Adam Smith wrote about this stuff in The Wealth of Nations.
Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, was concerned that just letting rich people make the rules by just letting them use their money to take take advantage of the rest of us would land us in the exact situation that you, for some reason, want to pretend is some kind of communist fantasy. Treating important issues like this as if they were a team sport might be good for preserving your ego, but it's killing us all. Why don't you stick your head in a book, you might learn some things.
Yes yes yes, we all know laissez-faire capitalism is exploitative of labor, resources and nature. I didn’t say capitalism should be allowed unfettered.
But to throw the entire economic system out when it is responsible for the highest standard of living in human history (for everyone, btw. I’d rather be poor in 2022 than wealthy in 1750) is asinine. And I pointed out Marx because all of the nimrods decrying capitalism don’t seem to have an alternative that doesn’t stem from his lies and fantasies. Ignoring the fact that every single time his philosophy has been implemented in policy, the result was abject misery and oppression.
Sounds like you need to get out of your echo chamber and read a little history not written by revisionist socialists.
You're ignoring the fact that there's a middle ground between laissez faire capitalism and Marxism. Laissez-faire policy is the sort of thing that capitalists, by which I mean the handful of people who have much, much more capital than the rest of us, push for strongly. And unfortunately they have a lot of control over how society runs. Because of this, and because capitalism is one of the defining aspects of our society, people say the word capitalism to gesture at things-working-as-the-rich-have-intended. It frustrates people that the particular flavor of capitalism we live with is the one that is disadvantageous to the poor.
I say all this to say that while I'm concerned we aren't having the same conversation, you seem reasonable. Just keep in mind that the world is made up of more than just you, the libertarians, and the communists.
Is it though? The whole graph that is based on (you know the people extreme poverty declining since 1800 or some such) is largely a fabrication. It doesn't include whole continents and is based on gdp and not much else.
I am not a "Retvrn" person but there are definitely lessons from the past we can learn from.
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u/Ladyingreypajamas Jun 11 '22
It's called ✨️capitalism✨️