It had it's place, but there has to be a better way.
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Capitalism Sucks
- Thread starter The Hammer
- Start date
It had it's place, but there has to be a better way.
Another view....
Also interesting....
Also interesting....
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I haven't bought anything on Amazon in months, because I want there to be other businesses. I'm tired of helping to destroy businesses. I'm trying (its more expensive) to encourage competition.
One thing that helps is the search engine on Amazon is very frustrating. For example if I put 'Rebar' in no rebar comes up. Instead I get a bunch of other crap shoved disrespectfully into my face. When I feel insulted like that it helps remind me of my morals.
One thing that helps is the search engine on Amazon is very frustrating. For example if I put 'Rebar' in no rebar comes up. Instead I get a bunch of other crap shoved disrespectfully into my face. When I feel insulted like that it helps remind me of my morals.
I still buy on Amazon when prices are better.
But many things on Amazon can be bought
directly from manufacturers at better pricing.
Ebay has earned my ire for high fees & limiting
communication with sellers & buyers. But they
too are sometimes the best venue. So I still
buy & sell on it. They need more competition.
Sure once in a while I will, too. I ain't no monument to justice.
Its nice to know who is selling. I respect your efforts to save money.
Saving money is a religious thing for us Born Again Pedestrians.
Amazon supports many small and starting business. Amazon is a platform for many businesses both big and small.
Amazon has gone out of its way to support small business.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I think greed plays a major role and the profit at all costs mentality.
Used to be the focus was to run a successful business, but somewhere it got lost to now where profit and shareholders is all that matters.
Kooky
Freedom from Sanity
The company has also gone out of its way to endager its employee's physical health, mental well-being, and ability to democratically organize their workplace as is their basic human right to do.
I was no fan of the faceless chainstores it replaced, but let's not kid ourselves about the utility of its business model.
Interestingly, before COVID-19 hit, Amazon was already starting to move away from delivery as its primary business - until the global pandemic brought record sales, they were drawing a lot more money from their cloud server business than from the delivery side.
I don't want to misrepresent. I appreciate that it does allow other businesses to sell through its interface, but I am swayed by some videos I've found talking about its anti competitive practices. Below is one.
I'm not arguing these as better alternatives.
Just thinking out loud so to speak, that there has to be a better system. I'm not confident in our ability to tweak this system into one that functions in the 21st century.
Lacking a better alternative is a problem
for those who want to ditch capitalism.
I say that when there are problems, just
work to solve them....not complain about
capitalism.
Bingo. That's why capitalism as it exists now sucks. Socialism (state capitalism) sucks in different ways.
There used to be an unspoken "doing well by doing good" - good meaning satisfying customers, offering decent jobs to employees and so forth.
It's still possible - witness the guy who succeeds by paying all employees a minimum of $70k salaries. But it's way too rare.
It works for both.
Kooky
Freedom from Sanity
CEOs typically have an obligation to their shareholders to maximize share value. They could be the least greedy people in the world and still have it as their job to maximize profit everywhere.
This is not due to individual failure or vice; Jeff Bezos is not failing here, he is succeeding at what he set out to do in the beginning, which was to make as much money as humanly possible. The problem lies in what our economic model defines as success, not in any individual's inability to live up to quasireligious morals that most people don't follow anyway.
It doesn't work that way.
Socialism has no historical record of anything but
economic woe & oppression....not 1 positive example.
One of your worker's paradises....
PureX
Veteran Member
It worked OK when we were mostly only trading 'extra' goods and services, and luxury goods and services. Where it fails, miserably, is when we began having to produce and trade goods and services for our survival. Free markets can't really hurt us because we can always refuse to trade if the trade seeks to exploit or harm us. But almost none of our markets are free markets, anymore. They are nearly all now captive markets that we cannot refuse to engage in. And that's when a system giving control of production to the investor class becomes horribly unfair, exploitive, and counter-productive.
The really weird thing is that there are so many people who still think they are engaging in "free trade", when they nearly never are. And they are being routinely and viciously abused and exploited as a result.
I'd rather be exploited by capitalists than by your socialists.
"Socialism, social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another. Furthermore, everything that people produce is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. Society as a whole, therefore, should own or at least control property for the benefit of all its members."
Socialism - Other early socialists
Socialism - Other early socialists
Kind of lost me out "steal labor value" from the workers.
The problem is this still tries to divide the economy into classes. There is no capitalist class and worker class. Everyone is a capitalist. They make a profit on their time by leveraging it against the assets of the owner which they normally wouldn't be able to afford at that time. The owner leverages his assets which he owns against the labor which he doesn't own. Everyone profits from this relationship including the worker. Nothing is stolen.