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For millions of people living in poverty and homeless around the world and in the US itself, the capitalism system is a failure. Point. Now, you and lots of oth

For millions of people living in poverty and homeless around the world and in the US itself, the capitalism system is a failure. Point. Now, you and lots of other people may be benefiting, but there is no point in saying it is a success when literally millions out there have been left out in the cold by this supposedly great system. This is true of any system that will let a large proportion of the planet living in misery for so long. There is no point in celebrating wealth for the few and misery for so many.

zer00eyz 3y ago
> For millions of people living in poverty and homeless around the world and in the US itself, the capitalism system is a failure. You're blaming an economic framework for what in the majority of cases is failure of government. Frankly half a million homeless Americans is far better than the current alternatives of Russia or China... It isn't a very good point. in 1950 the average American home was 900 ish sq ft. Today the average American has 900sqf of space IN their home. We went from united fruit (misery where governments were weak) to fruit, coffee, tea, chocolate, cobalt, nickel... Americans got fat, and everyone else had the same level of suffering (maybe). Candidly it's been "a large proportion of the planet living in misery" forever. We're still the same monkeys who raped and murdered the neanderthals out of existence, we haven't really evolved since we salted the earth at Carthage. Look at the USSR, everyone was going to get a house, and a car and a.... Status wasn't about money it was about who got one first. At a point in Chinese communism status was indicated by pens (how many, if you keep them in a pocket)... The way you got ahead in these systems was graft, bribery and birthright. At least in the US and EU there is some sense of being able to elevate myself and a path to get there. The problem is that some people don't want to take it, they don't want to put the work in. The reality is that their quality of life is going to decline in the continuing global future because there isn't enough to go around. The current trend of wealth leading to decline in population (birth rate below replacement) is fascinating. The US makes up for it with immigration, china and Japan not so much, and Europe is going to have a cultural shift because of it. The next few decades will be interesting. The reality is that we're picking the option that sucks the least. I, am not happy about it, but no one has shown up with a better alternative that WORKS.
- coliveira 3y ago
  > half a million homeless Americans is far better than the current alternatives of Russia or China except that the USA is a rich country, from the point of view of capitalist competition, for more than 100 years. If a place like the USA cannot solve the plague of misery and homelessness (not to talk about the lack of basic health care) then what can you expect from the rest? It is definitely a failure of capitalism to solve these fundamental issues. The USA and other countries should seriously rethink their economic system before it is too late.
  - zer00eyz 3y ago
    >>> solve the plague of misery Im not sure what this is, but there is no place or point in history where a mass of people has been more well off than the US at present. Fraud, corruption, homelessness were always going to have some degree of this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38905889 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38905889 What is interesting is that there are places in the states where they are doing a great job with homelessness. Houston springs to mind, and that (politically) is shocking till you look at why and how they fixed it... They removed the incentive to compete, and changed how people are placed.
    - coliveira 3y ago
      > but there is no place or point in history where a mass of people has been more well off than the US at present. That is so false, just compare present USA to USA 30 years ago.

zer00eyz 3y ago

> For millions of people living in poverty and homeless around the world and in the US itself, the capitalism system is a failure. You're blaming an economic framework for what in the majority of cases is failure of government. Frankly half a million homeless Americans is far better than the current alternatives of Russia or China... It isn't a very good point. in 1950 the average American home was 900 ish sq ft. Today the average American has 900sqf of space IN their home. We went from united fruit (misery where governments were weak) to fruit, coffee, tea, chocolate, cobalt, nickel... Americans got fat, and everyone else had the same level of suffering (maybe). Candidly it's been "a large proportion of the planet living in misery" forever. We're still the same monkeys who raped and murdered the neanderthals out of existence, we haven't really evolved since we salted the earth at Carthage. Look at the USSR, everyone was going to get a house, and a car and a.... Status wasn't about money it was about who got one first. At a point in Chinese communism status was indicated by pens (how many, if you keep them in a pocket)... The way you got ahead in these systems was graft, bribery and birthright. At least in the US and EU there is some sense of being able to elevate myself and a path to get there. The problem is that some people don't want to take it, they don't want to put the work in. The reality is that their quality of life is going to decline in the continuing global future because there isn't enough to go around. The current trend of wealth leading to decline in population (birth rate below replacement) is fascinating. The US makes up for it with immigration, china and Japan not so much, and Europe is going to have a cultural shift because of it. The next few decades will be interesting. The reality is that we're picking the option that sucks the least. I, am not happy about it, but no one has shown up with a better alternative that WORKS.

coliveira 3y ago
> half a million homeless Americans is far better than the current alternatives of Russia or China except that the USA is a rich country, from the point of view of capitalist competition, for more than 100 years. If a place like the USA cannot solve the plague of misery and homelessness (not to talk about the lack of basic health care) then what can you expect from the rest? It is definitely a failure of capitalism to solve these fundamental issues. The USA and other countries should seriously rethink their economic system before it is too late.
- zer00eyz 3y ago
  >>> solve the plague of misery Im not sure what this is, but there is no place or point in history where a mass of people has been more well off than the US at present. Fraud, corruption, homelessness were always going to have some degree of this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38905889 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38905889 What is interesting is that there are places in the states where they are doing a great job with homelessness. Houston springs to mind, and that (politically) is shocking till you look at why and how they fixed it... They removed the incentive to compete, and changed how people are placed.
  - coliveira 3y ago
    > but there is no place or point in history where a mass of people has been more well off than the US at present. That is so false, just compare present USA to USA 30 years ago.