this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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[–] [email protected] 112 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (3 children)

I fully support being able to choose to end your own life with dignity. But in Canada there were reports of people encouraging the homeless and severely ill to do it, simply because it was cheaper and easier for the institutions if these people killed themselves.

Within a capitalist society, where the lives of those who do not produce profit are not valued, it can lead to some sickening discriminatory behavior from profit-driven institutions.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

within a capitalist society

Besides slavery, I cannot think of any successful societal system to date that did not prioritize rewarding the productive and/or powerful. Not saying that you're wrong, just that it's far from exclusive to capitalism. (The bar for "success" here being a society that exists over many generations)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Socialism and communism are specifically designed to put the needs of the people first. ‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.’

[–] [email protected] -5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

Socialism and communism, in theory, are structured to prioritize the needs of the people over profit or power. That slogan captures that ideal beautifully. However, history shows that the implementation of these systems falls short of their ideals. Issues like bureaucratic inefficiency, corruption, or the consolidation of power within ruling parties have led to systems that still reward the powerful or productive, just in different ways. I'd argue that the challenge isn’t the system itself but the difficulty of designing any system that fully aligns with such principles while addressing the complexities of human behavior and societal needs. Capitalism embraces it while socialism and communism pay lip service to ideals while also committing the same sins in practice. My point that it's not exclusive to capitalism remains.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

You’re comparing what corrupt communist leaders do to what capitalism does by design.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Yes, that's what I said. I'm not defending capitalism.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

You mean cronie capitalism. The Fabian Socialist were big into eugenics, remember. Straight capitalism is based on a free and open market. That's not what anywhere has.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

"Free and open markets" work in theory, lol.

Private ownership over the means of production and allowing people to hoard capital will ALWAYS concentrate wealth and will ALWAYS produce an oligarchy.

You just unironically made a "capitalism hasn't actually been tried yet" post in a thread where you're on the "communism and socialism never work" position.

The irony is delicious

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I never said it's never been tried, lol. But when the government picks winners and losers, it's not a free market

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The government exists as a check on the power of huge corporations in this model (and is required to enforce private property in the first place). Who stops the richest company from picking winners and losers? Who stops companies from buying up their competition then cranking up prices? You need a framework to keep the market "free" in the first place.

Anarcho-capitalism is an oxymoron, right-libertarianism is an oxy moron.

The problem is capitalism, full stop. There's no good and bad kind, there's just capitalism. An owning class dictating over a working class isn't freedom.

You don't need private ownership over the means of production to have trade and markets and productivity.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Right, so corrupt governments only wanting control and power is the answer? That's just the government being a massive evil corporation

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

That betrays a lack of understanding about leftism. Government control over the economy is one way, yes. But your two options aren't public dictator and private dictator.

Worker coops, syndicated unions (anarcho-syndicalism), anarcho-communism, gift economy...

Within the confines of the system you can also balance power quite a bit with UBI, mandated worker councils, worker representation on the company board of directors, etc.

As long as people are not allowed to fend for themselves because everything is privatized and commodified and you need to work for someone else to stay alive then you will not have freedom, a free market that retains that power dynamic just gives your employer even more ownership over you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

I still had this in my clipboard from an earlier comment:

"The son of the worker, on entering life, finds no field which he may till, no machine which he may tend, no mine in which he may dig, without accepting to leave a great part of what he will produce to a master. He must sell his labour for a scant and uncertain wage. His father and his grandfather have toiled to drain this field, to build this mill, to perfect this machine. They gave to the work the full measure of their strength, and what more could they give? But their heir comes into the world poorer than the lowest savage. If he obtains leave to till the fields, it is on condition of surrendering a quarter of the produce to his master, and another quarter to the government and the middlemen. And this tax, levied upon him by the State, the capitalist, the lord of the manor, and the middleman, is always increasing; it rarely leaves him the power to improve his system of culture. If he turns to industry, he is allowed to work--though not always even that --only on condition that he yield a half or two-thirds of the product to him whom the land recognizes as the owner of the machine.

We cry shame on the feudal baron who forbade the peasant to turn a clod of earth unless he surrendered to his lord a fourth of his crop. We call those the barbarous times. But if the forms have changed, the relations have remained the same, and the worker is forced, under the name of free contract, to accept feudal obligations. For, turn where he will, he can find no better conditions. Everything has become private property, and he must accept, or die of hunger."

The Conquest of Bread

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

No one would want to. Letting capitalists run rampant (more so than they already do) would be extremely destructive for any society.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago

Is there a socialist society that has failed without the US crushing it?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Sources on that? Serious question

I've heard multiple people claiming this yet haven't read anything about it

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Did you read either article that you posted?

The first literally says there is a RISK of that happening (and the why's of that risk being utter nonsense), yet the title sounds like doctors are just sitting and waiting with a syringe to stab any random patients that come by. It's bullshit

The second is exactly the same with one difference: it has a link to an article talking about a SINGLE doctor at veterans affairs apparently suggesting it, and veterans affairs basically punishing the doctor for that.

So I'm sorry, but both articles make it sound like the Canadian government can't wait o murder you while in reality there was one single doctor who didn't follow protocol.

I'm sorry, but the argument isn't supported by facts, this does not happen

[–] [email protected] -5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

How many of those people being encouraged are actually doing it tho? That should be the main issue, not the fact that people are encouraging them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, I see your airtight logic there and wouldn't dream of arguing.