1055
Canada says too little, too late as Trump flip-flops on tariffs (www.bbc.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/world@lemmy.world
155 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] -2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I’d say that what we see today is the logical conclusion of capitalism

Capitalism is not a political system, what is happening now is what happens when governments fail to adhere to things that were figured out more than a hundred years ago, that Capitalism needs to be reigned in, exactly to avoid it from developing into monopolies and an oligarchy. USA has allowed that to happen, because of the (bitter) "sweet" profits, and with an already dysfunctional democracy, USA is very vulnerable to abuse of the power of extremely strong companies and even individuals now.

if humanity wants to survive in the long run, there is no easy way out.

I think there absolutely is, that is called social democracy, which has a pretty strong track record for protecting both citizens and the environment from powerful capitalists.
But it requires a well functioning democracy, and it probably can't exist in a vacuum either. But in EU things have been trending in that direction, and EU is an excellent environment for it. USA however has a long way to go. The mentality simply isn't there currently.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    No, I live in the EU, the same capitalistic problems exist here, they're just slowed down a bit due to social democracy. But don't get me wrong, the fundamental issues are here just as much as anywhere else on the globe

    Capitalism is not directly an ideology by itself, no, but it is a massive fundamental part of a given ideology. There's a reason most ideologies revolve around the economic system, because it's so pervasive in everything we do. From the things we do every day, to the way we interact with others, to the way we get access to resources and services we need and want, to where we live, to how we think

    What you need to keep in mind, is that under capitalism there will always be a profit incentive to undermine the system for even further profit. This is what collapses civilizations, this is what makes society fall apart in the long run

    Making a capitalistic economy work for the benefit of everyone, for the people, is like trying to swim upstream all the time, forever. It would be much much more internally consistent to just have a river you swim downstream with. In other words, an economy based on cooperation, not competition. A civilization based on competition is almost an oxymoron, civilization itself is fundamentally a cooperative environment. Why do we tack competition on top of that?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    the fundamental issues are here just as much as anywhere else on the globe

    That is simply not true, yes there are problems with right wing factions. But it is in no way comparable to the dysfunctional democracy of USA, or the authoritarian regimes like Russia and Belarus.

    What you are doing is making a false equivalence. It's like saying democracy isn't really different from a totalitarian state, because both have rules you can go to prison for.

    Obviously the 2 are not the same.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    But it is in no way comparable to the dysfunctional democracy of USA, or the authoritarian regimes like Russia and Belarus.

    Why should we have to compare with oligarchical dystopias at all? SkyeStarfall is essentially saying are fundamental political and economic issues all across the globe as a result of capitalism, still existing even under social democracy because they're inherent to the liberal capitalist foundation. The USA and Russia and Belarus are irrelevant to that statement. Fundamental problems are still fundamental problems even if they're not as bad as some problem elsewhere, there's no need to equivocate at all.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    Capitalism is not a political system,

    Capitalism is an economic system, political system, and social system, all at once.

    You cannot have capitalism, without the force of the state to back it. If the state doesn't exist, then people would be free to associate in other ways that they are forbidden from doing. Capitalism starts breaking people in school, when we start indoctrinating them with the religion of capitalist thinking.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent