3 ms·

Who is the ruling class in non-capitalist countries?

monkey_monkey 4y ago
Oh come on, this isn't difficult. Who do you think the ruling class is in North Korea? Who do you think the ruling class was in the Soviet Union?
- yesbut 4y ago
  He's trolling
qiskit 4y ago
For any country, ask yourself whose interest the government/military/media/etc exists to serve. I'll give you a hint. It's never 'the people'. In capitalist countries, it's to serve the interest of capital. In monarchies, it's to serve the interest of the monarch. In communist countries, it's the serve the interest of the party. God knows what north korea is. A communist monarchy?
- ericmay 4y ago
  What should I do with this information?
  - qiskit 4y ago
    Use it as inspiration to upvote me of course.
    - ericmay 4y ago
      Yea maybe. I just don't understand what I'm supposed to do with these "capitalism is the ruling class" drive-by comments. Like.. so what? I like my iPhone and getting bread from the grocery store. I like that in America as flawed as it is I can post funny pictures of the most powerful person we elect. Many people hold up capitalist countries like Sweden or Norway as examples of good governance, yet they also serve their "capitalist masters". What am I supposed to do here? Not vote? Demand that we dissolve the government?
      - qiskit 4y ago
        I guess you can cry about apple removing the flag icon? I don't know what you want. I'm just answering a question you asked. You asked this: "Who is the ruling class in non-capitalist countries? " I answered this: "For any country, ask yourself whose interest the government/military/media/etc exists to serve. I'll give you a hint. It's never 'the people'. In capitalist countries, it's to serve the interest of capital. In monarchies, it's to serve the interest of the monarch. In communist countries, it's the serve the interest of the party. God knows what north korea is. A communist monarchy?" My response wasn't about capitalists or capitalism. My response was about the ruling class for any country. You are so agenda driven you only see what you want. You asked a question, I answered and you are crying about what other people wrote. Not what I wrote.
      - klibertp 4y ago
        Why would you need to do anything? I mean, unless you're a hardliner anarchist, you accept that there always will be a class of people in power. Whether they buy the power with money, seize the power with violence, get it handed to them due to being born in a certain family matters little, in my opinion. The important part is setting up a system where the powerful cannot abuse their power to the detriment of society and where the lower classes have some basic rights guaranteed. Before you do set up a system like that, you unfortunately need to first educate the lower classes enough for them to realize that they want and need such a system in place. And that's the hard part, a main issue when talking about some Asian democracies, and a thing you're missing, I think.
        ericmay 4y ago
        I agree with what you wrote, but I'm not sure why you would think that I'm missing anything. I think many who post comments alluding to this nebulous capitalist ruling elite would say that education of lower classes is tainted by capitalist dogma and therefore would be invalid. Who writes the textbooks? Capitalist businesses seeking to make a profit. Who approves the textbooks? Oh the capitalist ruling elite. Etc. The reason I am asking these questions is because I keep seeing drive-by comments about "capitalism" and "ruling elites", and I'm trying to understand what other countries out there have different ruling elites (or none) and what the call to action is. Some complain that the "people" aren't in charge and instead it is these capitalist masters/elites. Are there any countries where the people are actually in charge? What does that mean for the people to be in charge? Or are people just trolling and trying to aggravate others with these types of comments?
  - crawfordcomeaux 4y ago
    Have you considered exercising the right to found a new nation? Or exercising the right to peacefully revoke consent to be governed? Or perhaps abandoning preferences so that your likes/dislikes aren't so determined by capitalism?
    - ericmay 4y ago
      > Have you considered exercising the right to found a new nation? Or exercising the right to peacefully revoke consent to be governed? Like as in have I considered actually doing it? No not really. As far as I know there's no new land in the world where anyone can lay a claim to. All of the world's governments have claimed all land in the world, so to found a new nation you have to create a new monopoly on violence for a given geographic area, and that's hard to do. > Or perhaps abandoning preferences so that your likes/dislikes aren't so determined by capitalism? So I don't see how this is connected to your other sentence. If you replaced capitalism with government then I think that would make sense. Bringing capitalism into this doesn't make any sense to me.
      - chasil 4y ago
        This is not quite correct. If you want to create your own county, there is one place where you can. There is an unclaimed area between Egypt and Sudan. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/02/bir-tawil-land-no-country-wants.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/02/bir-tawil-land-no-coun...
  - wincy 4y ago
    Even if you try to lay claim to your own nation, you’ll very quickly get bullied by nearby nations [0] [0] https://www.insider.com/thailand-says-us-mans-seasteading-home-violates-sovereignty-2019-4 https://www.insider.com/thailand-says-us-mans-seasteading-ho...
- yesbut 4y ago
  If we go by the Marxist definition of communist then the people would be serving the people, democratically. But I don't think we've ever seen a small "c" communist country yet. Even the Chinese CCP acknowledges that China isn't communist yet.

Oh come on, this isn't difficult. Who do you think the ruling class is in North Korea? Who do you think the ruling class was in the Soviet Union?

yesbut 4y ago
He's trolling

qiskit 4y ago

For any country, ask yourself whose interest the government/military/media/etc exists to serve. I'll give you a hint. It's never 'the people'. In capitalist countries, it's to serve the interest of capital. In monarchies, it's to serve the interest of the monarch. In communist countries, it's the serve the interest of the party. God knows what north korea is. A communist monarchy?

ericmay 4y ago
What should I do with this information?
- qiskit 4y ago
  Use it as inspiration to upvote me of course.
  - ericmay 4y ago
    Yea maybe. I just don't understand what I'm supposed to do with these "capitalism is the ruling class" drive-by comments. Like.. so what? I like my iPhone and getting bread from the grocery store. I like that in America as flawed as it is I can post funny pictures of the most powerful person we elect. Many people hold up capitalist countries like Sweden or Norway as examples of good governance, yet they also serve their "capitalist masters". What am I supposed to do here? Not vote? Demand that we dissolve the government?
    - qiskit 4y ago
      I guess you can cry about apple removing the flag icon? I don't know what you want. I'm just answering a question you asked. You asked this: "Who is the ruling class in non-capitalist countries? " I answered this: "For any country, ask yourself whose interest the government/military/media/etc exists to serve. I'll give you a hint. It's never 'the people'. In capitalist countries, it's to serve the interest of capital. In monarchies, it's to serve the interest of the monarch. In communist countries, it's the serve the interest of the party. God knows what north korea is. A communist monarchy?" My response wasn't about capitalists or capitalism. My response was about the ruling class for any country. You are so agenda driven you only see what you want. You asked a question, I answered and you are crying about what other people wrote. Not what I wrote.
    - klibertp 4y ago
      Why would you need to do anything? I mean, unless you're a hardliner anarchist, you accept that there always will be a class of people in power. Whether they buy the power with money, seize the power with violence, get it handed to them due to being born in a certain family matters little, in my opinion. The important part is setting up a system where the powerful cannot abuse their power to the detriment of society and where the lower classes have some basic rights guaranteed. Before you do set up a system like that, you unfortunately need to first educate the lower classes enough for them to realize that they want and need such a system in place. And that's the hard part, a main issue when talking about some Asian democracies, and a thing you're missing, I think.
      - ericmay 4y ago
        I agree with what you wrote, but I'm not sure why you would think that I'm missing anything. I think many who post comments alluding to this nebulous capitalist ruling elite would say that education of lower classes is tainted by capitalist dogma and therefore would be invalid. Who writes the textbooks? Capitalist businesses seeking to make a profit. Who approves the textbooks? Oh the capitalist ruling elite. Etc. The reason I am asking these questions is because I keep seeing drive-by comments about "capitalism" and "ruling elites", and I'm trying to understand what other countries out there have different ruling elites (or none) and what the call to action is. Some complain that the "people" aren't in charge and instead it is these capitalist masters/elites. Are there any countries where the people are actually in charge? What does that mean for the people to be in charge? Or are people just trolling and trying to aggravate others with these types of comments?
- crawfordcomeaux 4y ago
  Have you considered exercising the right to found a new nation? Or exercising the right to peacefully revoke consent to be governed? Or perhaps abandoning preferences so that your likes/dislikes aren't so determined by capitalism?
  - ericmay 4y ago
    > Have you considered exercising the right to found a new nation? Or exercising the right to peacefully revoke consent to be governed? Like as in have I considered actually doing it? No not really. As far as I know there's no new land in the world where anyone can lay a claim to. All of the world's governments have claimed all land in the world, so to found a new nation you have to create a new monopoly on violence for a given geographic area, and that's hard to do. > Or perhaps abandoning preferences so that your likes/dislikes aren't so determined by capitalism? So I don't see how this is connected to your other sentence. If you replaced capitalism with government then I think that would make sense. Bringing capitalism into this doesn't make any sense to me.
    - chasil 4y ago
      This is not quite correct. If you want to create your own county, there is one place where you can. There is an unclaimed area between Egypt and Sudan. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/02/bir-tawil-land-no-country-wants.html https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/02/bir-tawil-land-no-coun...
- wincy 4y ago
  Even if you try to lay claim to your own nation, you’ll very quickly get bullied by nearby nations [0] [0] https://www.insider.com/thailand-says-us-mans-seasteading-home-violates-sovereignty-2019-4 https://www.insider.com/thailand-says-us-mans-seasteading-ho...
yesbut 4y ago
If we go by the Marxist definition of communist then the people would be serving the people, democratically. But I don't think we've ever seen a small "c" communist country yet. Even the Chinese CCP acknowledges that China isn't communist yet.