I guess that automatically disqualifies it then. A 39 year old economic anthropologist couldn’t possibly know anything that I don’t already know. It’s crazy to take different points of view into consideration when forming an opinion!
- totesraunch 5y ago
  Capitalism is an economic system... Yes, capitalism has the ability corrupt, and as in the case of the USA has corrupted the political system we have which is a democratic republic.
- hikingsimulator 5y ago
  It hasn't when you factor in that most of the people lifted out are Chinese citizens. I doubt you would call their brand of state-led economy, with tightly-managed conglomerates at the boot of the CCP -- with a very involved monetary policy --, true capitalism.
- southerntofu 5y ago
  Yours is not the stupidest comment i've read on Hacker News, but is definitely out of touch with reality. Thinking you can measure poverty and happiness with "rational numbers" is skewed already, but pretending capitalism is best at lifting people out of poverty when it's brought more forms of human suffering to the entire planet than any previous system, is completely delusional. Capitalism is entirely built on wage exploitation, actual slavery and colonization, extractivism, pollution, population displacements, and patriarchal control of sexuality and births (to reproduce the working force). Claiming capitalism is even remotely fair is so wrong it's hard to believe such words can come out of someone's mouth. Outside of your tiny Silicon Valley bubble, the vast majority of the world's population agrees capitalism is the problem, not the solution.
- samsquire 5y ago
  If you exclude China from your numbers, you don't get the same result.
  - ferongr 5y ago
    China is capitalist, in some way a lot more than "western"countries.
  - EdwinLarkin 5y ago
    What? China is the most capitalist of them all.
- dang 5y ago
  Please don't take HN thread further into ideological flamewar. It's tedious, repetitive, and not what this site is for. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=generic%20ideolog%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
dang 5y ago
Please don't take HN thread into ideological flamewar. It's tedious, repetitive, and not what this site is for. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=generic%20ideolog%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26850504 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26850504.

exabrial 5y ago

This is one of the stupidest comments I've ever read on hacker News. Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other political system in the history of mankind.

q3k 5y ago
> Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other political system in the history of mankind. Not really: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/29/bill-gates-davos-global-poverty-infographic-neoliberal https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/29/bill-g... , https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/2/3/pinker-and-global-poverty https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/2/3/pinker-and-global-...
- kyberias 5y ago
  This is an opinion piece from a 39 year old economic anthropologist.
  - millsmob 5y ago
    I guess that automatically disqualifies it then. A 39 year old economic anthropologist couldn’t possibly know anything that I don’t already know. It’s crazy to take different points of view into consideration when forming an opinion!
totesraunch 5y ago
Capitalism is an economic system... Yes, capitalism has the ability corrupt, and as in the case of the USA has corrupted the political system we have which is a democratic republic.
hikingsimulator 5y ago
It hasn't when you factor in that most of the people lifted out are Chinese citizens. I doubt you would call their brand of state-led economy, with tightly-managed conglomerates at the boot of the CCP -- with a very involved monetary policy --, true capitalism.
southerntofu 5y ago
Yours is not the stupidest comment i've read on Hacker News, but is definitely out of touch with reality. Thinking you can measure poverty and happiness with "rational numbers" is skewed already, but pretending capitalism is best at lifting people out of poverty when it's brought more forms of human suffering to the entire planet than any previous system, is completely delusional. Capitalism is entirely built on wage exploitation, actual slavery and colonization, extractivism, pollution, population displacements, and patriarchal control of sexuality and births (to reproduce the working force). Claiming capitalism is even remotely fair is so wrong it's hard to believe such words can come out of someone's mouth. Outside of your tiny Silicon Valley bubble, the vast majority of the world's population agrees capitalism is the problem, not the solution.
samsquire 5y ago
If you exclude China from your numbers, you don't get the same result.
- ferongr 5y ago
  China is capitalist, in some way a lot more than "western"countries.
- EdwinLarkin 5y ago
  What? China is the most capitalist of them all.
dang 5y ago
Please don't take HN thread further into ideological flamewar. It's tedious, repetitive, and not what this site is for. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=generic%20ideolog%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

dang 5y ago

Please don't take HN thread into ideological flamewar. It's tedious, repetitive, and not what this site is for. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=generic%20ideolog%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26850504 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26850504.