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> I find it interesting that there's this continual barrage of articles and thinkers taking swings at capitalism; Why is it unusual? Crises of recession

by Ygg2 12y ago

> I find it interesting that there's this continual barrage of articles and thinkers taking swings at capitalism; Why is it unusual? Crises of recession and slow comeback have made people wary of it. The future, most western and/or rich states are moving towards, seem to be one inhospitable for most humans (a caste system based on money/power). If you see the current system being bad for you, why wouldn't you critique it? And why wouldn't you use/mention the oldest critique of it? Especially parts that have been validated. It's a bit like saying, "Listen I'm going to talk about Parsers, but completely ignore anything written about parsers, before 2009. I'm especially going to ignore Dragon Book."

pnathan 12y ago
I'd like to see serious engagement with the subject rather than dismissal of the current state (such as you've done in your first paragraph). If it's so bad for people (it's not, in general - check out the Gates Foundation Letter from 2014), then we should be looking to improve it, not throw it out. It's also interesting that circa the '30s, the capitalist/democratic system was also being tossed into the popular junkheap in favor of centralised/dictatorish systems. I don't mean to say this is like that, but there's a fun little similarity there on the surface.
- Ygg2 12y ago
  > I'd like to see serious engagement with the subject rather than dismissal of the current state It's not my realm of expertise, but from what I've gather the way capitalism works to maximize profit (price-cost). You achieve that by, maximizing the price or minimizing the cost or any combination of the two. If you think closely about it, replacing humans with cheaper, tireless, less error prone systems (be that robots or robot-like humans), you score a double whammy. You maximize production AND reduce the costs. > It's also interesting that circa the '30s, the capitalist/democratic system was also being tossed into the popular junkheap in favor of centralised/dictatorish systems You mean that after Great Depression (circa 1929.), people would considered an alternative system to the one that left them in crushing poverty? That doesn't strike me as interesting or surprising. It's like a man in debt going to a loan-shark out of desperation. What is interesting that around ~81 years after that episode, we have another.

by Ygg2 12y ago

pnathan 12y ago

I'd like to see serious engagement with the subject rather than dismissal of the current state (such as you've done in your first paragraph). If it's so bad for people (it's not, in general - check out the Gates Foundation Letter from 2014), then we should be looking to improve it, not throw it out. It's also interesting that circa the '30s, the capitalist/democratic system was also being tossed into the popular junkheap in favor of centralised/dictatorish systems. I don't mean to say this is like that, but there's a fun little similarity there on the surface.

Ygg2 12y ago
> I'd like to see serious engagement with the subject rather than dismissal of the current state It's not my realm of expertise, but from what I've gather the way capitalism works to maximize profit (price-cost). You achieve that by, maximizing the price or minimizing the cost or any combination of the two. If you think closely about it, replacing humans with cheaper, tireless, less error prone systems (be that robots or robot-like humans), you score a double whammy. You maximize production AND reduce the costs. > It's also interesting that circa the '30s, the capitalist/democratic system was also being tossed into the popular junkheap in favor of centralised/dictatorish systems You mean that after Great Depression (circa 1929.), people would considered an alternative system to the one that left them in crushing poverty? That doesn't strike me as interesting or surprising. It's like a man in debt going to a loan-shark out of desperation. What is interesting that around ~81 years after that episode, we have another.