3 ms·

>Your duty is to the citizens you represent, not corporations, not foreign workers, and certainly not a small population of the wealthy who receive the gains fr

by krapp 11mo ago

>Your duty is to the citizens you represent, not corporations, not foreign workers, and certainly not a small population of the wealthy who receive the gains from increased shareholder value from imported immigrant workers. We're a capitalist society, "the business of America is business" as Reagan said. The first duty of a capitalist government is to the capitalist class and corporate sector. Preferring less expensive foreign labor with fewer rights over domestic is simply practicing good capitalism. Until Americans are willing to work sweatshop hours for sweatshop wages without even the meager labor rights and social safety net they have, they simply aren't worth the investment. If you want socialism just say you want socialism.

toomuchtodo 11mo ago
> A recent survey by the Cato Institute and YouGov paints a troubling picture: 62 percent of Americans aged 18–29 say they hold a “favorable view” of socialism, and 34 percent say the same of communism. Big fan of socialism, so I'm in good company at the moment. Are we a capitalist society? TBD based on the death rate (~2M of the 55+ population die every year in the US, ~5k/day; 31% of US wealth is held by those 70+), and if these values mentioned above stick as these folks age. I admit its hard to predict outcomes of electorate turnover over time, but we're directionally headed in the right direction imho. 60% of Americans cannot meet their basic needs on their income, half a million Americans go bankrupt every year from medical debt, and ~750k are homeless as of this comment; I'm of the opinion capitalism has failed and change is required, but I understand other opinions will differ based on some combination of lack of data, lived experience, mental models, etc. https://www.cato.org/blog/young-americans-socialism-too-much-thats-problem-libertarians-must-fix https://www.cato.org/blog/young-americans-socialism-too-much... https://www.cato.org/blog/81-say-they-cant-afford-pay-higher-taxes-next-year https://www.cato.org/blog/81-say-they-cant-afford-pay-higher... https://www.apolloacademy.com/31-percent-of-wealth-owned-by-people-over-70/ https://www.apolloacademy.com/31-percent-of-wealth-owned-by-... https://finance.yahoo.com/news/baby-boomers-now-gobbled-nearly-185807558.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/baby-boomers-now-gobbled-near...
collingreen 11mo ago
I appreciate the honest capitalist-as-government take here because of how grisly a view it is in a pure form - essentially the claim is that government is neither for nor by the governed and it should only be used as a tool to further the interests dictated by the capital holders. Personally I dont think this is anywhere near right or ideal - letting the movement of capital in free (as in speech not free as in beer) markets dictate what is produced by the economy at large has nothing to do with if a government should enact the will of its people or protect them. One is how and why governments exist (ie, democracy vs monarchy vs theocracy, etc) and one is how to plan an economy (capitalism vs various versions of a planned economy). tl;dr - where government derives its power isn't the same as how an economy should decide what to make. Conflating the two is a way to hand-wave away a lot of harm done by unchecked greed.

by krapp 11mo ago

toomuchtodo 11mo ago

> A recent survey by the Cato Institute and YouGov paints a troubling picture: 62 percent of Americans aged 18–29 say they hold a “favorable view” of socialism, and 34 percent say the same of communism. Big fan of socialism, so I'm in good company at the moment. Are we a capitalist society? TBD based on the death rate (~2M of the 55+ population die every year in the US, ~5k/day; 31% of US wealth is held by those 70+), and if these values mentioned above stick as these folks age. I admit its hard to predict outcomes of electorate turnover over time, but we're directionally headed in the right direction imho. 60% of Americans cannot meet their basic needs on their income, half a million Americans go bankrupt every year from medical debt, and ~750k are homeless as of this comment; I'm of the opinion capitalism has failed and change is required, but I understand other opinions will differ based on some combination of lack of data, lived experience, mental models, etc. https://www.cato.org/blog/young-americans-socialism-too-much-thats-problem-libertarians-must-fix https://www.cato.org/blog/young-americans-socialism-too-much... https://www.cato.org/blog/81-say-they-cant-afford-pay-higher-taxes-next-year https://www.cato.org/blog/81-say-they-cant-afford-pay-higher... https://www.apolloacademy.com/31-percent-of-wealth-owned-by-people-over-70/ https://www.apolloacademy.com/31-percent-of-wealth-owned-by-... https://finance.yahoo.com/news/baby-boomers-now-gobbled-nearly-185807558.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/baby-boomers-now-gobbled-near...

collingreen 11mo ago

I appreciate the honest capitalist-as-government take here because of how grisly a view it is in a pure form - essentially the claim is that government is neither for nor by the governed and it should only be used as a tool to further the interests dictated by the capital holders. Personally I dont think this is anywhere near right or ideal - letting the movement of capital in free (as in speech not free as in beer) markets dictate what is produced by the economy at large has nothing to do with if a government should enact the will of its people or protect them. One is how and why governments exist (ie, democracy vs monarchy vs theocracy, etc) and one is how to plan an economy (capitalism vs various versions of a planned economy). tl;dr - where government derives its power isn't the same as how an economy should decide what to make. Conflating the two is a way to hand-wave away a lot of harm done by unchecked greed.