4 ms·

You don't think capitalism played a role in eliminating poverty?

wqaatwt 3mo ago
No, I implied it did. I actually think that free market competition has been the main driving force behind human progress for quite a while now. The issue is that the “winning condition” of capitalism results in the complete subversion of that process. So it’s always a balance.
- microgpt 3mo ago
  Free market competition is the opposite of capitalism though. Free market competition means that markets are free, but capitalism means that markets are controlled by the richest.
  - wqaatwt 3mo ago
    They inseparable, though? i.e. every market participant is incentivized to accumulate as much “capital” in any way they can. Competitors keep them in check which leaves a bigger share to consumers. Historically that has not been a stable system and at some point one or a couple of companies end up winning and there is no one to prevent them from doing anything they want.
    - microgpt 3mo ago
      It's only been a stable system as long as the richest were only rich enough to keep doing what they're doing in the marketplace, and not rich enough to buy or become the marketplace. That is one reason excessive inequality is destructive to society. It is no problem if the best snack vendor can afford to buy the biggest snack truck. In fact that should be encouraged so we can have more of the best snacks. It's also no problem if he can afford a mansion. He deserves it for working so hard on snacks. It's bad if he can do anything that negatively affects his competitors, like buying the adjacent stands to leave empty, buying up all the snack ingredients so nobody else can get them, bribing the market manager, or making a law that all snacks must be french fries.
phs318u 3mo ago
Has it? If you take a global perspective since the Industrial Revolution it seems some parts of the world excelled at the cost of some other parts (through exploitation and expropriation of land, people and goods). Poverty may have been effectively eliminated in the west and north, not so much in the east and south.

No, I implied it did. I actually think that free market competition has been the main driving force behind human progress for quite a while now. The issue is that the “winning condition” of capitalism results in the complete subversion of that process. So it’s always a balance.

microgpt 3mo ago
Free market competition is the opposite of capitalism though. Free market competition means that markets are free, but capitalism means that markets are controlled by the richest.
- wqaatwt 3mo ago
  They inseparable, though? i.e. every market participant is incentivized to accumulate as much “capital” in any way they can. Competitors keep them in check which leaves a bigger share to consumers. Historically that has not been a stable system and at some point one or a couple of companies end up winning and there is no one to prevent them from doing anything they want.
  - microgpt 3mo ago
    It's only been a stable system as long as the richest were only rich enough to keep doing what they're doing in the marketplace, and not rich enough to buy or become the marketplace. That is one reason excessive inequality is destructive to society. It is no problem if the best snack vendor can afford to buy the biggest snack truck. In fact that should be encouraged so we can have more of the best snacks. It's also no problem if he can afford a mansion. He deserves it for working so hard on snacks. It's bad if he can do anything that negatively affects his competitors, like buying the adjacent stands to leave empty, buying up all the snack ingredients so nobody else can get them, bribing the market manager, or making a law that all snacks must be french fries.

phs318u 3mo ago

Has it? If you take a global perspective since the Industrial Revolution it seems some parts of the world excelled at the cost of some other parts (through exploitation and expropriation of land, people and goods). Poverty may have been effectively eliminated in the west and north, not so much in the east and south.