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136 sats \ 16 replies \ @siggy47 2 Sep \ on: Is Capitalism Making Us Lonely? AskSN
This theory presupposes "we" are living in a capitalist economic system?
Seems like a really silly place to lay the blame.
We’ve been more capitalist and less lonely in the past.
If anything, loneliness seems positively correlated with the size of the state.
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That's a good question. I'd say no, but there's no doubt that capitalism is getting more and more present, even if you don't call it an economic system. For better or for worse!
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What do you mean by “capitalism”?
It’s not at all obvious to me that capitalism is becoming more present.
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I could be wrong, but to me, capitalism is a system where private companies control all the businesses and the main goal is just to make a buck.
I don't know a ton about what's going on in America, but over here in Europe—and especially in Portugal—the word privatization has been all over the place for the last few years. I don't have the numbers to show if we're more capitalist or not.
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Capitalism requires a working property ownership. The problem in the most of the world, including Europe, is that you have a feeling of working property ownership. However, the reality is different. You cannot use your property as you wish.
Think of a private company providing health services. Everything you do must comply with the state rules. Those regulations break your property rights.
Think of accomodation rental. You must comply with the state rules. E.g. you cannot get rid of your tenant that repeatedly breaks your property. Where are your property rights?
Big companies are connected to the state. They use money from state. If state makes new rules, they consider the big ones not the small ones. Are big companies privately owned? Maybe. Are they privately controlled?
A trade has two sides: goods/services and money. Money (non-bitcoin) are state-controlled, dictated, not very capitalistic. Thus, roots of something like half of all transactions are anti-capitalistic.
Where is the capitalism there? There is some, but not that much.
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Yeah, that’s right! Like, here in Portugal, the government can take your land or house in some situations, like if there’s a war or something.
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Yeah, I think that's the gist of it. So what's capitalism to you?
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For starters, the idea of a free market and respect for private property. That doesn't exist anywhere, so far as I can tell. So, I don't see how the author can even ask the question of whether capitalism leads to loneliness, because capitalism has never been tried anywhere, and particularly not in Europe. Government manages the economy.
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@Undisciplined broke it down for me, makes way more sense now. And yeah, I don’t think pure capitalism’s ever really been a thing. Might never be, because the government’s basically the biggest corporation anyway!
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I agree. we had just small spasms, an emulation of capitalism since it is mostly unfree and property is granted by threat in case of non-payment of taxes. You are right in this approach, however, these spasms of people making voluntary exchanges locally with each other are capitalism in its essence.
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This clears up the disconnect.
There are two common uses of the term. One is what you’re describing, which includes nominally private enterprises with lots of state interference.
The other, which most of us tend to use, is private enterprise without state interference.
We usually use cronyism or corporatism for the current system.
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Makes more sense now, thanks!
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The term is historically muddy because it started as a commie smear of western industrial economies, which is basically the usage you’re familiar with, but then libertarians/objectivists/liberals co-opted it and made it synonymous with free markets.
Sharia law is capitalism
do you feel better now
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