4 ms·
No, the term for what you describe is "oligarchy". Under "capitalism", the invisible hand of the free market is supposed to decide resource allocation.
by reverius42 3mo ago
No, the term for what you describe is "oligarchy".
Under "capitalism", the invisible hand of the free market is supposed to decide resource allocation.
- inigyou 3mo agoThat's right-libertarianism, which is incompatible with capitalism.
- reverius42 3mo agoThat's melting my brain. My understanding is that right-libertarianism and capitalism are not only compatible, they are best friends.
- senordevnyc 3mo agoThese people use “capitalism” to mean crony capitalism, oligarchy, and corporatocracy.
- krapp 3mo agoThose are the forms of capitalism actually practiced in the real world. As opposed to pure free market capitalism, which doesn't actually exist.
- reverius42 3mo agoWhen did free-market capitalism stop being something to aspire to though?
- krapp 3mo agoNo capitalist actually wants free and fair competition. A pure free market isn't the most efficient and productive means of making a profit, and they're in business to make as much money as possible. What gets aspired to under the guise of "free market capitalism" is deregulation of the market in the ways which allow businesses to exploit consumers without consequences, such as lowering of environmental regulations or safety standards, but regulation when it hinders their competitors and lets them entrench their market position. Free market capitalism fails because of simple human nature - greed doesn't optimize for ethics, so neither do markets. Any ideal system that simply expects people to act rationally and ethically en masse is doomed to fail, which is why capitalism only works when regulated and in the context of a society with strong social cohesion and a safety net because certain things like education and healthcare shouldn't be subject to free market dynamics.
- reverius42 3mo agoThere's definitely a non-libertarian approach to "free market capitalism" that does not eschew regulation and does embrace ethics.
- krapp 3mo agoMaybe but at that point we're arguing the definition of a free market.
- reverius42 3mo agoI thought we were doing that all along.
- inigyou 3mo agoFree-market capitalism is an oxymoron, so, maybe when we discovered it's an oxymoron?
- inigyou 3mo agoRight-libertarianism means a system where everyone has maximum liberty including the liberty to take away each other's liberty (as opposed to left-libertarianism where we don't have that liberty) but capitalism means a society where liberty is proportional to capital.