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Capitalism will never die, for it feeds on the thing that makes us human. Avarice.
We, as humans, are greedy beyond measure and put our own interests above all others. The economic classes exist because of greed, not because of capitalism. Capitalism is only a tool to create economic disparity. So long as there are humans who view themselves as deserving more than others, they will create the tools to make it happen and exploit the system to give them power.
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Capitalism will die when people stop trading stuff between themselves.
As long as there are people there is capitalism to some degree.
There are two poles to the capitalist space ... democracy and fascism.
Democracy is the commons, where you have an apple orchard and everyone can get some apples. Or someone tends the apple orchard and people give them other stuff they do not have time to take care of so they he can give them apples.
Fascism is where one jerk goes and picks all the apples and hides them and then makes everyone else go find something he wants before he will give them an apple that is theirs by right. It doesn't have to work that way, but it lacks the ability for everyone to force someone to behave, fascism is authoritarian and negative and will always get worse over time because it will quash democracy.
The reason democracy developed was to counter fascism, that is to temper capitalism, to make up rules and regulations for people to live by so that capitalism can be a force for good and production instead of a parasitic negative that hurts people.
Fascism just means rule by corporations. It's when "capitalism" gets too out of control.
None of you even seem to understand the meanings of the words you use. How can you possibly understand (or communicate) what you are talking about when you aren't even speaking the same language. George Orwell covered this. When you have no idea what one another is saying or the meanings of what you are saying are different then communication breaks down completely. He called this NewSpeak.
"In the Cambridge International Dictionary of English, Capitalism is defined as an economic, political and social system based on private ownership of property, business and industry, and directed towards making the greatest possible profits for successful organizations and PEOPLE."
This means the PEOPLE are the owners of the business they got together to run. Say like a group of architects who decided to start an architectural firm. If they have extra workers, say secretaries or IT guys then they pay those people a portion of the profits, that's capitalism in its true and original form as defined and created by the English.
> None of you even seem to understand the meanings of the words you use.
Wow, you are very clever in that you stuffed two insults into one short sentence, and managed to pretend superiority to boot. That makes you pretty much of an ahole in my book and discredits your motive and anything you have to say.
IF you will notice in the English languages words evolve over time and take on new or different or additional meanings. When I spoke of the terms you don't seem to be able to grasp, I defined them. The old definition of socialism for example talks about the means of production which is pretty much a meaningless phrase these days.
I am going to ignore your condescending ignorant claims, that is not communication, or discussion, that is your weak ego trying to strut on the Internet where no on can see you or punch your nose in for being a obnoxious know-it-all.
Capitalism is merely the different ways capitalism is accrued and managed, the next level up from free-enterprise. The questions are where does it get its inputs and labor and where does it sell its products and what does it use for trading value. The same process every country uses to buy and sell stuff back and forth, the point being that it is economical, political, and military. When the land is ruined or the workers are killed, or the people poisoned or hurt by products - voila, democracy arises of the people demanding a say, and developed enough this becomes the people demanding that private ownership be regulated, and the land and environment be protected. That is socialism. When coercion or force, economic, political or military is used by an oligarchy or elite - that is fascism.
Politics is the interplay of these two forces. Marx and Engels had it exactly right ... dialectical materialism, class struggle. Today we live in a fascist system where the elites are abusive and destructive to the citizens/workers and the land. The only solution is socialism/democracy.
Are you serious or just hypersensitive? I didn't insult you one bit, but since you insulted me out of the blue for no reason I am not going to sit here and educate you. There's nothing "superior" about sharing knowledge. If anything it is generosity. As they say you can lead a horse to water...
"pretend superiority to boot. That makes you pretty much of an ahole"
So hypocrite, to use your words that "discredits your motive and anything you have to say."
You don't listen either.
shareSooner than you think
https://news.yahoo.com/marco-rubio-sides-alabama-warehouse-120848054.html
Yeah not one of you really understand capitalism or what's going on. Henry Ford and Unions both expanded capitalism and the middle class. The middle class is the engine of "capitalism" in the west.
shareI have "heard" that Henry Ford believed that, if he paid his workers more than the prevailing wages at competing auto manufacturers, Ford employees could afford to buy Ford cars, thus creating a virtuous cycle of production and consumption. Without looking it up, I'm guessing that Henry Ford probably extended credit to his laborers for said purchases, which was probably more "generous" than other industries. Henry Ford was not a saint.
Collective Bargaining is contrary to capitalism, and it is really theft/extortion. At the opposite extreme we have the Ludlow Massacre and the Johnson County War.
I suppose the USA is more capitalistic than it was 40 years ago, if we consider the "free" services like public schools, courts, highways, etc. are not being paid for by taxes on current production/services, but rather funded by money borrowed from our enemies.
You've "heard" it huh?
No he wasn't a saint but he and unions helped create the middle class. He was the first industrialist to pay his workers a living $5 a day. "That was more than double the average factory wage at that time, and for U.S. workers it was one of the defining moments of the 20th century."
No, collective bargaining is guaranteed by our constitution [Amendment I.] and is a protection from theft and extortion by the corporatists.
"I suppose the USA is more capitalistic than it was 40 years ago"
Going based on the actual definition of capitalism, how do you figure? The most "capitalistic" time in America was around the turn of the century until 1950 when private ownership was very high. eg. There were some 3,000 automobile companies that existed in the United States before corporatists gobbled them up and consolidated them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_the_United_States
There needs to be serious checks and regulations on corporations starting with having a corporate income tax rate of 52% on corporations like when "America was great". https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/taxfacts/content/pdf/corporate_historical_bracket.pdf
Trickle down economics is nonsense and was immediately referred to as "Voodoo economics" as soon as the concept was conceived. The rich basically hoard it and there is no cash velocity. Because as we all know from the Republican Great Recession of 2007-2008 when Bush gave billions in a Socialist Bailout to banks that nothing came of it other than giving more power to the bigger banks to buy out other banks. I had a checking account at one of those banks that was bought out by an inferior bank. Under Trump in a few short years the branch closest to me closed and boarded up their windows - where it remains today, derelict. Whereas when people get money there is more cash velocity which the real Gordon Gekko explained. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wAa9DqHZtM
When I say "I have heard" or "I was taught" I mean to suggest that I don't know firsthand and it may or may not be true.
"collective bargaining is guaranteed by our constitution [Amendment I.]"
Did you mean [Article I]? I think that's where the Commerce Clause is. Which may be "legal."
I'm more interested in physical mechanics, not so much the law. A bunch of investors put up a bunch of money to build a railroad, and a railroad train. Maybe there's a thousand guys operating the engines, loading and unloading the boxcars, etc. These 1,000 guys get together and say "Why don't we all agree to stop working because these owners are making a helluvalot of profits, and we should get some of those profits. And they can't pick up these railroad tracks and put them somewhere else. So what happens?
Ran out of room.
Why Screwing Unions Screws the Entire Middle Class
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-labor-union-decline/
and from the conservative side.
Unions Help Middle Class Families Save For Their Future
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christianweller/2018/08/30/unions-help-middle-class-families-save-for-their-future/
After socialism stops bailing it out perhaps?
Whatever we have here is not really capitalism, it's some form of pyramid scheme feudalism that requires constant growth to survive. This is how the Mayan kingdom was run, spread, conquered other kingdoms and eventually failed because they were stretched too thin and ran out of other peoples to conquer. Similar to the British empire.
‘Socialism for the rich’: the evils of bad economics
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2019/jun/06/socialism-for-the-rich-the-evils-of-bad-economics
When freedom dies.
shareWhen freedom returns sir. You see, everything was once free. Air, water and food and land. Well they locked up the land and the food on which to grow it, overfished the oceans so now we have to pay to live and slave away our entire lives just to afford the roof over our heads when we were all once free. And now they are starting to charge us more and more for the water by first poisoning it, then making us pay for them to clean it. Now there are more mass shootings in the US than ever, there is a global pandemic because the airlines profits were more important than the lives of over 500,000 Americans and capitalism has turns us into slaves. And the capitalists can't help but continue their madness.
In 2009 I watched a television show on Outdoor Life Network called Departures with Justin and Scott. Well they visited the remote island of Ascension island in the South Atlantic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb-_QuiwZSk They've taken the videos down now but at that time when they visited the fishing was so spectacular and the fish so abundant that as soon as a fisherman slapped the water with his fishing rod he would catch a massive tuna, literally, it was that fast. They hauled in one fish after the other. They could fish for an hour and have so much tuna that the island could eat for a week, in just ONE HOUR OF WORK! That's what freedom means mothersucker.
Well as it goes the capitalist sports fishermen of course saw this and they started heading to Ascension island not for catching food but for competition. They didn't make much money but they overfished the hell out of it. By the time the SVDelos crew sailed there in 2018 there was no fish left and these capitalist pricks had ruined the livelihood of the island. Now there is so little fish that even the sharks are hungry and more aggressive there than anywhere else the SVDelos crew has sailed to.
https://youtu.be/R7sNet5Lq2o?t=769
Watch to where she says, "After trolling for nearly five hours we haven't landed any fish."
https://youtu.be/9cpql0OcdCU?t=79
The Amish who live in a perfect example of Democratic Socialism build one another's homes and barns. They will build a massive barn in a single week. This is the model we need to be heading to if we want to be free again. Because with more Americans in prison than in any other country in the world including communist China, and more homeless than ever, we definitely are not free.
shareYou think the Amish are free?!
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Is that a joke? Capitalism is in total control of the world. It's going nowhere.
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Empires, yes. Capitalism? No. The owners of the wealth also own the best weapons. There will be no reboot of Bastille Day.
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I suppose enough weed and relativism will allow you to revise history any way you want...
Communists didn't kick anybody's ass, for the record. Locals kicked the asses of invaders. That's happened throughout history and has nothing to do with political ideologies (i.e., look at how the Soviets got their asses kicked in Afghanistan).
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"The owners of the wealth also own the best weapons."
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/12/north-korea-nukes-icbm-test-nuclear-weapons/
“I’m not afraid of nuclear war. There are 2.7 billion people in the world; it doesn’t matter if some are killed. China has a population of 600 million; even if half of them are killed, there are still 300 million people left.”
(1964)
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After WW3. That's Wonder Woman 3 by the way.
share