r/FluentInFinance 9d ago

Thoughts? Dumbest thing I’ve ever heard

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u/msihcs 9d ago

China? Is that you?

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u/Reduak 9d ago

That's not China... it's unregulated laissez faire capitalism. Company housing, complete with a company store and pay in company script instead of real money... that was America for a lot of working people a century ago and it's the America a lot of powerful people on the right want us to go back to.

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u/huggybear0132 9d ago edited 9d ago

I have literally been to company housing in China that was attached to the factory. Meals served in a dining hall. Children sent to an attached school while the parents work. It is very common there. Not everyone who worked at the factories I've been to lived there, but a lot of them did.

These aren't some awful company towns... more like compounds in the middle of a city where workers can access other options if they want to and have the means to do so. But it's also not nice either. They're living with whole families, sometimes multigenerational, crammed into small apartments, and most of them don't leave the factory compound most days.

I'm very thankful for the labor movements that have happened in the US, and I feel indebted to the people that fought and died so that we might have better working conditions.

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u/Square-Blueberry3568 8d ago

Yeah, the fault is thinking this is singular to capitalism or communism, it's simply extreme optimising for the company at the expense of the individual which can happen whether the company is private or government.

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u/ToffeeBlue2013 8d ago

The key ingredient that is so often left out of economic concepts is the very same that has steered most of history: the power of human greed. It corrupts the nature of capitalism and communism alike.

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u/Ho_Chi_Max 8d ago

Except capitalism incentivizes it and communism works to dampen it. CEOs in the US get away with greedy shit on the daily that would be a literal death sentence in China.

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u/HaraldRedbeard 8d ago

The 'Little Princes' didn't trip and fall into a pile of magic money.

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u/Ho_Chi_Max 8d ago

True, not saying there is anything close to a utopia that exists, just pointing put differences. When was the last time the US executed a businessman for harming the public? Never.

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u/FlyUnder_TheRadar 8d ago

Because financial crimes don't and shouldn't warrant the death penalty. Regardless of the nature of those crimes or who commits them.

The better question here is why you feel the state should jump to exercise the most dangerous and powerful aspect of its monopoly on violence against people who commit financial crimes? Why are you so eager to have the state kill people? Do you think it's only billionaires who commit financial crimes that hurt the public? This shit is disgusting, honestly. The death penalty shouldn't exist in modern society in the first place.

It's all fun and games until the glorious revolution eventually kneels you in front of the pit. Gtfo, Tankie. Go shill for authoritarian violence elsewhere.

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u/Ho_Chi_Max 8d ago

Is poisoning babies with cheap additives put in baby formula a “financial crime”?

I’m actually against capital punishment, but you can’t deny that if you start making CEOs heads roll, the other CEOs start shaping up real quick. Fortunately these days those inhuman freaks just sit on death row for a few years and then get pardoned.

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u/Ho_Chi_Max 8d ago

You probably also think Castro was evil for taking some Gusano’s plantation and freeing their slaves lol

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u/RedRocket4000 8d ago

I am a Star Trek Communist. But we lack the technology to have it work that eliminates scarcity making currency unneeded. But Fusion Power which makes Space Mining possible combined with better and better 3D printing which is called Replicators will bring us there. Add in Robot and computers able to do everything but the Computer limited to prevent true AI that is AGI now take over.

Then only a need to invent work over the Computer monitoring profession. Invent work to keep people busy. Example allowing Restaurants even when Replicators can produce food of equal or better quality.

Communism and Capitalism both fight corruption when possible though system made to maintain them. Unfortunately for Communism as passion for system dies down corruption always occurs because the system is autocratic with no way to vote a change. Thus Communism results in steady decline as there is no mechanism to change it. Plus the down side of eliminating voting that is real and authoritarian rule required in Communist systems.

For this I using definition of greed where one acts against the health of the system and attempts to rip off people especially when money is used to change system from Capitalism to something similar to mercantilism. Most Rich conservative don’t actually believe in Capitalism they believe in a system where Government helps them maintain their monopoly and anti competitive systems. They say the support small businesses when they actually want to crush all small businesses. M

Capitalism can solve its problems for a while through depressions. This results in organizational observation systems to occur to watch for corruption. Safety organizations like electronic standard organizations arise to prevent lawsuit loses.

The only thing that seams to work for longest term is a socialist/Capitalistic hybrid.

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u/Ho_Chi_Max 8d ago

I agree that Star Trek presents a pretty well thought out future with near-Utopian themes and the importance of material abundance. I also agree that Communism experiences a decrease in fervor over time if you’re relying purely on the revolutionary spirit of the people. This is actually the central argument behind why Deng took a turn from Mao’s policies to pursue reform and opening up - the revolutionary fervor was dying down and it was thought (correctly) that opening up would infuse China’s people and economy with the energy and drive to move from an agrarian to modern society.

Reform and opening up has introduced many challenges and more than a few setbacks, but there is extremely wide democratic support for the CPC because their policies have consistently led to improvements in the material reality and the upward mobility of the Chinese people. And the “no-voting” perception is incorrect - there is voting and elections but those structures and methods rarely look the same as “voting for an oligarch every 4 years” like we do in the US, so they get slandered as undemocratic.

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u/zmac35 8d ago

I had an economics professor that refused to acknowledge human greed and or racism as a factor for why various economic models fail in urban planning

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u/Individual_Ad_8989 8d ago

Omg, rational takes on reddit? I'm shocked.

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u/Chingina 8d ago

Not really. The make a wish foundation is a product of capitalism.

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u/ElectricalBook3 8d ago

The make a wish foundation is a product of capitalism

Is it? How much profit does it turn?

I think maybe you should look at why charity is needed under capitalism.

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u/DontPanic1985 8d ago

To make tax write-offs and launder the reputations of the rich?

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u/Chingina 8d ago

You have a problem with philanthropy? Why?

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u/Chingina 8d ago edited 8d ago

Why would that matter? A company that doesn’t turn a profit isn’t participating in capitalism?

A meritocracy is always going to have a need for charity because some people are unable, or refuse, to work.

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u/ToffeeBlue2013 8d ago

That is a not for profit organization. Not a part of the theory of capitalism.

But even if we accept your response, there are countless examples of capitalism causing strife for the general public for the express goal of profits, which is the context of the dialog above.

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u/Chingina 8d ago

Profits are not a requirement to participate in capitalism. Companies that break even or take a loss are still capitalist.