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fuck_all_you_people t1_j6jrkx6 wrote

It inherited capitalisms blueprint once capitalism became heavily invested in it.

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LegitimateAsk7824 t1_j6kfnl4 wrote

People build a dam to make a reservoir so that a community has the water they need, then capitalists buy it from them and start raising the prices and letting the water grow toxic through lack of maintenance.

Social media started as a way for people to connect and enjoy being connected. It was damned from the moment the capitalists saw money in it. If you create something valuable, whether it's art or a social media site, you'd have to fight tooth and nail to avoid it becoming utterly disfigured and corrupted.

This is their process in everything. Max profit at any cost to the wellbeing of people. Profit before life, before love, before humanity. Capitalism as a system encourages them to do it, teaches them that as long as it's "just business", it doesn't matter what you do. Profit first, and fuck everyone and everything else. And they're not even happy! Rich assholes are miserable, but profit comes even before their own peace.

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fuck_all_you_people t1_j6kma6a wrote

"If a monkey hoarded more bananas than it could eat, while most of the other monkeys starved, scientists would study that monkey to figure out what the heck was wrong with it. When humans do it, we put them on the cover of Forbes"

-Nathalie Robin Justice Gravel

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EXandRR t1_j6l2xd1 wrote

That moneky would also be ripped to pieces by the other monkeys.

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Dwarfdeaths t1_j6ktuop wrote

I think the problem most capitalist countries are struggling with is the failure to distinguish capital from land. Capital - that is, wealth reinvested to improve the productivity of future work- deserves returns. Instead of enjoying your wealth, you gave it up for a time to be more productive.

Rent seeking - that is, the withholding of land from those who need it to live and work - is pure parasitism. No one created land, they just found it and claimed it. (Similarly, old capital that was made by someone who is no longer alive is indistinguishable from land.)

Henry George proposed a solution known as the land value tax. It effectively rents all land out, and distributes that rent uniformly among citizens. While the owner can still choose how to use their land, the economic value of that land is owned by everyone.

Capitalism in its pure form, i.e. privatized rewards for private investment, is probably fine. But land is not capital and we can't continue to treat it like it is.

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