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why is it voted down? This is technically true. People are polarized on the topic of communism vs. capitalism but the reality is these are just two different c

why is it voted down? This is technically true. People are polarized on the topic of communism vs. capitalism but the reality is these are just two different colors. Two different aspects, similar to solid or liquid. When you treat it as a sport team you become biased. If you hate capitalism you become blind to how capitalism produces powerful economies like most of the western world. If you hate communism you become blind to how stories like this can benefit a community. There are plenty of public goods that cannot thrive under pure capitalism. Grocery stores with razer thing margins are an example of this.

AmericanChopper 4y ago
> This is technically true. State owned enterprises are feature in every free market economy. The comment is not true, technically or otherwise.
- shapefrog 4y ago
  > in every free market economy No free market economy to ever exist has been a pure capitalism without hints, shades or straight up chunks of communism, socialism and many other flavours of -ism.
- deltasevennine 4y ago
  >State owned enterprises are feature in every free market economy. And that is why it is technically true. >The comment is not true, technically or otherwise. This makes zero logic, or sense. You literally just stated that every free market economy has elements of communism then denied your statement right after. I think you're caught by the connotation of the word instead of the definition. Team communism is the enemy to you.
  - AmericanChopper 4y ago
    I think you’re projecting a lot here. It’s simply a zero-insight (and factually incorrect) comment to look at one centrally planned initiative and starting saying “communism”. The “not a real free market” and “not real communism” cohorts are equally stupid, and should be dismissed with equal passion.
    - mxkopy 4y ago
      Hey man - if you would be so kind as to pretend to be literate for a second - you'd notice the rather semantic "emulated" prefix!
- mxkopy 4y ago
  I'm sorry - is Walmart owned by the U.S. government ?
tshaddox 4y ago
Surely even the most simplistic definition of communism would include society-wide common ownership of the production and distribution of goods. A local government owning one small commercial enterprise in a capitalist market economy is just not remotely close to even the crudest imaginable definition of communism.
- deltasevennine 4y ago
  Take a look at China. The word clearly lives on a gradient when you ask someone from China about it... (aka asking someone that actually lives in a communist country). Communism is therefore not strictly "society wide". Clearly. The parent prefixed his phrase with "emulated" as in "emulated communism" meaning that, obviously, the parent wasn't strictly reffering to "society wide" communism either. Communism has a definition and a connotation. The connotation is negative and is twisting YOUR personal definition of the word. To you, communism is evil, so you must twist the definition for it to function at the extreme. To you capitalism is good, so it's not at the extreme... it's more of a moderate concept to you. The reality is both communism and capitalism are SYMMETRIC concepts standing on opposite sides of a gradient. It's debate-able whether communism refers to extreme society wide ownership OR whether it refers to more moderate society wide ownership.... However, to strictly define communism to be extreme means that, symmetrically, capitalism must be defined in such a way too. If not then you're just being biased, because the consequence of defining things this way means that your in your personal vocabulary.... no word exists for "extreme capitalism," while such a word exists for "extreme communism." So stop being biased, open your mind a little.
  - tshaddox 4y ago
    > Communism has a definition and a connotation. The connotation is negative and is twisting YOUR personal definition of the word. To you, communism is evil, so you must twist the definition for it to function at the extreme. To you capitalism is good, so it's not at the extreme... it's more of a moderate concept to you. I’m very confused how you came to that interpretation from my comment.
    - 4y ago
dang 4y ago
Probably because it was an unsubstantive and possibly snarky comment on a divisive ideological topic. That's flamebait and therefore against the site guidelines. "Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." "Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- mxkopy 4y ago
  I don't think it's divisive, it's pretty straightforward Access to goods is managed & provided by a communal government, in this case even in direct opposition to market forces - I'd say that's communistic It's a sad state of affairs when just mentioning something is considered flamebait. I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. I find this idea of using rules that already exist to meet an economic need when market forces would have it otherwise - literally emulating communism, or socialism, feudalism, idrc - to be awesome. To be sure I didn't mean anything substantive, but if people are getting upset over what's supposed to be a nothingburger, that's pretty substantive in itself- Are we angry that capitalism didn't come in and save the day? Are we so entrenched in market ideology that we are downright offended when it's implied that another could be useful?
  - dang 4y ago
    Sure, mentioning communism is flamebait, especially if you mention it in a provocative way in a throwaway one liner. There are many such things that people have strong feelings about and are reactive to. Perhaps it's sad but it's the way things are. I believe you that you weren't trying to be sarcastic but that sort of intent doesn't communicate itself—you have to encode it in your comment somehow, so the rest of us can know that. Past explanations about this: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=disambiguate%20burden%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so.... Also, generic ideological battle is extremely repetitive and therefore tedious and therefore off topic here. Past explanations about that: 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....

AmericanChopper 4y ago

> This is technically true. State owned enterprises are feature in every free market economy. The comment is not true, technically or otherwise.

shapefrog 4y ago
> in every free market economy No free market economy to ever exist has been a pure capitalism without hints, shades or straight up chunks of communism, socialism and many other flavours of -ism.
deltasevennine 4y ago
>State owned enterprises are feature in every free market economy. And that is why it is technically true. >The comment is not true, technically or otherwise. This makes zero logic, or sense. You literally just stated that every free market economy has elements of communism then denied your statement right after. I think you're caught by the connotation of the word instead of the definition. Team communism is the enemy to you.
- AmericanChopper 4y ago
  I think you’re projecting a lot here. It’s simply a zero-insight (and factually incorrect) comment to look at one centrally planned initiative and starting saying “communism”. The “not a real free market” and “not real communism” cohorts are equally stupid, and should be dismissed with equal passion.
  - mxkopy 4y ago
    Hey man - if you would be so kind as to pretend to be literate for a second - you'd notice the rather semantic "emulated" prefix!
mxkopy 4y ago
I'm sorry - is Walmart owned by the U.S. government ?

tshaddox 4y ago

Surely even the most simplistic definition of communism would include society-wide common ownership of the production and distribution of goods. A local government owning one small commercial enterprise in a capitalist market economy is just not remotely close to even the crudest imaginable definition of communism.

deltasevennine 4y ago
Take a look at China. The word clearly lives on a gradient when you ask someone from China about it... (aka asking someone that actually lives in a communist country). Communism is therefore not strictly "society wide". Clearly. The parent prefixed his phrase with "emulated" as in "emulated communism" meaning that, obviously, the parent wasn't strictly reffering to "society wide" communism either. Communism has a definition and a connotation. The connotation is negative and is twisting YOUR personal definition of the word. To you, communism is evil, so you must twist the definition for it to function at the extreme. To you capitalism is good, so it's not at the extreme... it's more of a moderate concept to you. The reality is both communism and capitalism are SYMMETRIC concepts standing on opposite sides of a gradient. It's debate-able whether communism refers to extreme society wide ownership OR whether it refers to more moderate society wide ownership.... However, to strictly define communism to be extreme means that, symmetrically, capitalism must be defined in such a way too. If not then you're just being biased, because the consequence of defining things this way means that your in your personal vocabulary.... no word exists for "extreme capitalism," while such a word exists for "extreme communism." So stop being biased, open your mind a little.
- tshaddox 4y ago
  > Communism has a definition and a connotation. The connotation is negative and is twisting YOUR personal definition of the word. To you, communism is evil, so you must twist the definition for it to function at the extreme. To you capitalism is good, so it's not at the extreme... it's more of a moderate concept to you. I’m very confused how you came to that interpretation from my comment.
  - 4y ago

dang 4y ago

Probably because it was an unsubstantive and possibly snarky comment on a divisive ideological topic. That's flamebait and therefore against the site guidelines. "Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." "Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

mxkopy 4y ago
I don't think it's divisive, it's pretty straightforward Access to goods is managed & provided by a communal government, in this case even in direct opposition to market forces - I'd say that's communistic It's a sad state of affairs when just mentioning something is considered flamebait. I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. I find this idea of using rules that already exist to meet an economic need when market forces would have it otherwise - literally emulating communism, or socialism, feudalism, idrc - to be awesome. To be sure I didn't mean anything substantive, but if people are getting upset over what's supposed to be a nothingburger, that's pretty substantive in itself- Are we angry that capitalism didn't come in and save the day? Are we so entrenched in market ideology that we are downright offended when it's implied that another could be useful?
- dang 4y ago
  Sure, mentioning communism is flamebait, especially if you mention it in a provocative way in a throwaway one liner. There are many such things that people have strong feelings about and are reactive to. Perhaps it's sad but it's the way things are. I believe you that you weren't trying to be sarcastic but that sort of intent doesn't communicate itself—you have to encode it in your comment somehow, so the rest of us can know that. Past explanations about this: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=disambiguate%20burden%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so.... Also, generic ideological battle is extremely repetitive and therefore tedious and therefore off topic here. Past explanations about that: 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....