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Can Capitalism be positive for the public?


Gym Beglin
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Agreed it's an interesting idea, but isn't part of it the removal of any state support i.e. no healthcare and education, so that the consumer then buys education provision for the children and purchases health insurance. The latter of those has not worked particularly well in the United States as can be seen by the Commonwealth Funds ranking table below.

 

 

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror

 

If healthcare and education aren't provided the disparity between services that people can afford will grow considerably. Of course there will be those who say it allows people greater choice, but people often make short term economic decisions (i.e. buying a cheaper healthcare plan) that can have significant negative repercussions later (for example they are diagnosed with a disease not covered by their plan).

True, this is why I see it as a libertarian concept. On the other hand, you are seemingly under no economic pressure to buy cheap inadequate education and healthcare on 2500 francs a month as they had it in Swiss proposal, and if you make a stupid decision, it becomes your problem. Still, healthcare in the US had the worst of both worlds, choice didn't create competition so prices remained arbitrary and inflated, whilst leaving a good proportion of the society with no or with poor quality  healthcare.

 

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So why not just use the accepted term laissez-faire instead of commandeering a pre-existing term that originally meant something else?

 

I think you overstate the extent to which we are controlled by corporations like zombie ants.

 

Well, why the term originated is rather irrelevant to the claim that nobody can explain what it means. That being said it came into being to describe a particular line of thought that is not the same as laissez-faire and was also not Liberalism, but a reaction to it (hence the change of the term). Either way it's a term that anyone with half an eye on the economics of the last few decades understands, and could tell you the main pillars of it, and is far from an unknowable abomination. 

 

Not sure why you feel the need to start with the silliness of controlled zombie ants. You may think that I overstate the extent to which people's behaviour and choices are manipulated but it does rather leave you in the awkward position of explaining why more people, given free choice and all the available information, are voting for UKIP than Lib Dem. You agree that people act in their own self-interest, what's the next step then to so many of them voting against their own self-interest if not that they've been engineered into making poor choices? My worldview is okay at explaining that, it makes sense; I don't see how yours can. 

 

I doubt we'd have any disagreement that religion controlling the culture someone is raised in will often define their behaviour, and other forces controlling the inputs people receive are no different.

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Reformulate the problem of getting google to pay tax in terms of their "ownership of democracy, law and culture" to make sure I understand what you're proposing.

Stu isn't proposing anything in that post so perhaps you need to reformulate your request for clarification?

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  • 3 years later...
On 01/06/2016 at 20:40, Gym Beglin said:

I'm trying to understand how money-obsessed companies, or people, can run public services in a fair way and for the majority of the population to agree with that as a principle, can you help me?

 

It's pretty obvious that there needs to be a sea-change in the way in which we talk about politics, and political parties, and elections.  

 

When you go to the ballot, you're not choosing which 'party' you want to be in control, you're choosing between capitalism and socialism.

 

The sooner that poor people are better educated about this very stark, very obvious, choice, then the sooner we can see the back of the Conservatives forever.

 

<_<

Capitalism is only distorted, because the means of exchange has become distorted.
Solve that, and you solve everything.

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On 15/11/2019 at 12:24, Jose Jones said:

We should use leaves and then everyone can be millionaires.

Funny you should say that, but there is a society of Polynesians (from memory) that literally get to create their own money to spend in the local economy. The more they make, the more they can spend. However, there are guidelines for the makeup of that money, and it is time consuming making the notes. 

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Really interesting report on Channel 4 News earlier on how even some business leaders acknowledge that capitalism isn’t working as it should.

 

I was particularly interested in Ann Pettifor’s input, as a license to trade is something I’ve thought Labour should look at to force big international businesses to pay their fair share of tax.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Vincent Vega said:

Really interesting report on Channel 4 News earlier on how even some business leaders acknowledge that capitalism isn’t working as it should.

 

I was particularly interested in Ann Pettifor’s input, as a license to trade is something I’ve thought Labour should look at to force big international businesses to pay their fair share of tax.

 

 

Very interesting that mate, thanks for sharing.

 

As coincidence would have it, I happened to watch that shortly after reading chapter 1, part 2 of the Lion and the Unicorn.

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1 hour ago, Red Shift said:

Funny you should say that, but there is a society of Polynesians (from memory) that literally get to create their own money to spend in the local economy. The more they make, the more they can spend. However, there are guidelines for the makeup of that money, and it is time consuming making the notes. 

I was basically just making a Douglas Adams reference (could be from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe).  Maybe that's where he got it from.

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Book Review: 

Money and Government: The Past and Future of Economicsir?t=thneyoreofbo-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0300248

by Robert Skidelsky



"“There is no magic money tree,” as Theresa May put it during the snap election of 2017—virtually the only memorable line from one of the most lackluster campaigns in British history."

"The truly extraordinary thing about May’s phrase is that it isn’t true. There are plenty of magic money trees in Britain, as there are in any developed economy. They are called “banks.” Since modern money is simply credit, banks can and do create money literally out of nothing, simply by making loans."

Looks like a great book; hopefully I wont need a loan to buy it!


https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/12/05/against-economics/?utm_source=pocket&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=pockethits&amp;fbclid=IwAR0P2qAXg7Cxq9lSfUIYBfanwnGfKz48ay7qUxsFYpq30mNMYzdJ7gJTuQk

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  • 9 months later...
  • 7 months later...

To answer the original question. No. 

 

An example.. my local cashpoint machine clearly states

"your bank will not take any money off you for this transaction'"

 

I've now looked at my statement and for every ten or twenty pound I've withdrawn they've taken that exact amount from me . Its no wonder these banks are fucking raking it in. 

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On 06/09/2020 at 00:23, Audrey Witherspoon said:

Top Class him, with what he does with getting rehabilitated prisoners back to work.

 

 

Not at one of his stores I hope! Ex-cons cutting keys. What could possibly go wrong?

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4 hours ago, Section_31 said:

The pandemic has exposed modern capitalism as being little more than numbers on a screen. Millions of people have been watching Netflix for over a year yet civilisation appears to be intact.

It's certainly exposed where there are obvious bubbles based on nothing but bullshit.  In the US they had the worst recession for 80 years, and yet the stock market was booming.

Down here, again despite a massive recession and loads of people only kept in work through furlough schemes, house prices kept going up.

 

You don't have to be Asperger's Christian Bale to spot that things are going to go to badly to shit somewhere there sooner or later. 

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