5 ms·

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I honestly don't see what any of that has to do with "capitalism." Would you mind connecting those dots? I understand the existe

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but I honestly don't see what any of that has to do with "capitalism." Would you mind connecting those dots? I understand the existence of social ills: depression, despair, anxiety. I understand the amplifying effect caused by the democratization of content. But how do those things tie back to economics? Do other capitalist states have the same problems? Does Canada? Does Sweden? Are things better in non-capitalist countries such as Laos or Nambia? Is this a reference to the Easterlin paradox? Is is more accurate to frame the problem as being unhappy with success and wealth, vs "capitalism?"

pjerem 5y ago
My personal interpretation is that capitalism as an ideology started to fail when big actors started to sell « free products ». Rules of free market can not apply when some actors starts to accept currencies such as your privacy. I think we are training an entire generation to get everything for free. And this, even for the liberal ideology, is a transfer of the power from the states to big companies. Because « free » stuff has always been the monopoly of states (for the obvious reason that states represent people via the democratic systems). And if you are not the client, you are the product, and moreover, you have no more free choice. I’m not an anthropologist and that’s my current mood of thinking. I’m ok if you want to explain me I’m wrong.
anticodon 5y ago
> Are things better in non-capitalist countries such as Laos or Nambia? Laos and Namibia are capitalist countries. The only two non-capitalist countries that I know are Cuba (and I'm not even sure about that) and North Korea. Both are being suffocated by the big capitalist forces for tens of years, so it's impossible to really assess if they're doing better or worse. Like one of our Russian politics said: "USA strangle them with one hand and empty their pockets using another hand". Hard to say how they'd fare if they weren't strangled. E.g. before they isolated North Korea it was doing much better than South Korea.

pjerem 5y ago

My personal interpretation is that capitalism as an ideology started to fail when big actors started to sell « free products ». Rules of free market can not apply when some actors starts to accept currencies such as your privacy. I think we are training an entire generation to get everything for free. And this, even for the liberal ideology, is a transfer of the power from the states to big companies. Because « free » stuff has always been the monopoly of states (for the obvious reason that states represent people via the democratic systems). And if you are not the client, you are the product, and moreover, you have no more free choice. I’m not an anthropologist and that’s my current mood of thinking. I’m ok if you want to explain me I’m wrong.

anticodon 5y ago

> Are things better in non-capitalist countries such as Laos or Nambia? Laos and Namibia are capitalist countries. The only two non-capitalist countries that I know are Cuba (and I'm not even sure about that) and North Korea. Both are being suffocated by the big capitalist forces for tens of years, so it's impossible to really assess if they're doing better or worse. Like one of our Russian politics said: "USA strangle them with one hand and empty their pockets using another hand". Hard to say how they'd fare if they weren't strangled. E.g. before they isolated North Korea it was doing much better than South Korea.