Its getting old.
Its getting old.
128 comments
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We beat scarcity. We're up to our eyeballs in labor-saving technology. We just left people in charge who cannot imagine using it to save labor.
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Exactly, automation shouldn't kick some people out of jobs and leave others just as overworked as before, it should automate things that don't absolutely need humans and just decrease the workload of (currently) irreplaceable people so that more people can work as much as one did before and still get the same salary.
Hell, unemployment as a whole should not exist in the modern era. If there's "too few jobs", decrease working hours and increase wages accordingly so the total monthly/yearly/whatever pay is the same. And if there just physically aren't enough resources to accomodate so many people having decent salaries (which is absolutely not the case right now), then we should start talking about overpopulation.
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And if there just physically aren’t enough resources to accomodate so many people having decent salaries (which is absolutely not the case right now), then we should start talking about overpopulation.
Don't blame overpopulation, blame the C-levels who think they need to take home 500k+ a year salaries.
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The problem is as long there is no national wide law that forces companies to do so one would have much higher costs employing 2 people half time for the same job as 1 full time (with unpaid overtime of course as a bonus). And a Business that can't compete won't exist long. Or rather nobody even tries it because only greedy people are getting in high power positions for some reason.
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But have you considered the following:
Capitalism good because freedom and innovation.
Bet you feel dumb now.
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I bet OP posted this using an iphone, I am very ismart vuvusela
/s
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Mhh yes freedom through capitalism. I love the freedom Apple gives me over their device that I bought but don't own. Or when Samsung locks devices in mexico because they can and people in mexico dare to buy used phones.
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You don't understand, that's for your protection so you can feel safer and even more freedomery
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The thing about capitalism is that it DOES promote freedom and innovation. The problem is that continuous innovation is rarely profitable so companies generally won’t bother innovating after a certain point and the text on the reverse side of the freedom coin is “free from consequences”
Capitalism is like… a good start to a much better economic system we haven’t figured out yet.
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You're not at all wrong. The problem is now we're all so "bought in" (heh) to capitalism, and the power it has established its so entrenched, that the idea of iterating on it has become so close to literal blasphemy as makes no odds.
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Darn, what was I thinking /s
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The sight of Theresa May dance-walking to ABBA was an insult to the United Kingdom and Sweden :(
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The worst attack to British-Swedish relations and culture since the Beowulf movie
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Is that what’s going on here? Is it as terrible and hilarious as Trump’s “double handjobs” move to Village People?
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“I’ve made a machine that does the labor of 10 men!”
“You’re going to still pay the other nine, right?”
…
You’re still going to pay the other nine, right?
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So the ten men can all do a tenth of the labor now right?
Oh you're going to fire nine, cut the tenth's pay, and make him work even longer hours, and keep the vast majority of the profits for yourself, got it. That's fine too I guess...
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“I’ve
madebought a machine that does the labor of 10 men!”“You’re going to still pay the other nine, right?”
"Why? I bought it to get more of the money to myself. Why would I pay for something and get nothing in return? Why would I just lose money for no reason?"
Seriously though, the dynamics are pretty clear, there's no investment without the expectation for extra profit (even for a state. Invest in a new railroad with the expectation of higher economic activity and therefore more taxes). Otherwise it's just charity
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For more info on how automation works under capitalism, read chapters 15-16 of capital
Chapter 15: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch15.htm
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If you still pay the other 9,why would you even look for a machine though?
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1995: Welcome to the internet, check out these awesome stupid websites 2023: Here have an ad, after you subscribe, and accept cookies, and sign your life away to a terms of service written in alien legalese
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Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/k1BneeJTDcU?si=vS3hZfIKHbxA9154
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
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I created a new email service that prevents spam and organized your email. If it works out and I become successful, I can imagine Google trying to buy it, and if I say no, all of a sudden Gmail starts having issues receiving mail from my service. Gmail and Exchange together share about 70% of the business email market, so they can destroy smaller competitors if they aren’t willing to sell. Yay capitalism!
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Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Email vs. Capitalism, or, Why We Can't Have Nice Things.
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
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Oh I haven't seen that one yet. Beatie's talks are always great.
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I will never get tired of seeing these pictures
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Unregulated capitalism that made worse by the lack of QOL improvements by the govt is what made these new shitty electronics and tools profitable.
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I'd love for people to stop using capitalism as a catch-all term for every wrong in the world. This post illustrates a great reason why.
Capitalism is the private ownership of the means of production. This means every private citizen has control over that which they own, and is free to sell it. In short, it's characterized by a free market, because everybody is free to sell whatever they want.
The reason people view this favorably is because if, for example, someone is selling some really useful farming tool, they're free to sell it at whatever price they want. But, someone else - who is also free to sell whatever they please - might figure out an alternative or their own way to assemble this tool. They can now sell it for a lower price to get more customers, thus forcing the original inventor to bring down the price as well. As a result, the farming world becomes more efficient thanks to innovation and market forces.
I feel like most people understand market forces, so I'm sorry if I'm not saying anything new yet, but it's crucial for seeing the flaw in the next part...
Modern medicine is not controlled by private entities, and they are not operating in a free market. The conditions that allow for market forces simply does not exist in Canada or America (probably Europe too but I know less about their system to get into details).
Take Johnson and Johnson for example. For one thing, they are not a private entity, they are incorporated and act in the collective interest of its shareholders. If capitalism is the private ownership of the means of production (which it is!) then immoral acts they take cannot be attributed to capitalism.
Now consider their business, aside from who owns and controls them. They have a medicine called Stelara, which has no generic alternative. They have an effective Monopoly on this Crohn's medicine, becauae no one else is allowed to sell medicine of the same chemical composition until the patent wears out and it's genericized. This patent is enforced by the state. So, the state enforces a ruling that prevents private business from selling medicine, which gives the corporation an effective Monopoly.
So we have a public entity, using state-enforced rules to prevent a private business from controlling the means of producing that medicine. That's completely anti-capitalistic from every angle I can think of
When a new medicine is invented, and a company marks up the price to high heaven, it's not because they're a capitalist and thus greedy, that simply shows anti-capitalist bias. It's because the state and the laws they enforce give them the opportunity to.
People can be greedy whether they're capitalist or not, so don't use it as an indicator for the flaw in capitalism because you'll just be wrong a lot of the time, because they're independent things
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For one thing, they are not a private entity, they are incorporated and act in the collective interest of its shareholders.
Jesus fucking Christ, you think "private" means "individual."
You know less than nothing about this subject. Don't give lectures.
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All this ignores that the free market naturally converges on monopolies and that these monopolies will pay off the government to continue being a monopoly in their respective industry or industries. If the government had less control then even better since they wouldn't have to pay off as many people.
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Why do they have to pay off the government? You're still assuming some government control, but in a truly free market capitalist system, the government would not have any influence in the market anyway, so paying them off would yield 0 results. You directly say the less government control the better, that's a deeply capitalistic sentiment.
I feel as though you're also assuming I'm 100% advocating for what I'm describing. This is incorrect, because I believe some statehood is necessary to ward off the inherent chaos of a completely free society. The one and only point my post makes, is that the systemic flaw pointed out by the post is absolutely not a capitalist one, regardless of political alignment the post is incorrect.
Whether you're more capitalistic or socialistic, the first step to solving a problem is proper diagnosis.
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We live in a world with limited resources. Late stage capitalism is characterized partly by a concentration of wealth. Anyone that has played the board game Monopoly understands the issues with the concentration of wealth, and access to concentrated wealth in a world of limited resources accords a few individuals almost unlimited power over the majority.
Limiting government regulations over fiscal entities just trades governmental tyranny for corporate tyranny over the working-class.
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That's a popular belief, sure. But, limited resources aren't the only thing that exist in markets (art, ideas, services, consultation, etc...). In fact, much of the necessary resource market is entirely renewable (most food certainly is).
Limiting government regulations over fiscal entities just trades governmental tyranny for corporate tyranny over the working-class.
It's just kinda funny that this is your response when I demonstrated state-corporate cooperation inflicting that tyranny. Corporations are chartered by the state, and the are currently also empowered by the state. Lowering regulations for private entities would empower them against corporations. It would also just make sense considering they are more regulated than corporations are currently, and the market is already completely captured by corporations.
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This has given me alot to think about.
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I'm glad :)
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Pssst, you dropped a pair of 0s, here you go: $12,000 please.
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My favorite thing about this comment section is the ratio of comment score and comment length
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Cubicle went from utopia to dystopia in not even a week.
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Inventor: invents something Capitalism: rewards him
Inventor: invents something communism: *cricket noises"
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Inventor: invents something Capitalism: rewards him
Inventor invents something: capitalism has them pay to be an inventor as they are probably a grad student and then sells the patent for a pittance to a corporation they are friendly with
Inventor invents something or fails and has to try again: communism gives them free Healthcare, education, housing and food.
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Not to mention that they overlooked the fact that for some people - a sizable number too - the reward can be in helping others. Not everyone is a pariah looking to churn profits while pretending to care about other people’s needs.
Unfortunately the barrier to do this in capitalism is high, because like you mention, if you’re devoting your time to something that is not immediately producing profit then you may lose access to those basic needs. Companies can weather those losses, but will then want to make up the costs by - usually - using shady practices.
That’s not to say communism is the answer. But it surely isn’t capitalism as we have it today.
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capitalism has them pay to be an inventor
I live in a capitalist country with free education. Healthcare is free if you cant afford it and is always a percentage of your income otherwise. Housing and food is also free if you cant afford it.
I have trouble seeing why capitalism is supposedly so bad
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Inventors in the USSR were paid just as well, if not better than, their American counterparts. Mind you, this is not a defense of the USSR or authoritarian communism, Stalinism killed many people. However, maybe educate yourself on how these systems worked before critiquing them. A critique of communism does not negate critiques of capitalism.
Also - be careful with conflating inventors and capitalists. Inventors are often laborers who have their work profiteered by from the owning class - famously, Nikola Tesla lost control of his patent for DC motors and was left penniless as capitalists formed a new utility company.
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Philo Farnsworth invented the television, as well as making significant contributions to microscopy, medical procedures and nuclear fusion. He had to fight legal battles throughout his career because of patent fuckery, and never saw the fruits of his labor. His research was constantly underfunded and he died of alcoholism in relative obscurity.
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Inventing better ways to do things isn't rewarding?
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You can also invent better ways to do things under capitalism. There is no difference in that regard
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Ahha this works nice, now lets break it
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How do you expect it to be free?
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128 comments
I see you like things that work. We've decided that we'll break it, and sell you the solution. We call it service.
Them: this is pretty good right? And affordable too!
Me: yeah it's decent, don't touch anything
Them: we've put in ads
Me: what? I don't want ads, wtf
Them: bro, totally have you covered. No ads for $12.99 a month
Me: arr matey, don't worry yerself 🦜🏴☠️
[Pirate music intensifies]
Why does winamp now require ads and $12.99/ month to run?! It was free back in 1997!
Hmm, sorry my associate was meaning "temporary solution", about every year you will need a new one. And we are so generous that if you buy two years in advance we will give you a 10% rebate and a big ole sticker with our brand in bold colors on it so you can give us free publicity.