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Cake day: July 25th, 2023

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  • quindraco@lemm.eetoLefty Memes@lemmy.dbzer0.comI'm tired...
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    6 months ago

    Every system has flaws, to be sure - e.g. in Saudi Arabia, which is as anticapitalist as possible due to the government owning everything, all wealth is concentrated in the monarch - and capitalism is no exception. My answer to you has to be specific to certain types of goods, because for other types, capitalism will absolutely fail in the manner you describe and needs government regulation not to.

    In this context, I will use “fail” to mean the failure you asked about, only 1 wealthy person.

    Example where capitalism will generally not fail, and, in fact, has never failed in recorded history: restaurants. If our mysterious wealthy person attempts to own every restaurant simultaneously, someone else will open a rival restaurant and the plan will fail (and even if somehow no one could open a rival anywhere, people could choose to eat at home). No one in any country has ever managed to own every restaurant at once.

    Example where capitalism will absolutely fail over time: oil. It is trivial, given enough time, for one person to eventually own all access to oil - Rockefeller is a great example of someone working hard at this, successfully.


  • quindraco@lemm.eetoLefty Memes@lemmy.dbzer0.comI'm tired...
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    6 months ago

    That’s not true at all. Capitalism has many flaws, but your claim is simply false.

    I’m guessing you’re conflating capitalism with the deeply non-capitalist legal structures that have been erected on top of it in most of the world. One of the most common examples is corporate welfare, which is exactly as capitalist as welfare for private citizens. I’m not trying to attack or defend welfare with this statement, but I am emphasizing that that’s not how capitalism works.