Comments on: Are You Ready To Accept That Capitalism Is the Real Problem?

By: Carl Henning Reschke

Carl Henning Reschke — Sat, 22 Jul 2017 22:15:35 +0000

As mentioned, it’s always the values of the people in the system and what they make of it, that matters. Short-term vs long-term, systemic relations considered vs relations cut and ‘optimised’. There are (better) alternatives that accommodate fair competition and social values: social market economy, for instance: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_market_economy

By: jaap van till

jaap van till — Sat, 22 Jul 2017 08:39:57 +0000

In reply to Martin.

Thanks for the permission. I just reblogged it on: https://theconnectivist.wordpress.com/2017/07/22/are-you-ready-to-accept-that-capitalism-is-the-real-problem/

By: Steve Foerster

Steve Foerster — Sat, 22 Jul 2017 00:07:06 +0000

No, I’m certainly not ready to do so, because you guys have misidentified the cause of the problems listed. The negative force here isn’t a market economy, it’s crony corporatism, in which government policymakers collude with corporate executives for mutual advantage at the expense of everyone else.

That being the case, it was awfully ironic that you all referred to China, when their move from Maoist socialism to a largely market economy has literally raised hundreds of millions of people out of abject poverty in the span of a single lifetime. Hooray capitalism!

It was more understandable why any reference to Venezuela was conspicuously absent, considering that for the last two decades has run the experiment of abandoning a market economy, and in that timeframe has gone from reasonable (if uneven) prosperity to street riots and people dumpster diving and hunting flamingos for food.

It’s not wrong at all for those on the radical left to point out ways that the current system fails vulnerable people. That’s a good thing. But the economics denial of which this article is a perfect example has to stop if the goal really is to consider the system that’s best suited to build our future society.

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 17:47:20 +0000

Hi Jaap. I’m one of the authors and you absolutely have permission to reblog. Thanks for the interest.

By: Jaap van Till

Jaap van Till — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:54:25 +0000

Your article “.. Capitalism is the Real Problem” connects very well to an article by Monbiot I re-blogged: https://theconnectivist.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/neoliberalism-is-finished/

Do you permit me to reblog your article too ??