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[-] Badass_panda@lemmy.world 75 points 1 year ago

Capitalism isn't the "best system we've got", though... it isn't even the system we are all using right now.

We've never operated in anything like a "purely" capitalist economy, and the socialist policies most western countries have put in place are wildly popular and few people would want to live without them.

Countries that intelligently choose when and where and what things should be operated on a capitalist basis, have better outcomes.

Healthcare? Not something anyone should make money off of. Basic housing, food, water, power... these should be immune to market forces.

At the same time, capitalism drives fantastic technological and social innovation within its swimlane. We just have to pre-define what things people should be able to make money doing.

[-] novibe@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 year ago

Capitalism =/= markets.

Socialism =/= public services.

Markets are much older than capitalism, and socialism is a very simple economic idea, being the collective ownership of the means of production by the workers.

Capitalism guides innovation towards increasing profits for capitalist, hardly “innovative”. The USSR was the first to the Moon, after being a feudalistic society, thanks to socialism.

[-] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

Imean, the USSR wasn't even good socialism. They still used money for quite a large set of things, businesses were very much NOT worker owned in many places, people could be killed by the whims of authorities and a dictator... Yep, not even good socialism got to space first.

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[-] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

No, you see, the only way to improve things is to wank endlessly about some grand revolution that will bring about a perfect utopia that we can't even define much less implement. Using the tools we have available right now to make the world better just means that you're a status-quo centri-fascist!

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[-] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 58 points 1 year ago

Child repeating what their parents and society has told them.

Vs.

Adult who has started to live the reality.

[-] li10@feddit.uk 44 points 1 year ago

In theory, how would a different system really help?

Currently the people in power manipulate and circumvent the system, do they magically disappear?

[-] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 65 points 1 year ago

The move from absolute monarchies ruled by kings and aristocrats to democracies made the power distribution more equal across classes.

What is needed in a new system is another step in this direction.

The biggest problem and driver of inequality in the current system is that while we have democratic control of government, the control of business is still largely autocratic.

Work and business is a huge part of our lives and making sure that the companies work for workers and consumers and not owners and investors is the next major systemic change that should be sought out.

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[-] czarrie@lemm.ee 35 points 1 year ago

There is this belief by so many that somehow, if you create the perfect system, it will somehow overcome human nature or that humans will somehow starting acting collectively altruistic with the right political model.

In most cases, they also imagine themselves in a position of power in this new government, either up in an upper "leadership" class or somehow silently leading "but I'm not a leader", as if somehow the idea itself is so potent that people will just, you know, execute it flawlessly without intervention.

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[-] HubertManne@kbin.social 35 points 1 year ago

Capitalism is great for handling things that are relatively unimportant. So you don't want it for medical, education, infrastructure (including utilities), etc. Its fine for things like fashion or the various things might have around the house. Even then it must be highly regulated.

[-] Badass_panda@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Agreed, although I'd reframe it; capitalism is a solid default, and does a good job of innovating ... but it tends to operate like gravity, the more capital you have the more you get.

So, you need a mechanism to redistribute that capital, and you need to make sure that the things everyone is supposed to have enough of, don't get distributed that way in the first place.

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[-] theKalash@feddit.ch 31 points 1 year ago

I've never seen an adolescents defend capitalism. They tend to be either apolitical or anarchists.

[-] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

I've seen a lot of college kids adamant about the invisible hand of the free market solving all problems.

[-] irmoz@reddthat.com 13 points 1 year ago

This has to be a lie. I've never seen a single kid educated enough to even know what anarchy is. But they're definitely dumb enough to parrot their parents.

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[-] SCB@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

Young workers doing shit work don't like their jobs.

News at 11.

[-] Mago@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

So when do people typically start enjoying their work?

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[-] archomrade@midwest.social 13 points 1 year ago

Capitalist systems produce bullshit jobs that people don't like.

More news at 7.

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[-] Smoogs@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

That’s because those people are always assuming they will be living capitalism from the CEO’S perspective after school. never from the worker’s perspective.

[-] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 24 points 1 year ago

Can you give one example of a long-term, large scale, non-hierarchical system in human society?

[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

Anarchism. We used it for most of human history, hierarchical societies are only 6k years old. The human species has existed for 200k years.

[-] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago

Anarchism. We used it for most of human history

Total horseshit.

Name one society based on Anarchism

[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Instead of just one, here's a whole Wikipedia article on the subject.

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Those do not meet the criteria of what was asked.

[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Examples of intentional anarchical societies don't meet the criteria of anarchical societies?

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[-] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And where are they today?

Can you give one example of a long-term, large scale, non-hierarchical system in human society?

[-] kenopsik@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

Long-term =/= Permanent

Humans have existed much, MUCH longer than our current structure of civilization.

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Are you joking? Ever heard of tribalism? Even monkeys use it.

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[-] flowerofanarchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 year ago

You really gotta be a dumbass teenager to defend capitalism. What the fuck is it offering you?! I was an anarchist communist when I was 13. Wake up, we are running out of time

[-] ChefKalash@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 year ago

You just need to be a target of Youtube's notoriously reactionary, gamergate centered recommendation algorithm. Especially if you otherwise have no source of reliable political knowledge

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[-] Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago

I don't like to think that I or we really can't imagine a better system but I don't think it's completely unrealistic to say something like best we got. I say this only because things like communism and all their promises can only really come about through a revolution and the price in blood is jaw dropping. So much killing. It also almost certainly means people materially worse off for a long time if not the rest of their lives in the wake of this revolution even if over generations it manages to eventually deliver.

I'm all for substantial reform and leftist/liberal politics but it's difficult for me to ignore the great peril and huge gamble of revolution. Some times a society successfully manages to make things so bad that there's so little to lose that it can seem a realistic option but I think everybody considering that option should weigh it very carefully. It's very possible to sacrifice everything including your own life and thousands of others' only for the whole thing to get derailed by opportunists and to make a bad situation so much worse.

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[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 15 points 1 year ago

Yes, but it's still better than being in the exact same position but having to join a ten year waiting list for a Lada.

[-] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 14 points 1 year ago

I love the smell of false dichotomies in the morning!

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[-] robbotlove@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

the difference between a capitalist bread line and a socialist bread line is that when you get to the end of the capitalist line, you have to pay for the bread.

[-] eochaid@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In my experience, the people who work retail and food service are more likely to favor socialism and collective action. But not all of them, of course.

The people who justify capitalism tend to work in higher paid office or managerial jobs. Not all of them, of course, as I am an example, and as are the ton of lower paid office workers that hate their jobs.

Turns out, the people for whom capitalism worked out, tend to like it. Those being crushed by the weight of unsustainable consumption tend to hate it. Go figure.

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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
1085 points (100.0% liked)

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