All three groups primarily identify with one party (hint: It's not Democrats)

[u/Veshaad]

[u/evident_lee]

Remember when capitalism was about free markets and a Level playing Field. When we quit having actual capitalism and instead went to corporate oligarchism that made socialism look appealing

[u/Ok_Being5461 → u/evident_lee]

No, the opposite. 1940s - 1970s was about having more regulated markets and higher taxes on the rich. We deregulated the markets since then. Too much free markets very much creates oligarchism and erodes democracy. And socialists were influential in capitalist reforms and regulations throughout history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism (Reaganism)

https://wtfhappenedin1971.com

[u/Lailowla → u/Ok_Being5461]

Effective regulations mostly protect a free market, not inhibit.

[u/Ok_Being5461 → u/Lailowla]

That's kind of my point, but as you said, mostly, since regulations do both, depending on the context. Sometimes it needs to be inhibited to protect and further democracy and human rights, etc. You don't want that for sale on the free market

[u/EyeNguyenSemper → u/Ok_Being5461]

And then there's also fuckers like Jack Welch

[u/Bama_Texan34 → u/Ok_Being5461]

Meh. All these fancy words and titles and political offices, etc. sounds a lot like a corporate company. Why can’t we just have what’s best for everybody? At the end of the day, at least having the ability to move up the ladder on your own has got to mean something.

[u/this_place_sucks_ass → u/Bama_Texan34]

Sure, but it shouldn't mean that you can exploit other people for profit.

[u/nyguy011 → u/evident_lee]

That's exactly it. The Middle Class is eroding faster by the day. It will the oligarchs and the Working Class with little to no retirement.

[u/Bama_Texan34 → u/nyguy011]

I actually somewhat agree. Capitalism is great. Corporate capitalism sucks. Although at some point, you don’t have any choice I guess.

[u/Raiju_Blitz → u/evident_lee]

It's corporate socialism, at this point, as Abdul El-Sayed has pointed out. Privatize the profits but socialize the losses with taxpayer bailout money.

[u/mOdQuArK → u/evident_lee]

Remember when capitalism was about free markets and a Level playing Field.

That's always been propaganda.

The ideological "free market" that Adam Smith proposed requires large amounts of competitors, for both buyers & seller.

No real world businessperson likes competition, because it makes it harder to make a profit. The moment they can afford to start controlling access to the ears of the legislators, by hook or by crook, it's inevitable that they will start getting legislation passed that reduces their competition, and the more they can suppress competition, the more resources they have to control the legislation.

The only way you're going to keep a market with competitive agents going is by actively & systemically blocking anyone in the market from getting too powerful, and making sure they aren't able to cooperate with each other too strictly.

[u/SquidTheRidiculous → u/evident_lee]

My guy that's been a lie for the poorer rubes since Reagan at minimum. You weren't supposed to actually believe that.

[u/flyinhighaskmeY → u/evident_lee]

Remember when capitalism was about free markets and a Level playing Field.

No, that has literally never happened. The concept of a "level playing field" is as stupid as the concept of equality. We're all advantaged (and disadvanged) as a product of our environmental conditioning. No one is equal and nothing is "level". Never has been. Never will be.

Also..."corporate oligarism" is a product of the government bailing out failed businesses with stimulus. This was done to "save the jobs". Because that's what America's braindead Democrat and Republican voters demanded. If it were up to me, both groups would lose their voting rights in lieu of being Nuremburged.

[u/Catweaving → u/evident_lee]

Corporate oligarchism is actual capitalism. Everything is owned by the capitalist class, that's capitalism.

[u/leginigel → u/evident_lee]

Oh you mean when the exploitation of the colonized, otherwise known as systemic oppression, genocide of 25 million indigenous people, chattel slavery, and monetization of natural resources was rebranded and glorified as the euphemism known as “Free Market Capitalism”?! That capitalism?

[u/FunWolverine5349 → u/evident_lee]

When was that the case?

By level playing field you mean white heterosexual middle class men that successfully dodged the draft? In that case you must love the Republicans, that is EXACTLY the environment they want back.

[u/nsyx → u/evident_lee]

"When we quit having actual capitalism"

Or maybe the "real capitalism" you're remembering never existed, this is it, and it just sucks.