Censored @ Censored @lemmy.world

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1 yr. ago

Meanwhile, Hamas leaders sit in Qatar, congratulating themselves on what a successful jihad they've waged against Israel. The blood of many innocent Palestinian women and children has been shed, which is what they said they needed to draw global attention to the conflict and increase recruiting of future Hamas fighters, funders, and apologists.

They don't just gain sympathizers in Gaza. They gain sympathizers globally, especially in ME countries. And the genocide of people in Gaza won't eliminate the Palestinians, anyways. They are a worldwide diaspora now, just like the Jews.

Capitalism isn't a magic antidote. Nor are all iterations of it successful. It really depends on the government keeping corruption under control, keeping monopolies from forming, keeping regulatory capture from occurring. Also, capitalism is just an economic system. There's also political systems, legal systems, financial systems, military systems, all sorts of other government functions.

Capitalism is actually working pretty well in Asia. China is doing tremendously better since they introduced some capitalism into their socialist system, creating a mixed economy. Their growth has lifted a lot of people out of poverty. Other Asian economies have performed very well. Look at Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, and (at least prior to Chinese takeover) Hong Kong.

Latin America and Africa have a lot of complex problems, many stemming from years - or even centuries - of colonialism, military conflicts, social issues, endemic corruption, bad economic policy like "printing money" and trying to spend their way out of inflation, thereby creating hyperinflation, etc. Expecting an economic system to magically fix all the incredibly complex and even seemingly intractable issues in a society is quite unrealistic.

Thank you.

I'm not saying it's a fair system, I am just saying they are a valid military target.

But I'd like to think that I wouldn't kill innocent people even if someone pointed a gun at my head. Of course no one knows how far they'll go to survive until they're put in dire circumstance.

It's actually a pretty clever scheme by drug companies to foist the cost of medicine development AND supplying uninsured people onto insurance companies (and from there, the cost is passed on to people with insurance). I just don't understand how it's legal, or why the insurance companies - who are supposed to have such great collective bargaining power - accept this status quo.

I have noticed that it only seems to happen with very expensive, very recently developed drugs which are not yet part of the insurance companies recommended therapies, and they typically require a prior authorization (special approval based on the doctor stating there is a medical necessity for this, and only this, drug).

I never suggested you should be grateful for everything and anything that happens to you. That's really not necessary to practice gratitude on occasion. And your brain doesn't automatically turn into mush that's incapable of recognizing exploitation or injustice.

No, they side with Neo because he's relatable, they're on his side long before the Matrix is revealed, much less the philosophical suppositions put forth by the series.

I have a medicine that is $1650 with insurance, copay is $60. Or, rung without insurance and the discount card, it's $0.

Medicine pricing is utterly a scam.

If I'm going to have such brain rot that I'll be supporting Hamas after 8 months here I should probably just leave now.

That's not an absolute system. It's a system where a person's culpability is determined by their actions.

You make it sound like another person's labor is the only thing that deserves gratitude.

And no, I'm not suggesting you should be grateful to god. I'm an atheist.

Are you familiar with twentieth century Chinese or Soviet history? If you are impressed by communism, you really should read up on what happened in nations that implemented it, or attempted to implement it, in the last hundred years.

Communism doesn't redistribute power to the lower classes. It redistributes power to the Communist Party members - usually an inner circle. The people who are running the massive government that is required to operate a nation with all the central planning that communism requires. The new privileged class becomes the top technocrats and their families.

It's impossible for wealth distribution to be equal. Wealth is not just money, it is also assets. Say you strip all the assets away from people - let's say housing - and redistribute it. OK - Now everyone has a house. But all houses are not created equal. Some houses are nicer than others. Some locations are nicer than others. Everyone will want to move into the nicest house in the nicest city, but obviously they can't all fit. So what do you do? Someone has to work on the farm and grow wheat. How do you force people to work on a collective farm? What about people who don't want to work? Do they get the same housing as the workers who contribute to society? Even if you house everyone, including providing free housing for those who won't pay, what about the people who don't WANT to live in a house? Do you force them to live in a detention center? What about their kids? They keep having more kids... Do you forcibly sterilize them, or do you put their kids into an orphanage, hoping that the state can do a better job raising workers than their lazy parents? And then, what about the homeless? The people who actually prefer living outside? Obviously if they refuse to live in their house, they have fewer assets than others. Now your society isn't equal anymore, it's just made some changes in who have wealth.

Yes, socialism can be made more efficient. The trick to it is my introducing a mix of capitalism so you have a mixed market economy. Like in China.

Am I a reformist? It depends on what you want to reform, and what kind of reform you're talking about. I'd like to see more direct democracy, which I believe can be achieved in my home country through reforms. But in some other countries, it can only be achieved via revolution. For economic systems, a mix of capitalism and socialism seems to be the best thing we've found so far. No doubt a better economic system will be discovered someday. But it is not communism. Communism is too extreme. It's not a good system, and it has failed everywhere it's been tried.

Well, I am referring to actual communism, not the fantasy kind.

Wealth distribution is not equal under communism. Most is owned by the state, the privileged class still exists. The underprivileged class also exists.

Communism tends to be inefficient and less productive than capitalism, so a lot less is produced. This is demonstrated time and again. People just don't have a personal motivation to increases production for the state. Distribution is also inefficient. Historically it leads to hunger because central planning is less effective than a decentralized system where individuals are able to make decisions.

So while I agree that the current level of wealth inequality is not good, communism is certainly not the solution. All it does is change where the lines of inequality are drawn. It usually kills a few million people for no good reason, too.

Given that we now have a track record of communism, it's hard to imagine why anyone would choose it.

Their situation could easily be the setting of a dystopian novel written 30 years ago. Your nightmare future is essentially the Matrix.

By the way, people have been kept alive and prevented from killing themselves to allow further torture for a long time. It's why there's doctors at Guantanamo Bay. And suicide watch in prison.

You were handed many things on a plate... This planet, nature, air, our current level of science, technology, civilization, development, law and order, music, literature, even the very fact that you exist and are human. You did nothing to earn any of it. You may have bought your iPhone and paid for the internet service that you're using, but they were not created for you, and you had no hand in their development.

Communism limits free time, too. You still have to work under that system. And pay bills. You have to pay for childcare, dental work, travel, food, housing, and just about everything else. Except medicine. But you have to wait for that, and have no choice in who you see.

Nice that meds exist though.

I'd argue you're not very familiar with recent history. Also, who is "We"?

I don't think tribalism was the apex of greatness people seem to think it was.