LogFAQs > #975949554

andel posted...

marx wasn't a very bright person

All legitimate criticisms of his economic models and ideas aside, this is... a really hot take coming from a message board rando on a site where the primary topic of discussion is video games.

I know you and your history from 261. It's not like you're a bad posted. But, Jesus, dude. What kind of credentialing do you have to call one of the major names in 20th century social and economic commentary "not very bright?"

andel posted...

capitalists are considerably less evil than the 'communists' who have existed in this world and mixed market economies are by far the best places to live

Mixed markets are the best place to live, per our standards of living right now. I'll grant you that.

The conditions in South America as a result of American capitalist interests for over a century says a lot about their evil. Or the trans-atlantic slave trade. Or gunning down union workers. Or letting garment factory workers burn to death because having unlocked doors means maybe a minute less work out of them. Or just landlording, where people who produce no labor or capital demand others provide theirs to pay for their land.

That's just capitalism 101. It's not an authoritarian abuse of the system (like the USSR). It's not a failure of central planning and scale (like China and the farmer examples you cited). These are features of the system of capitalism, turnkey, before you even get to add on the worse stuff about no care for the environment.

At the very least, communists want everyone to have a house. Capitalism doesn't.

Communist bread lines, as shitty as they were, were designed to get everyone some bread. American bread lines required you to still pay for the bread even during a time when no one had money.

Communism--attempted and failed implementations of it, anyway--has outright sucked. Nobody is doing it right. But back to the earlier point: capitalism, where you're made to justify receiving basic human needs and rights like food and housing as part of the core philosophy, is a whole lot more evil than a philosophy that says "everyone gets a house, even if it's a shitty house."