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Comment by slg | Hacker News Reader

This is what capitalism does. Crossing borders might make things easier because laws and the cost of doing business will vary, but using your power to squeeze every cent you possibly can out of your business partners is a function of capitalism and not globalism.

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No, mercantilist and imperialist societies (Roman Empire, British Empire) did this long before the modern era of private capital. Capitalism is just another in a long line of systems under which wealth and power concentrates into the hands of a few and the many are disadvantaged. The only new thing here is the degree to which technology can extend lines of communication and trade.

What do you suggest as an alternative to our imperfect capitalism?

Star Trek

I too look forward to the post scarcity society that replicators would enable, but until then we as a species really need to learn to rein it in before we consume ourselves into a corner we can't get out of.

Except mercantilist and imperialist societies got their way through violence. They didn't really have "business partners" to squeeze in a modern sense. They had subjects they would steal from and oppress. Capitalism was supposed to be different. Apple notably doesn't have a standing army bigger than the US like the East India Company did in relation to England. If the results end up looking similar, that is a huge indictment of the system.

It's cheaper without having a standing army. I wouldn't say that capitalism is another system, i would just say it's an evolution of imperialistic society that reached the equilibrium of most profit and least resistance from the people

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