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Comment by moksly | Hacker News Reader

Global capitalism has been terrible since its inception. It’s a political and we’ve only liked it because we were on the benefitting end. Now that the west is moving into the economic shadow of China, we’re seeing more and more of the exploitation first hand.

It would be lovely to say this was a new chance, but since Chiquita and the other banana companies had local farmers killed by local militia for their land in the 70-80ies the whole thing has been rotten to its core, and probably even before that.

The prison labour of America is just crazy, and it’s only a thing because a very small elite makes a profit of it.

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> Now that the west is moving into the economic shadow of China

Is it actually? The results of the recent census paint a picture of a country which, in the long run, might become the largest economy in the world, but will struggle to maintain growth - more so than the west.

> Global capitalism has been terrible since its inception. It’s a political and we’ve only liked it because we were on the benefitting end. Now that the west is moving into the economic shadow of China, we’re seeing more and more of the exploitation first hand.

It's ironic that you raise China in your comparison, because the chinese people have been massive beneficiaries of global capitalism.

and its forced labor practices

>Global capitalism has been terrible since its inception.

Cool. Now, do something useful and suggest a better option. Utopia doesn't exist.

If there's one thing capitalism is very good at, it's externalising costs - and in my opinion that's precisely how it's kept its reputation (in the West, at least) as so much superior to any other economic system.

It's very nifty. As long as all the vices are conveniently offshore in the places that people already don't really think or care about (or buried deep enough in the underbelly of your society, where it has the same effect), you can extol only the virtues and continue to reject any useful change.

I'm starting to think that from a global lens the economic system doesn't even matter - none could really have mitigated the unbridled greed combined with the population explosion of humanity in the 20th century. Now most of us are stuck relying on the poverty and deprivation of others to support the vaunted quality of life of the 21st; food, clothes, etc can only be so cheap when somebody is willing (or even forced) to take pennies to produce them.

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