11 ms·

This is where we're at huh?

• antonvs 7mo ago
  This is their brain on capitalism
  • inglor_cz 7mo ago
    I wish more intellectuals had their "brain on capitalism". It is dismaying to find out how many American academicians take Marxism seriously - unless they stem from countries like Cuba that had the misfortune to actually let Marxist ideas rule them. It is mental fentanyl for certain kind of collectivist mind. Give me Hayek and Buckley instead.
    • direwolf20 7mo ago
      Which ideas constitute Marxism?
      • inglor_cz 7mo ago
        In theory? The most obvious is labor theory of value, plus false consciousness and the division of the society into exploitative class and exploited class. In practice? For example, nationalization of businesses and collectivization in rural areas, including suppression of "kulaks".
    • antonvs 7mo ago
      It's possible to criticize one thing without endorsing another. Your comment reads like a response to someone criticizing what the current US administration is doing by saying "yeah but the Democrats..." Binary thinking is analogous to quantizing an LLM to 2 bits (worse, actually). You're not going to get good results.
      • inglor_cz 7mo ago
        Most countries that tried experimenting with various systems settled on a combination of a relatively free market with a welfare system supported by taxation of the resulting economic surplus. Which indicates that this is what the population at large finds most acceptable.
• testaccount28 7mo ago
  do you expect that the problems walmart solves are easy? or do you think that the government could do it cheaper if they were in charge? edit: or maybe the communities served by walmart should build their own rain ponchos and bananas locally.
  • ziml77 7mo ago
    Yes walmart is so cost effective huh? https://www.forbes.com/sites/errolschweizer/2025/12/18/how-walmart-and-pepsico-rigged-prices-and-supercharged-food-inflation/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/errolschweizer/2025/12/18/how-w...
    • testaccount28 7mo ago
      if walmart unfairly used its monopolistic position to steal from consumers, then of course i support serving justice. is the point of this conversation just to proclaim you don't like some guys? what is your claim here? what action do you desire the collective to take? what is the rule that society should follow? why do you expect that rule to lead to a more prosperous, thriving society?
• pests 7mo ago
  What is cheaper? A) The government building an entire logistical supply and warehousing chain across the country for groceries to support food welfare. Cold food, meat, spoilage & waste, a bunch of federal jobs. or B) The government gives citizens a bit of money, which they then spend at existing warehouses (with existing logistical supply chains) to buy food. Some existing warehouses will accumulate larger shares of this money, as it has more customers. The existing warehouses in example B are called grocery stores, like Walmart.
  • shimman 7mo ago
    The military is able to provide groceries nearly 20-50% cheaper than every private retailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQOXdtPBGXI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQOXdtPBGXI Seems like the it IS cheaper for the government to do it, odd how much better prices can be when you don't have to worry about making sure the fat cats stay fat.