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Comment by clarky07 | Hacker News Reader

I was with this post until I got to:

"Over time, I’ve come to consider that this situation is irremediable, given our current capitalist system and all its inequalities. To fix it, we’re going to need to work on social justice and rethinking how we live and work and relate to each other."

Give me a break. Socialism isn't going to fix anything. Have you seen Europe recently? Capitalism and Democracy are the worst solutions for economies and governments, except for all of the others that have been tried. America and capitalism have given more opportunities to help people grow out of poverty into success than anything else in the world. If you think you are entitled to something, you're wrong. Get off your ass and do something productive and go take that thing you think you're entitled to. If you are sitting on your couch watching tv, the only thing you are entitled to is being overweight.

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The US actually lags behind most of western Europe and Canada in social mobility. Especially among the poorest.

"European Socialism" is not that different from the US. In Europe you may get free child care, health care, etc. and industries that the government likes get subsidies. In the US, this assistance comes in the form of tax cuts. Tax exemptions for employers who pay for health care, the child tax credit, tax deductions for favored industries, etc. Including tax expenditures, the US spends more on social welfare than most of western Europe while doing a poorer job of ensuring it reaches the right people.

I find much of that to be a huge waste of money. Why are we encouraging people to have kids with a tax credit? There were a lot of people in my hometown on welfare who would have more kids because you get more food stamps and welfare than what the kid would cost them. Brilliant. We are subsidizing terrible parents bringing kids into poverty because these idiots want more food stamps.

Just because things are done a certain way doesn't mean it's a good idea. It certainly isn't a capitalist idea to have favored industries with subsidies or tax credits. America is far from being a pure capitalist society. It's a bastardization of capitalism and socialism, and while I may not be in the majority, I'd prefer pure capitalism over what we've become.

I'm all for helping people who can't help themselves, but I'd prefer it be done in the private sector. I give more to charity than I pay in taxes, and the money I give does far more good than food stamps and welfare ever will. If I didn't have that money wasted on taxes (note I don't think it all is, just a lot of it. i.e. roads are a good thing, military, etc.), I could give a lot more to the places I think are more worthy.

Socialism isn't the opposite of capitalism; it is a complement that addresses specific market failures and can improve its ultimate performance.

For actual examples of not-capitalism, I recommend looking at the coordination work that won this year's Economics Nobel Prize for examples of more-efficient solutions to specific distribution questions. Even corporations themselves are a compromise of free market principles: pure capitalism has no absolution of individual responsibility. It is entirely reasonable to question what trade offs we prefer in choosing mechanisms to distribute scarce goods and services.

While I agree it's reasonable to question, I'd prefer that I allocate my resources how I deem appropriate rather than the government do it for me. They aren't nearly as efficient.

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