The Case Against Capitalism

Discussion in 'Economics & Trade' started by DarkSkies, Apr 1, 2016.

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  1. geofree

    geofree Active Member

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    This is absolutely not true. Capitalism (private ownership of land) is the major cause of poverty the world over. In 1990 dozens of economists from M.I.T., Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, etc. (including four Nobel Prize winning economists) signed an open letter to Mikhail Gorbachev warning him not to employ capitalism in the Soviet Unions transition to free market economy. The letter calls it a DANGER multiple times and warns that capitalism (private landownership) will cause much dissatisfaction. Here is a link to that letter: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Open_letter_to_Mikhail_Gorbachev_(1990)
     
  2. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Absurd. Almost all countries are/have moved to capitalism because of superior wealth creation and increases in the standard of living. Your cmments come right out of Marx.
     
  3. geofree

    geofree Active Member

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    Then why is the United States neck deep in debt to communist China? Did you know that the land (the primary means of production) in China is publicly owned?

    Actually, Winston Churchill:

     
  4. Ndividual

    Ndividual Well-Known Member

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    The minimum wage in China varies by Province, the lowest being 9.5 CNY or about $1.42/hr and the highest 21 CNY or about $3.14/hr.


    Land, even agricultural land, does not produce much at all of any value without the employment of human labour which is the real primary means of all production.
     
  5. geofree

    geofree Active Member

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    China runs a huge trade surplus with the United States which has the effect of depressing their wages and elevating our wages. If China exports half the wealth it creates, then as far as their wage base is concerned, it is like that wealth was never produced, which has a huge depressing effect on their wages. If tomorrow China would stop exporting the wealth it produces the supply of goods available domestically would increase substantially and with it so would their wages. The sudden reduction in the supply of goods in the United States would cause our wages to fall by a substantial sum.

    The price of land is a gauge of how much any given parcel of land will allow the owner to exploit out of others labor/wages over future years, based on the level of interest rates. If a parcel of land trades on the market for $2 million, then the owner expects that ownership of that land parcel to allow him to exploit at least $2 million out of labor over the next decade or two. Land rents are a substantial portion of our gross domestic product, and if we just taxed them at market rates, land rents would bring in enough revenue that all taxes on production, savings and trade could be abolished.

    Taxes on income, savings and trade depress those beneficial activities and lead to lower living standards. Those taxes should be abolished. Land value taxation does not depress those activities, it actually stimulates more production, and the heavier land is taxed the more production will increase. That is the message I am trying to teach and the only reason I post on this forum.
     
  6. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    not at all; you merely don't understand the concepts dear. social safety nets are not privately funded, but funded through taxes. Taxes are a simple way to know how much socialism is involved in our economy.
     
  7. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    just special pleading like usual dear? it is why you are so, special.

    Who owns and runs, Hoover Dam, but the government and the People. Socialism starts with a social Contract, enforceable at law via powers delegated by the People.

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    There are no true AnCaps. Capitalism can only succeed as much as wildlife in Nature, without the Nurture of socialism to bail it out.

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    You are special pleading. Most communists regimes transitioned from communism to the socialism of a mixed-market economy. We already know division of labor and specialization are economic concepts that apply to entire economies.
     
  8. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    And US consumers benefit greatly from the low prices.

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    Ted is correct.
     
  9. Ndividual

    Ndividual Well-Known Member

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    That's true.

    While I fully support freedom of speech, your message has taught me I should add you to my block list.
     
  10. Shangrila

    Shangrila staff Past Donor

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    Post limit thread closure notification.

    Shangrila
    Moderator
     
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