5 ms·

Is there a country with an economic system other than capitalism that is even remotely competitive with the US? Saying there's a crisis in capitalism because s

Is there a country with an economic system other than capitalism that is even remotely competitive with the US? Saying there's a crisis in capitalism because some people are poor is like saying the Warriors are in crisis because their bench players aren't getting much playing time.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
thesagan 7y ago
But if the number of players on the bench keep increasing while those on the field keep decreasing, you might start to wonder if there's a problem, or if the Warriors will be back to play next season.
salty_biscuits 7y ago
Plenty of social democracies about that have a good standard of living for more people.
conception 7y ago
We've tended to go to war (hot or cold) with them before they have the chance to compete.
- blotter_paper 7y ago
  And here, I thought war (hot or cold) was competition. I get that momentum is hard to overcome, but I think a sufficiently competitive system will overcome that barrier and eventually outcompete capitalism as we know it; we haven't found that system yet, though it's theoretically possible we've tossed out some better systems that weren't better enough to overcome the first-mover-after-WWII advantage. I think the major innovation of the next paradigm shift will relate to how groups of people handle intergenerational wealth (and perhaps some related structural questions), as I think this is the most glaring inefficiency of the American system. This is a minefield of a problem with a lot of naive, popular answers.
randomsearch 7y ago
Well, all of Scandinavia have better societies than the US by a range of measures, and they’re certainly much less capitalist.
- codr7 7y ago
  Having grown up in Sweden, I'd say that's mostly history by now. It used to work a lot better, but they've been privatizing and monetizing non-stop during my life so far and it's mostly same ice cream/different flavor these days from what I can see.
  - njepa 7y ago
    Yep, Sweden is unfortunately a long way from "the middle way" these days.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

thesagan 7y ago

But if the number of players on the bench keep increasing while those on the field keep decreasing, you might start to wonder if there's a problem, or if the Warriors will be back to play next season.

salty_biscuits 7y ago

Plenty of social democracies about that have a good standard of living for more people.

conception 7y ago

We've tended to go to war (hot or cold) with them before they have the chance to compete.

blotter_paper 7y ago
And here, I thought war (hot or cold) was competition. I get that momentum is hard to overcome, but I think a sufficiently competitive system will overcome that barrier and eventually outcompete capitalism as we know it; we haven't found that system yet, though it's theoretically possible we've tossed out some better systems that weren't better enough to overcome the first-mover-after-WWII advantage. I think the major innovation of the next paradigm shift will relate to how groups of people handle intergenerational wealth (and perhaps some related structural questions), as I think this is the most glaring inefficiency of the American system. This is a minefield of a problem with a lot of naive, popular answers.

randomsearch 7y ago

Well, all of Scandinavia have better societies than the US by a range of measures, and they’re certainly much less capitalist.

codr7 7y ago
Having grown up in Sweden, I'd say that's mostly history by now. It used to work a lot better, but they've been privatizing and monetizing non-stop during my life so far and it's mostly same ice cream/different flavor these days from what I can see.
- njepa 7y ago
  Yep, Sweden is unfortunately a long way from "the middle way" these days.