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Comment by guywaffle | Hacker News Reader

I don’t have a mercenary like attitude. I am simply pointing out that capitalism is America’s number one value. We as a society can’t be surprised when it is used against us.

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Let's take a step back, then. Do you personally hold making money over everything else to be your highest value? What other values do you personally hold that compete with that? I have a hard time ascribing that attitude (or any other) to every American. People are more complex than that, holding different values, and those they share they hold in various levels of importance.

Edit: Replaced "capitalism" with "making money over everything else", as that's the misrepresentation that I'm pushing back against. Equating "making money over X" with capitalism or business in general is wrong, misguided, and lacking in any nuance.

I said it was America’s number one value. Not mine. So your questions make no sense.

A prime example are the paradise papers coming to light.

I understand that that's what you said: I just have a hard time understanding what that means. America is made up of people who hold values: the country itself can't hold values. One interpretation of "Capitalism is America's number one value" is that it's the number one value of a majority of Americans. Is that what you mean? I know only a few people who would actually say that capitalism is their number one value. If you don't hold it as your number one value, who do you think does? It's easy to say something like "Capitalism is America's number one value" in a cavalier way without thinking what is really meant by that, and it tends to pave over any more interesting, nuanced understanding of people's values.

Perhaps my questions don't make any sense to you, but they're driven by me trying to understand what it is you mean. You point to the paradise papers, but as I understand it, they don't describe America in particular (i.e., only America) or as a whole. Perhaps you didn't mean very much by your original comment, or you don't care to drill into it further. In either case, that's fine. I'm just interesting in understanding where you're coming from and whether it's truly an apt description.

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