Comments by "Harry Stoddard" (@HarryS77) on "Converted Libertarian Nails the Psychology of the Right" video.

  1. "Bartering is the best economic system out there." 800 AD "Feudalism is the best economic system out there." 1300 AD "Slavery is the best economic system out there." 1800 AD "Capitalism is the best system out there." 2016
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  2. If what you said is accurate, some 400 million Chinese were lifted out of poverty, but many factories in China are ringed with nets to keep workers from committing suicide. Both are features of capitalism, improved material conditions and exploitation. From a certain perspective, the poorest workforce tolerable is the ideal in capitalism. After all, it's not called workerism or laborism or humanitarianism because that's not where its priorities lie, but with capital and the wealthy. We could do more proactive things to extend the poverty-lifting effect. One is to allow the flow of technology to poor countries by relaxing our incredibly stringent patent laws. Another would be to cease invading and meddling in countries attempting their own experiments in democracy and industrialization, capitalist or otherwise. We could also push for worldwide labor protections. Lastly, when talking about poverty we have to take into account how capitalism contributes to climate change, which will in the coming centuries and millennia lead to increased poverty through things like famine and forced migration.
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  3. +The Movie Dealers That line is the same kind of market mysticism that Burke spouted in the 18th century: "Market is the meeting and conference of the consumer and producer, when they mutually discover each other's wants. Nobody, I believe, has observed with any reflection what market is, without being astonished at the truth, the correctness, the celerity, the general equity, with which the balance of wants is settled" (Thoughts and Details on Scarcity). But while markets, that is, markets in a capitalist context, are great at providing loads and loads of stuff (dog beds, 20 different fragrances of handsoap, 100 kinds of SUV) the market is very inefficient at providing other things, like meaningful choices, a clean environment, fair working conditions. For example, say that people in some Third World island nation have a demand for maintaining their coastline against the encroachments of climate change—will a supplier appear? It isn't just a question of available technology, but the kinds and uses of technology that a capitalist arrangement is prepared to invest in. The easy profit of the internal combustion engine delayed with catastrophic consequences the invention of cleaner locomotion; broke up the nation's public transit (a conspiracy for which GM had to pay pennies); and segregated people into self-contained packages—the suburb, the car itself— not unlike the products for which they shuffle to the store to buy buy buy.
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  4. +Meta tron You addressed zero of my points and instead gave an example about dog beds, which is a totally fabricated, sanitized example, has no appreciation for historical development, and has nothing to do with the issue of poverty. It's little better than a fable. Oh well. All that I'll say further is that if capitalism functioned the way you describe, then maybe everything would be hunky dory, but it doesn't.
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  5. What are those costs?
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  6. No, I guess I can't make you. EDIT: It's shorter now. It's more like a sad little speed bump of text.
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