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In reply to the discussion: Capitalism - Good or bad ? [View all]
meow2u3
(25,247 posts)11. Good and bad
Well-regulated capitalism balances and respects the property rights of average citizens, independent business owners, well-run corporations, cooperatives, and other organizations, with the rights of workers to work with dignity, respect, and living wages. This kind of capitalism is good.
The bad kind of capitalism is the unbridled, financialized capitalism which amounts to little more than a license for a tiny minority of superrich sociopaths to rig the system in their favor by using their outsized wealth to buy politicians and judges, capture (extort) regulatory agencies, pay off police departments not only to turn a blind eye to their own crimes, but also to use them as mercenaries by silencing and criminalizing their critics, and even write the laws to place themselves above the laws to which the rest of us mortal human beings are subjected, then it's no longer capitalism, but state-sanctioned organized crime.
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I'm tempted to bring up the oldest successful collection of living things but that would get silly.
rug
Jun 2012
#40
The society could be any of an extended family, a clan, a state, a nation, a hemisphere.
FarCenter
Jun 2012
#52
LIARS & OUTLIERS - Enabling the Trust That Society Needs to Thrive by Bruce Schneier
FarCenter
Jun 2012
#55
At the risk of pissing off the head honcho of DU, your post is ahistorical,
coalition_unwilling
Jun 2012
#19
Those damned Injuns needed them some civilizing, gawl-durnnit! - n/t
coalition_unwilling
Jun 2012
#50
Does it really matter to this discussion how well 'non-capitalism' worked out? Not trying to
coalition_unwilling
Jun 2012
#129
I love it. First the capitalist apologists claim capitalism is human nature and exists everywhere.
Puregonzo1188
Jun 2012
#138
Post structuralists would argue that the very concept of such a thing as
coalition_unwilling
Jun 2012
#140
"capitalist apologist hate and despise debate and must shut it down at all costs."
Skinner
Jun 2012
#141
Social Darwinism? We can't help ourselves from being predators of other humans?
Tierra_y_Libertad
Jun 2012
#54
You know sometimes I wonder just how worse feudalism really was than capitalism?
white_wolf
Jun 2012
#66
IMO, vigorously regulated small business capitalism, with a large government sector for
ProgressiveEconomist
Jun 2012
#92
"The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor." Voltaire
Tierra_y_Libertad
Jun 2012
#49
"The Pleasures of the Rich are bought with the Tears of the Poor" --Rev. Thos. Fuller
Mairead
Jun 2012
#60
Imagine, if you will, what the knock-on effects would be of four relatively minor changes
Mairead
Jun 2012
#59
That sounds nice. But how would anything get made that is technologically advanced?
Skinner
Jun 2012
#77
Think of Mondragón. Of open-source software. Of inventors. Of university research centers.
Mairead
Jun 2012
#95
Very few human advancements have been "organic" in the way I think you're using the term.
Mairead
Jun 2012
#112
Because they're no longer being made, and the surviving Lion went back to the museum
Mairead
Jun 2012
#107
One of the greatest signs of human evolution in the modern era is the Open Source movement.
Zalatix
Jun 2012
#128
As I said before - when one companies' annual profit is greater than the combined GDP of 50 countries...
Initech
Jun 2012
#58
Bad. It is predicated on exploitation, wide spread poverty, and endless resources.
TheKentuckian
Jun 2012
#63
So yes, free market capitalism is good. I'm not sure why but it is good. Better than communism.
AJTheMan
Jun 2012
#88
I think it's funny that people are talking about "human nature" being the proof of capitalism's
HiPointDem
Jun 2012
#72
Good or bad is not possible to say. But so far the human condition has not yet created a sustainable
Douglas Carpenter
Jun 2012
#93
Good. As history proves. This is the only way for the masses to improve their lot.
Honeycombe8
Jun 2012
#121
Capitalism is a system of production for exchange on a market, as opposed to production for use.
Puregonzo1188
Jun 2012
#139