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What is better than Capitalism?
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necropolist
necropolist
1689 posts

predictions & a bit of state capitalism
Sep 11, 2003, 01:35
okay, many many points to come back on, excuse me if i just pick a few, hopefully they make for a fair representation of what you argue:

"he said more or less "the contradictions of capitalism will cause it to fall and be replaced by socialism"
not quite, he said capitalism inevitably creates its own gravediggers, & that the contradictions would give rise to siuations where it can be overthrown, but also he said that 'capitalism will survive forever, if we let it'.

"most developing countries aren't even close to "capitalist" (some of the worst starvation on earth is in N. Korea.)"
i'd describe n. korea as state capitalist, and certainly the overwhelming majority of 3rd world countries are - extremely fucked over capitalist states, most of whom MUST run their economies on capitalist lines due to imf diktat

"No, it's not a "free" market in the absolute sense, but such things are relative"
absolutely, every state in the world has a degree of state 'interference' (agan, i'd call this them being state capitalist to a greater or lesser extent). experience has shown that unfetterred capitalism i, basically, a disaster - unending boom-bust cycle that makes the political system deeply unstable, so they intervene to place restrictions upon the worse aspects, and manipulate the markets to create some kind of stability, and, of course, protect their friends (arms manufacturers, rich farmers)

"I am basically a believer in individual choice above all"
me too, that's why i think capitalism is a system that needs replacing - it does not offer the majority of citizens of even rich countries that much choice, let alone the citizens of the vast majority ofd the world. far too many people (the majority) effectively stopped from achieving anything like their full abilities because the economic system means they cannot, really, afford it, or they are told too many times that they will amount to nothing other than a road sweeper, whatever. sure modern capitalism is freer in many many ways than what went before, but that doesn't mean it's the best we can get.

"if you don't like the choices people make, then that is basically a problem with humanity itself, not caused by some anthropromorphized boogeyman "system.""
hmmm, may run out of room here, so 'ill make that a seperate post...
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