Comment on I wonder why the world is on fire? A mystery

DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• merc@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Everybody likes a mix of capitalism and socialism. Nobody likes 100% one or the other.

  Everybody who has experienced it likes socialized medicine. Public education just makes sense. The idea of having to pay a contract to get private fire service seems absurd.

  At the same time, nobody wants to stand in a bread line, or for the law to forbid an artist to profit from creating art. We like certain forms of capitalist activity, like a mom and pop shop, or a restaurant, or a good mechanic, or a lemonade stand.

  Every country that believes in capitalism still has a mix of socialist elements. And, every supposedly “communist” country has realized that it doesn’t make any sense to forbid artists and craftsmen from owning their own tools and selling the things they made. The real question is where to draw the line.

  The problem, as always, is the rich and powerful. Capitalism was supposed to be an improvement on feudalism because it required capitalists to compete, rather than just collect rents. But, that requires anti-trust, anti-monopoly laws, and for those laws to be enforced firmly and fairly. If a company has no competition, it can go right back to collecting rents and not doing any work. Communism also fails when “the state” owns everything, but really “the state” is a single dictator, or is a bunch of oligarchs who see that they get more than the rest.

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  • plyth@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    law to forbid an artist to profit from creating art.

    What if the Capitalists pay all artists to praise Capitalism and to romanticize the individual struggle?

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