Comment by ath3nd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ath3nd | Hacker News Reader

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> This is deluded. "Capitalism" is not "structured" in this way at all. This is a failure of regulation

I do agree with you that this is a failure of regulation. However, in the stage of capitalism we are currently in, capitalism actively FIGHTS regulation.

Whether it's lobbyism, hiring "scientists" to challenge independent studies, outright tax evasion, or simply accepting fines for disaster after disaster (oil spills, bad plane design, data sales) because they can afford it. Hell, politicians now are deregulating our countries by privatising or de-funding branch after branch (see the NHS in the UK).

Capitalism at its current stage is just a giant fire-sale, and our governments are as deeply involved as the corporations, not out of maliciousness, but due to how the system naturally drags everybody and everything in, with its need for constant growth. You know what else constantly grows? Tumors.

Sure we do need powerful regulation and regulation enforcement, but we also need to think whether a system that produces statements like this: https://jacobin.com/2022/05/pete-buttigieg-free-market-hungr...

"Pete Buttigieg: Hungry Babies, Regrettably, Are Just the Price of the Free Market"

Is worth preserving.

I'd say not, and I will work my best to dismantle it and throw it in the past, where it belongs, along with slavery, feudalism, fascism and other obsolete and harmful human societal arrangements.

> However, in the stage of capitalism we are currently in

This is, again, deeply deluded and detached from reality.

People always fight those who hold them back. This applies to employees fighting bosses, children fighting parents, companies fighting regulators, citizens fighting corrupt governments, and different bureaucrats fighting each other in socialist and communist systems.

It's blindingly obvious that this phenomenon isn't specific to capitalism, and outright false to claim that it wouldn't happen in any other economic system. (and, in fact, it would be much worse in command economies, as history clearly shows)

> Capitalism at its current stage is just a giant fire-sale

Again: there's no "at its current stage" - there is corruption in government that has allowed bad actors to run rampant. The fact that tens of thousands of companies are behaving reasonably trivially disproves your claim that this is a "stage". This is bad actors, which have always existed, and always will continue to exist, that are now less checked than usual because of regulatory failure.

> we also need to think whether a system that produces statements like this

...which proves decisively that you have no idea what you're talking about. This is not an argument - this is emotional pleading.

That describes a lot of your posts, actually - pleading. Because there are no logical points made, just a lot of emotionally manipulative, trivially-false statements.

> will work my best to dismantle it and throw it in the past

...and there's the activism, which comes with the typical lack of understanding of reality that is common to proponents for communism.

You should visit North Korea for yourself and see how alternative systems to capitalism actually work.

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