makotech222

Damn, how terrible it is that the afghani government, made of entirely afghani people, are going to exploit the wealth of the land they have historically lived on, instead of white saviors.

Capitalism is an economic system in which private individuals capture property, make it private, make it scarce, then charge others to use it, making profit. Profit is theft from society.

Stuff like this is the natural conclusion of such a system.

If you're receptive to that way of thinking, try taking a look into Marxist theories, which incorporate that way of thinking into a political philosophy.

The right to protest is constitutionally protected, but whatever.

This is misinformation. Unions are democratically led. They can have whatever rules they want regarding skill and pay. The point is that they reach a consensus and then negotiate as a single unit against their employer.

NPR is corporate propaganda for people who think their above the type of propaganda you see on FOX news.

I use to listen religiously for about 3 years, until the 2016 election. The way they talked about the democratic primary, it was very very obvious they were biased towards favoring Hillary. They were telling outright lies about Bernie and his policies. Haven't listened to them since, but I've seen stories about how much worse they've gotten. I think they're mostly funded by the Koch's.

Heh, that's probably it. Thanks for the reminder.

I Thought this was already known? I remember hearing about this in my Undergrad physics classes. At any time in liquid water, there are hydrogen bonds constantly breaking and rejoining between H-O, H2O, and H2O2.

No, he doesn't assume you should have no rich people. He wants there to be only one class of people, regardless of total wealth. There are two classes in capitalism, owners and workers. In Marx, there is only worker-owners.

Actually, Marx figured that out in the 1800's. If you have two classes of people, the more powerful class will take control of government and advance interests for themselves.

This is true; the only way to survive in modern capitalism is to REALLY fuck workers over so much that they can't even survive while working at your company, let alone after they retire. Fuck this economy so damn much.

Labor makes the world go round. Finance is a parasite.

Millennials, like myself, are stuck between a rock and a hard place. We either have to keep shelling out a mortgage-level rent payments every month, with a $100+ increase every year, or try and save up and spend the 20% down payment and hedge against the rent payment increases.

I went with saving for down payment and getting a home. I'd say i made the right choice though. I just looked at rent cost for the apartment I use to have, and when i started renting it was $900; It's now at $1315 4 years later. My mortgage is at $1300, and I know it will always stay that way, too. Only downside is replacing things that seem to break all the time when you own a home :P

Hey, remember when the USSR started and they eliminated homelessness within 10 years. And also, were the first to space. In addition, had citizens that were better fed than the US, had more doctors per capita. And this is just from State Capitalism, not Socialism.

Haha, do they?

I believe OP was talking about trade throughout the world.

Yeah, we certainly can't produce toilet paper unless 50% of the population is in poverty.

Nice propaganda, dude. We all 'hear' stories like this, but in reality, if you have any experience with people who are actually in unions, its nothing but good. And unions are the only ones pushing back against government cuts to things like education and medicaid.

The argument is, why do we as a society allow people to amass wealth on the scale of nations. Instead, perhaps that wealth should be democratically owned, and then put towards what the society needs, rather than what one person decides.

Sure here's the comparison data: http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-sta...

And my favorite part:

"For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings:

    Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries.
    Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years).
    Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades.
    Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization.Source 29"

Liberalism went through the same period. Ever hear of the french revolution? Then the Napoleonic wars?

The same is and will happen with socialism. The status quo benefits a select few people (Monarchy, at the time), who will do their damndest to keep it that way. Eventually, enough people will rise up and make change happen.

Higher prosperity for everyone? Who are you talking about? I'm pretty sure the bottom 95% of capitalist countries are in complete poverty.

Just want to point out. Socialism doesn't give rise to fascism in any way. Fascism is basically late-stage capitalism, and a rejection of socialism. Communism is late-stage socialism, which is a utopian society.

The words are a bit bundled up in usage. The communist revolution lead to a State-Capitalist USSR, which most scholars would say is not what socialism actually is (as per your Richard Wolff videos) I suggest watching his intro to socialism videos to get a clear understanding of the terms. The USSR revolution was supposed to bring about a socialist society, but Stalin basically decided that being in a State-capitalist society was good enough, and ended the transition there.

Take a trip to any non-first-world capitalist country. Funny how only a handful of countries benefit from capitalism, while the rest have their resources and labor pillaged. Sounds a lot like a capitalist business.

I think you are in the bubble. How much of the world do you think gets paid fairly for their labor? The First-World conditions of America and Europe are buoyed by the dystopic conditions of labor in the Third-World. And these conditions are very visibly creeping into middle class America as well.

Yes, because a socialist enterprise can exist in a system where the ultra-wealthy capitalist can

1. Buy out the company and outsource everything 2. Buy out the politicians and make laws against them 3. Use their extreme wealth to sabotage their business. 4. In the case of other nations, embargo them and assassinate their leaders, stoke pro-capitalist revolutions.

Examples: See Cuba, USSR, entirety of South America, Vietnam, etc.

I don't think you know what socialism is.

Democratization of work doesn't mean zero hierarchy. It means the workers get to choose how their labor value is used. It is perfectly acceptable for a majority of a company to decide to elect a CEO and form a capitalist-style company, but it is important that it is their choice to do so! And of course, they would still retain their right to revoke such a hierarchy.

https://local.theonion.com/ceo-worked-way-up-from-son-of-ceo...

Yeah, we wouldn't want people being wealthy beyond belief without deserving it. I can tell that you don't know the first thing about socialism.

Congratulations, you have discovered socialism. Most people find extreme injustice in seeing the value of their labor being stolen by the capitalist class. Socialism is an economic system that does away with the employer-employee distinction and allows all workers to take ownership of their own labor. In practice, this means the democratization of the workplace, and the end to the autocratic workplace.

Edit: To actually answer your question, perhaps you should think about politics, and fight for a future where no one should suffer like this.