this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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And look where this kind of thinking got us: Ecological collapse and the climate catastrophe. Have fun eating money I guess π
I think both things have some points.
You're right that military industries should be nationalized, and I agree to a degree (I'd also rather not have the military industry power be 100% controlled by the state, so maybe 50% only).
But also capitalism, if done as it was designed to be done and heavily regulated, can also spark innovation.
Battery technology was in part invented really early on because someone wanted to get wealthy by creating a better mode of transport than the piston engine for example (it's older tech than people realize). The issue was that once the piston engine was growing in popularity, there wasn't heavy handed regulations in order to slow down it's growth and prevent them and eventually the oil companies from using their new power to stifle electrics research.
I don't think the solution to capitalism's (and democracy's by extension) downfalls has been invented or even solved on paper yet. But in the meantime, something in the middle might be the best solution than either extreme.
Even a socialist command economy has to reason in terms of inputs and outputs. The difference in value between the two is a pretty good indicator of whether the given economic activity is successful or not. In a capitalist system the positive difference is called profits and the capitalists get to keep it. That fact doesn't discredit the entire concept of "profits" as a net gain in value.
Anyway, just because the capitalists may win most (the whole system is called capitalism after all), doesn't mean that ramping up European arms production isn't a huge benefit for Ukraine.
I said nothing about socialist command economy π
Try reading up about "capitalist realism" and you might realize that there are a lot of other options than capitalism or socialist dictatorship. Anyone who argues in binaries like that is either extremely naive or has a capitalist agenda.
And no. The benefit to Ukraine is indirect at best. Notice how the pundits like to always say "but Ukraine" and how there is a suspicious absense of concrete plans on how this increased defense spending is directly benefitting Ukraine?
Your kind of naive and emotionalized thinking will get you nowhere. Nowhere!
Sacrifice of prosperity for the good of mankind, as you're suggesting it, has never worked. A society is only content when they can feel a constant upwind in their quality of life. See China for example: people are comparatively happy there despite the authoritarian government because they can feel growth and growing prosperity in their everyday lives like they have never felt before. If you don't have that, you get social unrest, radicalization and eventually wars. You're seing the infancy of that already in Europe and the US.
There is a very easy way to fix the climate: make it profitable. Guide the economy in a direction such that eventually they don't need subsidies for climate-friendly production. This is the only way. But for it to work, you need to have a plan! This is very important. A plan to make climate protection profitable. Else, it will NEVER work.
Yeah keep sticking your fingers in your ears and pretend everything is fine π
You're not even listening. Probably haven't even read my comments. I never suggested that everything is fine.
I'm just pointing out your constraint world view. If you don't change it, your frustration will just end up in more frustration. Emotional and irrational people are being stomped on or ignored at best. You won't accomplish anything.
The first step towards change is accepting the current situation and using it for your best advantage.
Says the person that literally just held a sermon on the core believes of capitalism that have very little to do with the real world π
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