Nowhere on the planet Earth do "markets play out as they are supposed to". There exists precisely zero economies without significant public involvement in private markets. Zero.
Am I the only one that finds this branding of the US being a capitalist haven to be complete and utter bullshit? Companies regularly and in the open bribe (sorry, “lobby”) politicians for changes to regulation to give them unfair advantages, externalizer costs, etc etc. Walmart, a bastion of low price capitalism, relies heavily on a workforce on government food stamps to operate. Private and public utilities get politicians to pass laws making it more difficult to install solar. Car dealerships with political clout force companies like Tesla to sell through their channels or leave the state. Etc etc etc. Not a day goes by that I don’t see articles that support this and yet everyone still pretends the US is capitalist to its core!
We are a nation founded upon the love of money. We take Pride in these humble roots, and we celebrate every three-day weekend at the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet.
It is capitalistic in the sense that people with large capital make the big decisions. It's easy to pay off politicians if there are only 2 sides. Heck, a manager from Blackrock just recently blatently stated that its easy to buy a Senator. For just 10k you got him in your pocket.
And what are called "political donations", would fall under the law of corruption in many European countries.
It's a matter of degrees. I've been to truly "communist" countries (e.g. Cuba), and lived in several European countries, and without a doubt US has a much more capitalist bend.
Efficient systems are fragile, redundancy and stockpiling are both inefficient but without them you have fragility. Fragility in the food supply means starvation. Anybody who suggests that the food industry should be entrusted to the ruthless efficiency optimizing mechanism that is free market capitalism should be beaten with sticks until they fall quiet.
> Anybody who suggests that the food industry should be entrusted to the ruthless efficiency optimizing mechanism that is free market capitalism should be beaten with sticks until they fall quiet.
That's actually been done before, more than once.
The result was 30 million starving to death in the USSR and 60 million starving to death in China. Plus the odd few million in North Korea, Ethiopia, Cambodia, etc.
I'd rather we not run that experiment again, thank you.
standardUser|2 years ago
malfist|2 years ago
It's already bad with with corn and soy monocultures
cpursley|2 years ago
voisin|2 years ago
Am I the only one that finds this branding of the US being a capitalist haven to be complete and utter bullshit? Companies regularly and in the open bribe (sorry, “lobby”) politicians for changes to regulation to give them unfair advantages, externalizer costs, etc etc. Walmart, a bastion of low price capitalism, relies heavily on a workforce on government food stamps to operate. Private and public utilities get politicians to pass laws making it more difficult to install solar. Car dealerships with political clout force companies like Tesla to sell through their channels or leave the state. Etc etc etc. Not a day goes by that I don’t see articles that support this and yet everyone still pretends the US is capitalist to its core!
NoZebra120vClip|2 years ago
DarkNova6|2 years ago
And what are called "political donations", would fall under the law of corruption in many European countries.
angarg12|2 years ago
specialist|2 years ago
mcpackieh|2 years ago
Turing_Machine|2 years ago
That's actually been done before, more than once.
The result was 30 million starving to death in the USSR and 60 million starving to death in China. Plus the odd few million in North Korea, Ethiopia, Cambodia, etc.
I'd rather we not run that experiment again, thank you.
sebastiandb|2 years ago
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