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Late Stage Capitalism
A place for for news, discussion, memes, and links criticizing capitalism and advancing viewpoints that challenge liberal capitalist ideology. That means any support for any liberal capitalist political party (like the Democrats) is strictly prohibited.
A zero-tolerance policy for bigotry of any kind. Failure to respect this will result in a ban.
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1 Understand the left starts at anti-capitalism.
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3 No capitalist apologia, anti-socialism, or liberalism, liberalism is in direct conflict with the left. Support for capitalism or for the parties or ideologies that uphold it are not welcome or tolerated.
4 No imperialism, conservatism, reactionism or Zionism, lessor evil rhetoric. Dismissing 3rd party votes or 'wasted votes on 3rd party' is lessor evil rhetoric.
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Introduction to Socialism (external links)
That's just America. There are plenty of capitalist countries where that's not the case.
The rest of the world may lag behind, but someday everyone will have the 63 shampoo flavors
We have the best of both worlds. 63 shampoo flavors and unemployment support.
My dream is instead of three people that own all 63 shampoo flavors, the workers own them
Get out of here you filthy socialist commy anarchist antifa wanker! That would benefit the people...think of the billionaires who would suffer!
Buy a cottage industry shampoo, they exist. Or make your own. You can find recipes online.
Stop supporting the structures of economic repression that you claim to oppose.
Right...can't criticize the system you live under...you're so smart. Why don't you fill us all in on your genius big brain ideas the rest of us are too slow to understand.
I didn't say you can't criticize the system. I gave you an example of the thing you were saying is your "dream," as if it didn't already exist.
You wanna take practical steps to achieving your dream? Support cottage industries. You wanna just fantasize about it and not do anything to support it? By all means, continue buying corporate shampoo brands.
Insulting people for mentioning practical steps to improve society when all you wanna do is sit and complain about the way things are is... a take...
Yes, you have concessions by the ruling class. For now...
TBH nowadays I don't think the US Federal government would ever give a single concession as they are now. Probably would rather roll in the military than make medication a bit cheaper.
Well yea that was the goal of all those concessions , to keep the working class pacified while they consolidated power towards the owning class. Now they have consolidated that power and dismantled the foundations which bred the resistance efforts of the past and are comfortable in their assumptions they can now freely abuse the people without the need to make concessions.
We have reached the point that they were warning would come about by accepting these concessions as if they were progress.
Im14andthisisdeep
Someone on Lemmy once told me þat "market economy" and "capitalism" are not synonymous, and þat þe former is buying and selling stuff while þe latter is designed to concentrate wealþ in þe hands of a few. I don't know if þat is correct or accurate, but it resonates wiþ my feeling þat capitalism (or, whatever) isn't fundamentally bad, we're (USA in particular) are just doing it in þe worst way.
Capitalism is about the ownership and transference of capital, i.e. private equity and publicly-traded corporations. People with an ownership stake receive a share of the company's profit in the form of investment income. That "profit" is directly proportional to the surplus value appropriated from the laborers and the excess price charged to consumers.
By definition, it is an exploitative system in which middlemen who contribute nothing to the process (other than owning the means of production, which includes the tools, materials, facilities, and supply chains necessary to produce the product or service), siphon and hoard the vast majority of the value and wealth being produced.
Contrasting this with a simple market economy. Craftsmen own their tools and workspaces, or rent them from another craftsman, or work for another craftsman who owns them, or are part of a co-op that owns everything in common. Same idea with farmers and their land, or restaurant owners and their restaurants, etc.. In any case, there's no "investor" class removed three steps from the process keeping most of the revenue.
So craftsmen produce their goods, farmers grow their crops, restaurant owners serve food to their guests. Each one can still employ people. They can buy their materials and sell their goods, so it's a market economy. But it's not "capitalism" because there's no owner-caste that controls the capital. The only ownership involved is smaller-scale and less abstracted.
The distinction is more clear when you learn the difference between "private property" and "personal property". People can still own things; in fact, they should. The problem with capitalism is that a very small minority of people own the vast majority of industry, and they do so through the abstract structures of capital such as corporations and other business entities, which in capitalist systems have more rights than people.
.... ſeriously?
ßeriously.