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> Even the poor in capitalist countries have a higher standard of living than medieval kings. That is almost completely due to technological progress, not beca
by bheadmaster 3y ago
> Even the poor in capitalist countries have a higher standard of living than medieval kings.
That is almost completely due to technological progress, not because of capitalism itself.
- WD40forRust 3y agoCapitalism is the nature in which technology got naturally selected.
- bheadmaster 3y agoThis sentence does not make any sense to me. Would you care to elaborate?
- voxl 3y ago[citation needed] You know its funny because almost all academic advancement has not been in a capitalist system.
- WalterBright 3y agoWhat kind of academic advancement are you referring to? Marxism?
- WalterBright 3y agoTechnological progress is enabled by capitalism.
- bheadmaster 3y agoIs there any evidence of that claim available? As a counterexample, I'd like to point out the Soviet space program.
- nickpp 3y agoSoviet spies were quite active and accomplished at stealing technological advancements from private firms in the West.
- bheadmaster 3y agoSpying is a regular part of being a government. Are you claiming that American spies didn't steal technologies from other nations?
- nickpp 3y agoSure but what would they have to steal from the Soviets?! I mean the West had A/C, cars, color TV, computers and so on while USSR was struggling to feed its people. Reminds me of the old Soviet joke brilliantly included in the Chernobyl series: "What’s as big as a house, burns 20 liters of fuel every hour, puts out a shit-load of smoke and noise, and cuts an apple into three pieces? A Soviet machine made to cut apples into four pieces."
- bheadmaster 3y agoAmerican memes aren't accurate history sources. Soviets have had a very strong educational system, and a large number of scientists and engineers. Even mathematics, on which all the other science rests, was actively developed by the Soviet. E.g. Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov basically invented the modern probability theory. To claim that their engineers have done nothing but wait for spies to come back with US knowledge is a little absurd.
- WalterBright 3y agoHow much of the technology in your car was developed by the Soviets? How about the last airliner you flew on? How about your computer? How about your phone? How about your TV? How about agriculture?
- nickpp 3y ago