NotAnotherLemmyUser @ NotAnotherLemmyUser @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

Also, it is ranked 57th when sorted worst to best. It is sorted at 120th from best to worst. Worse than 119 other nations.

Yes, 57th when sorted from worst to best, I never said otherwise. And your numbers are a little off when sorting the other way around. There are only 162 countries with rankings in that list, so flipping it around puts the U.S. at 105th (behind 104 other nations).
Besides, we're looking at the Gini Coefficient which (with the countries on this list) has a range of ~23 to ~63, and a score of ~40 is right in the middle of that. In no way is the U.S. at the top of that list, but I still don't see how you can consider it to be "one of the worst countries in the world for income inequality".

You've invented a thing and then are using your own invention to sort terms that have actual meanings not related to your invented scale

I mean, I'm trying to explain in other terms so that we can understand each other better?

And if I understand this right, you're saying that it doesn't make sense to create a scale where:

• one side of it is laissez fair capitalism, a completely free market economy with no government regulation
• the other side is an economy entirely run/controlled by the government with complete government regulation (such as communism)

Communism isn't a scale

I never said it was a scale. I just placed it at one end of the scale. The scale being "how much control a government has over the market."

On that scale, the U.S. is mostly capitalist, I have never said otherwise.

Well the U.S. isn't entirely capitalist either.

On one extreme you have a completely free market economy. On the other extreme you have an economy that's completely controlled by the government (such as Communism).

A pure free market economy doesn't really exist anywhere among all the countries, what we have instead are a lot of countries that try to find the right balance between letting the market control itself and having the government control the market.

So call it whatever you want, but the US does have a mixed economy when placed on that scale.

The US gini coefficient is 39.8 as of 2021. Making it one of the worst countries in the world for income inequality.

I don't know how you can say it's one of the worst when it's not even in the bottom third in that list of 162 countries.

According to that source, the worst country is South Africa with a Gini coefficient of 63.0.

The best country is Norway with a Gini Coefficient of 22.7.

The US. Ranks 57th with a Gini coefficient of 39.8.

If anything that places it in the middle rather than "one of the worst".

When I say pure capitalism, yes, I'm referring to laissez faire capitalism.

I can't think of any countries that currently have that, and I don't think we should want that.

Socialism is likely not the best term here, but when I'm referring to it economically I mean in the sense that the government has ownership of some businesses and is regulating other businesses as opposed to what would happen with laissez-faire capitalism.

Perhaps it is better to say that the U.S. is a mix between Capitalism (a market economy) and Communism (a command-based economy) as this article explains? https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/economy.asp

It is one of the worst countries in the world in terms of wealth disparity and income inequality.

That has not been my experience when visiting/living in other countries, but I am curious if you have some data to back this statement up?

Although I do agree that we have a problem with wealth disparity and income inequality.

I think we should look to other countries that have much higher levels of happiness (Such as Sweden) compared to the U.S. and try to imitate what they are doing.

Even in the case of looking to economies like what Sweden has, it is still a mixed economy. So completely doing away with capitalism is not something we should be striving for.

I'm just going off of the definition here:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism

any of various egalitarian economic and political theories or movements advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.

We definitely don't have a pure capitalist economy since that would mean that there is no government intervention in the market.

And we do have parts of the economy that are owned/run by the government as socialism would suggest.

What would you call it, if not a mix of capitalism and socialism? Maybe a mix of Capitalism and Communism would be more accurate?

This article would seem to suggest that: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/economy.asp

What would you propose as being better than the mix of capitalism and socialism that almost every country already has for their economy?

Both extremes lead to terrible outcomes.

America doesn't have a pure capitalist economy.

A pure capitalist economy would have a free market system with no government intervention.

Almost every country has a mix between capitalism and socialism for their economies.

A pure capitalist economy is terrible just as much as a pure socialist economy would be terrible.
The trick is finding the right balance between the two.

If you're having trouble finding when it is enforced you can look at websites like this one that list out the many cases brought up against companies (for the U.S. at least).

http://ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings

Then it's a good thing that no countries have pure capitalism for their economy.

We need regulation on corporations to keep them in check.

It also helps when the ears are angled in a way that makes it look like a unicorn.

The painting is protected by glass, so no damage was done to the painting.

I read through way too many articles that failed to mention this important detail.

http://bbc.com/news/articles/cydd9ye77rmo

Sometimes tar just comes up naturally from underground and ends up in the ocean.

This is especially common if they're talking about “tar patties the size of a sand dollar”.

Edit: Looks like this is actually 'asphalt' that comes up naturally. For those who haven't heard of this phenomenon before: https://tarpits.org/experience-tar-pits/la-brea-tar-pits-and-hancock-park

It occurs throughout the world in a number of different locations. I'm not saying that this is what's happening here, but it's definitely a possibility, especially when people describe "tar patties the size of a sand dollar".

Link to source instead of amp: https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/06/americas/cuba-russian-ships-submarine-visit-intl-latam/index.html

the fact that the US doesn't negotiate with terrorists,

Isn't that just some Hollywood trope that's not actually true?

Walton county has only had 1 attack in the last ~140 years, if these numbers are correct:

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/maps/na/usa/florida/

Edit: Numbers are for unprovoked attacks... of course if you're male, in your 20's, and you're intoxicated... the numbers are different.

This is definitely out of the ordinary for this particular county (from what I can tell).

Only 1 shark attack has been recorded in this county in the last ~140 years.

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/maps/na/usa/florida/

Also a fun fact, while most of the shark attacks (in the U.S.) happen in Florida, you're very likely to survive. (About 15-30 attacks per year, and only 1 fatality every few years if I'm remembering correctly).

However, while you're much less likely to get attacked in California, if you do get attacked, you're far more likely to die. (About 1-2 shark attacks every year and a fatality every other year if, I'm remembering correctly).

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/yearly-worldwide-summary/

From the article:

A lawsuit before the Maryland Supreme Court seeks to stop the sale of a parking lot in Bethesda that currently covers the remains of a historically Black cemetery to developers.

The Bethesda African American Cemetery Coalition argues that since the land is a burial ground the sale of the land requires court approval if the land is to be used for another purpose.

“This issue is really critical because right now there are literally hundreds of African American burial grounds around the United States that are in various stages of desecration,” Steven Lieberman, the attorney who is representing the Coalition told USA TODAY in February.

Exactly. Here's a relevant snippet from the article:

The California decertification law was passed in 2021 in the wake of the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and took effect in 2023. The law came 18 years after lawmakers stripped that power from a state police standards commission. That left it to local agencies to decide if officers should be fired, but critics said they could often simply get a job in a different department.

This is big, although I wonder how difficult it is for an officer to move to a different state and get a job even if they were decertified by this law.

You saw what happened to some of the witnesses that were on our side, they were literally crucified by this man who looks like an angel but he's really a devil.

"Literally".... You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

That list, reorganized/alphabetized by state:

I think you're confusing the word "corporate" with "capitalism", they are not the same.

Edit: If you swap the word "capitalist" with "corporate" I completely agree with you.