Tell Me It’s Going to be OK | Hacker News Reader

Tell Me It’s Going to be OK

thebaffler.com

49 pointsanimo7 comments

I think this piece is excellent. I'm shocked it's getting attention on HN - not usually the place I go for my anti-capitalism screeds.

I don't know if I agree with the author that neoliberalism (or capitalism, which I think is closer to what she's really talking about) is the cause of all the ills she mentions, mainly because I don't think we should frame it that way. "Neoliberalism bad, [other system of choice] good" is not the way to consider it. As bad as neoliberal democracy/captialism is, would she rather live in autocratic China or feudal medieval England? The question isn't whether the current system is bad, it's whether there exists a demonstrably better system we can now attempt to implement.

I think, at least for the United States, the answer to that question is very much so, yes. It's called socialism, and most all the other democratic societies are already doing it. It also doesn't necessarily mean the end of capitalism, so much as an adjustment to the rules and formula.

If you think that so called democratic socialism is not capitalism, than you just delusional, look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_economic_... European 'social democracies' have comparable economic freedoms, some even more, and expenditures are also comparable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending#As_a_perce...

The difference is efficiency of the government, if your government is inefficient and corrupted, and your political system has a lack of competition(US is the greatest example of that among democracies), than increase in government spending will lead you to disaster like it did with Venezuella, Zimbabwe, USSR, Kuba and etc

The question is, do you think US Government on all levels is efficient enough to be trusted with even more jobs/resources to manage? And if it's not, what the people of us should actually do to make it happen?

> If you think that so called democratic socialism is not capitalism [...]

I specifically said in my post I don't think that. Quoting myself, "It also doesn't necessarily mean the end of capitalism, so much as an adjustment to the rules and formula."

> The question is, do you think US Government on all levels is efficient enough to be trusted with even more jobs/resources to manage? And if it's not, what the people of us should actually do to make it happen?

I think it's efficient enough, but not scrupulous or just enough. That's the part that needs to change, and that can only happen by changing laws.

Instead we're ruled by large, monopolistic corporations that have so much power they can avoid paying taxes, pay off almost any politician and basically set any policy that they want. I'll never understand why people are fine with our current system.

I think your comment is basically neoliberlism in a nutshell. Let the market decide, right?

Also, you gotta watch out for all those people telling you to "think for yourself"... you're walking right into their trap!

The author just lists a bunch of things that most people consider being bad mixing it with things she considers being bad and makes a conclusion that it's the fault of a movement called X. If you see an article in such format for the first time it can be something like a revelation and you can feel some emotional response, but when you saw them multiple time by multiple authors from different movements blaming other movements for the same things you start to see the pattern and it becomes just annoying. They just turn some terms and names into insults. "Communists", "bourgeois", "postmodernists", "neoliberals", "leftists", "fascists". These terms lose any sense when you just throw them at people. It doesn't help that people use them to describe themselves or others when named people don't actually support these movements. They just have an opinion that differs from yours. In many cases it's not even an opinion, it's just a mere feeling they have due to comradery with some people they like.

We've updated the link from https://longreads.com/2018/09/25/mind-your-mindfulness-youre..., which points to this.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com