“It’s socialism or barbarism!”. It’s because there hasn’t been any other convincing arguments otherwise. If you give the capitalists an inch, they’ll eventually take it all. You cannot allow capital to accumulate to the degree that it wields real political power.
Comment on You have nothing to lose but your brains
lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
I never understood why we’re stuck with just capitalism or communism, two economic systems developed before railroads were a thing and written down at night by candle light or a lantern burning whale fat. I think we should come up with something better. To quote President Not Sure, “The water doesn’t have to come from the toilet, but that’s the general idea.”
electric_nan@lemmy.ml 16 hours ago
Gorilladrums@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Socialism hasn’t exactly worked out either. Replacing a flawed system like capitalism with something even worse is not a solution
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
I’m all ears for ideas.
lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
So am I! I just can’t believe Adam Smith and Karl Marx are the Einstein and Newton of economics. It feels like capitalism and communism are the luminiferous ether and fluid theory of electricity and we never bothered advanced any further.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
To paraphrase Tim Curry, communism and capitalism are both red herrings.
Oh that big punch up between the Soviet Union and the United States, decadent capitalism vs brutalist communism. Who won? According to the scoreboard as of 2026: Israel.
The catch phrase I’ve always heard about communism is “the people own the means of production.” Has that ever been true in practice? Did Soviet citizens own any piece of the means of production? Did anything resembling “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” ever once happen under the hammer and sickle? Or was that the false narrative the idiot asshole in charge used to cow the unwashed masses?
Similar questions could be asked of my fellow capitalist Americans. Capitalism is allegedly about the free market, supply and demand, if there is a demand someone will provide a supply, probably multiple someones, competitors will compete, those who do it faster, cheaper or better will succeed until someone else does it even fasterer, cheaperer and betterer repeat until someone else comes along with a completely different idea, welcome to the infinite cycle of meritocracy where the cream rises to the top. How’s that working out? Some substance has risen to the top, not sure it’s cream.
A common problem I see between the Soviet Union and the United States: Weak systems for preventing psychotic despots from ruining it all.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
The real choice is capitalism or democracy.
Gorilladrums@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
These aren’t opposites. Democracy is a system of governance, capitalism is a system of economics. A society can be both at the same time.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Things don’t need to be opposites to affect each other in predictable ways.
They are both decision making processes where different groups hold power over society’s resources. Democracy very much has economic power and Capitalism is very much about who gets to make certain decisions.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
I can list at least one.
Can’t think of a communist democracy, though.
moustachio@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
To be fair, any of the counties that attempted it had a coup enacted by fascist capitalist countries to prevent them from doing so.