Comment on Exclusive: Farage: Capitalism is Dead, We're Living in Corporatism
uzi@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
There are good free market capitalists who are trying to expose corporatism to distinguish it from capitalism with healthy competition that makes locally owned services and businesses, some of those even get to know their customers. Coporations believe they are entitled to everybody else’s money while only doing the token minimal for very large amounts of money.
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I am very much a capitalist at heart. It’s the only system proven to raise the quality of life for everyone. The current corporatism isn’t the same as capitalism. I’m not a fan of that.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 5 months ago
One thing that’s confusing is that capitalism breaks down over time, into something like this “corporatism” or oligarchy or corporate capture. This makes people think that capitalism is these things.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
I’m curious, how exactly do you define “capitalism”? I’m having difficulty constructing a definition which doesn’t inevitably lead to corporatism.
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Most of our economy is small business.
The problem is large companies have a large influence on politics, etc that they shouldn’t have.
Many of our regulations are nothing more than a barrier for a small business to start.
It’s why I praise Elon for growing Tesla. Only someone with his wealth and connections could push the EV industry to where it is now.
Doesn’t mean I like Elon as a person but that is where we are now. To get a new idea going, we need a mega wealthy person to do it and that shouldn’t be the case.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
I’m not seeing a definition of capitalism here.
To my knowledge, capitalism is defined as a market economy where the means of production are privately owned by investors and operated for a profit. It fundamentally concentrates money to a small number of investors, who are incentivized to use that money to more efficiently concentrate money in their pockets (e.g. influencing politics).
Whether it’s the intended outcome of capitalism, it’s certainly an inevitable one. Which is why I asked, how you would define capitalism such that it doesn’t inevitably lead to the mega wealthy with power to influence regulation.
realcaseyrollins@noauthority.social 5 months ago
@wintermute_oregon @agamemnonymous
> The problem is large companies have a large influence on politics, etc that they shouldn’t have.
...
> It’s why I praise Elon for growing Tesla.
Usually I'm with you but...HUH? #ElonMusk literally owns #X, one of the largest social media platforms, and therefore has some amount of political power in the #USA.
nicholas@aklp.club 5 months ago
In a free market, company owners would not be entitled to profits while eschewing liability for the actions of their companies. It would force prioritizing long-term brand sustainability over cutting corners to juice next quarter's share price. And liability would incentivize keeping companies small to manage risk, so there probably wouldn't even be megacorp conglomerates to begin with.
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I’ve always thought the best way to solve this problem is more regulations of corporate structures. You only get free rein if you accept the liability.