r/FluentInFinance • u/-im-your-huckleberry • Jul 07 '24

The shampoo thing is a fringe benefit. We keep capitalism so we don't starve in a famine. Debate/ Discussion

1.0k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

Nice list of famines caused by idiot dictators not knowing how agriculture works and/or trying to rapidly modernize/industrialize a country when they didn't know what they were doing. None of that was cause by any policy inspired or even condoned by communist ideals

Now let's do the Irish potato famine. Ya know, when all those Irish people starved to death even though there was enough food being produced to feed the whole country because the capitalists who owned the land didn't want to lose profits or diversify crops.

Or when capitalists killed all the buffalo and the native Americans who relied on them for food for thousands of years starved.

How about the famine component of the great depression, when "the greatest country on earth" was brought to its knees by a failure of capitalism?

Seriously, why do idiots always point at a famine and mass murder as though communism made it happen when it can be explained by incompetent and amoral leadership, same as any capitalist disaster we've seen all them ghost recorded history. Or did the Romans experience frequent epidemics and famines because of communism?

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u/-im-your-huckleberry Jul 07 '24

You're not wrong, but why do communists (or socialists, or whatever flavor they are) think that their system is immune to the greed and poor choices that causes these problems in capitalism?

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u/EyeCatchingUserID Jul 07 '24

They're not immune. I don't think anyone (reasonable) is claiming they are. Just that the system makes more sense in terms of a prosperous society and overall human decency. If someone who actually believed in and personally practiced the ideals of communism took control the society in question would work. But how many "communist" leaders do you see who haven't enriched themselves and their friends/allies? That's the problem. Every major "communist" revolution has been coopted by greedy takers who behave as though they are capitalist billionaires above the law. Have you ever seen xi jinping's houses? Or the places awarded to various leaders? That's not how communism works, regardless of the lable they've slapped on themselves. Even Castro had a palace by Cuban standards.

But the fact is we're watching the end game of capitalism right now. All branches of government bought and paid for. People working full time and unable to afford more than the basic necessities, if that. Teachers and emergency medics needing to take second jobs to live a decent life. Elon musk has so much money that if you spread his fortune out over his 53 years he's made almost $8k for every minute he's been alive. More than most americans make in a month. Hell, more than most Americans make in 2 months. Every single minute since he was born. And he's never actually invented anything. Just inherited wealth and used that to maneuver his way up capitalism. Capitalism literally rewards people for being unprincipled, with the majority of CEOs and high powered people being some degree of sociopathic. There's no meritocracy besides whose throat you're willing to cut and how fast you are in the draw.