this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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No, cronyism happens when you mix the government and the economy. Pure capitalism is little Timmy with the lemonade stand on the corner, cronyism is the city ordinance banning unlicensed businesses.
People like to fix problems, and the government is a convenient tool to do so. But the more laws there are, the easier it is for a lobbyist to tweak them to get an advantage.
So you're in favor of market socialism? Most people mean non-market socialism, like the USSR with planned economies and whatnot.
I've seen a few businesses make that work, but nothing widespread enough to really consider the country socialist. I'm interested in what role the government has in such a system.
But unions aren't that. Unions are collective bargaining, not collective ownership. So unions act more like governments than business owners.
Care to provide some examples?
No, capitalism's central tenet is that a free market will eventually self-regulate. A clueless rich guy would eventually fall to more motivated people who outcompete them.
The problems occur when clueless rich guys can convince lawmakers to put obstacles in the way of their competitors. Such as ISPs creating bureaucracy to stall competitors until they run out of money, or a ban on municipalities making their own (happened to my city, we're trying again now that the law changed). The government's job is to prevent that from happening, not enable it.
The motivations to consolidate power exist in any economic system be it socialist, capitalist, or fuedal. That said, despite this, western capitalist societies have done a fantastic job improving the standard of living of the average person (rising tide lifts all boats).
Are they paid equally? If so, what incentive does the average worker have to take a more risky job or one requiring more education? Surely it would be rational to do the easier job, no? Likewise, why would people innovate if the reward is just another job?
If they're not paid equally, what's to stop the founder from giving themselves an outsized portion of the profits? What exactly has been gained? What's to prevent exceptions in the law for more influential founders? What about embezzlement?
I'm not exactly sure what system you prefer, so I'm not sure how to show the potential flaws, but hopefully something there provokes thought. People with power will find a loophole to enrich themselves, and if that's too difficult, they'll bring their innovation to another country instead.
I think it's better to play off people's selfishness and pit them against each other than try to compel them to share. Otherwise selfish people will end up in control of whatever system we choose.
Why would employees ever be paid exactly the same? It's obviously paid by position and seniority.
Capitalism is not equivalent to a free market. In general, free markets are simply something people create. Capitalism is when the power resides with the capital.
Socialism means that the power resides with society. Not the government. Afaik, workers owning the means of production is the only way to do this. A true socialist state has a pretty small government, because like you've pointed out, central governments are pretty vulnerable. 50 different worker unions across 5 different industries, who do not allow outside investors, is not at all vulnerable.
Cronyism must happen in any true capitalist society for this reason:
As a business owner, you are required to do anything legal to increase shareholder value, otherwise investors will sue you.
Rewriting laws is a highly effective means of increasing your companies value.
It is legal to bribe the government for new laws.
If any large business does not do this, they will lose to their competition who does. This is why cronyism is the natural state of capitalism.
I don't see why a real founder of a company shouldn't maintain some huge amount of ownership as high as 10-15%, for life. They started it, after all. The people who are left out of the deal are the investor class, who have never done any actual work for the company.
The countries America has destabilized via the CIA is extensive. The methods range among: assassinations of elected leaders (at least 5 foreign presidents, that's what I found a couple minutes, probably closer to 15), rigging elections, arming a neighboring warlord who then slaughters hundreds of thousands (Jakarta, 1963, 1 million dead in under a week), placing trade embargos on them to prevent them getting necessary supplies, and even using our fruit companies to put their economy into a stranglehold, then demanding the laws be changed to benefit the banana companies.
Venezuela in particular has been completely ravaged by America killing their elected socialists, then installing authoritarian puppets who go on to brutalize everyone. Pretty close to every single south American country has been a victim of the CIA. Chile is another great example, CIA assassinated Allende, then installed Pinochet, one of the worst dictators in history. I suggest you look up more, I can't possibly cover even 10% of it here. The events in Jakarta, 1963 is a great place to start, along with the last 80 years in venezuala.
These events happened largely because the capitalists needed another war to profit off of. All of the atrocities the CIA has committed over the years are directly attributable to capitalism and it's need for infinite growth, forever.