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That's just propaganda. Our society is more like kings and serfs that capitalist these days.

tastyfreeze 1y ago
This is absurdly false. The serfs can become kings as evidenced by newly minted millionaires every year. However, the reverse is also true as there are plenty of fortunes lost as well.
- pavel_lishin 1y ago
  Yes, yes, we're all temporarily-displaced millionaires.
  - tastyfreeze 1y ago
    You surely won't become one by griping about the unfairness of other people's success to a bunch of strangers. 500k new millionaires in 2023 in the US. Why can't you be one of them in a coming year?
    - wizzwizz4 1y ago
      That's about forty times my annual salary, ignoring expenses. Living like a miser for my entire working life, I could become a millionaire – though not a multimillionaire.
    - pavel_lishin 1y ago
      > 500k new millionaires in 2023 in the US. Why can't you be one of them in a coming year? I know it's a rhetorical question, but the actual answer is "because I feel like it would require more work than it would be worth". Of course, all the millionaires I personally know got there through 95% luck, so who knows! Maybe I'll personally be cursed to follow their path.
- sumeno 1y ago
  Being a millionaire is table stakes for a minimal retirement, not being fabulously wealthy. Not something particularly impressive
  - edoceo 1y ago
    In USA, it's something like 15% of the population is millionaires, IIRC. Being the special 3 out of 20 - I'd say is impressive.
- autoexec 1y ago
  The serfs can become kings The odds of a poor person becoming a rich person in America is extremely low and socioeconomic mobility in the US is getting worse all the time. I'd guess that most poor people have better odds of getting hit by lightning. A lot of new millionaires are property owners. Anyone who gets their money from real estate is not a serf.
wizzwizz4 1y ago
That's what the word "capitalism" was coined to mean – if you ascribe to the theory that Louis Blanc coined it.

This is absurdly false. The serfs can become kings as evidenced by newly minted millionaires every year. However, the reverse is also true as there are plenty of fortunes lost as well.

pavel_lishin 1y ago
Yes, yes, we're all temporarily-displaced millionaires.
- tastyfreeze 1y ago
  You surely won't become one by griping about the unfairness of other people's success to a bunch of strangers. 500k new millionaires in 2023 in the US. Why can't you be one of them in a coming year?
  - wizzwizz4 1y ago
    That's about forty times my annual salary, ignoring expenses. Living like a miser for my entire working life, I could become a millionaire – though not a multimillionaire.
  - pavel_lishin 1y ago
    > 500k new millionaires in 2023 in the US. Why can't you be one of them in a coming year? I know it's a rhetorical question, but the actual answer is "because I feel like it would require more work than it would be worth". Of course, all the millionaires I personally know got there through 95% luck, so who knows! Maybe I'll personally be cursed to follow their path.
sumeno 1y ago
Being a millionaire is table stakes for a minimal retirement, not being fabulously wealthy. Not something particularly impressive
- edoceo 1y ago
  In USA, it's something like 15% of the population is millionaires, IIRC. Being the special 3 out of 20 - I'd say is impressive.
autoexec 1y ago
The serfs can become kings The odds of a poor person becoming a rich person in America is extremely low and socioeconomic mobility in the US is getting worse all the time. I'd guess that most poor people have better odds of getting hit by lightning. A lot of new millionaires are property owners. Anyone who gets their money from real estate is not a serf.

wizzwizz4 1y ago

That's what the word "capitalism" was coined to mean – if you ascribe to the theory that Louis Blanc coined it.