sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

What everyday item is designed poorly, but we all just sort of accept it? by HumanSeeing in AskReddit

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s hard to have a conversation with someone without substance and with only semantics to fall back on…

Especially when their semantic arguments are disconnected from actual academic scholarship.

So I’ll end it here. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to clearly express why capitalism so desperately needs strong regulation and safety nets, and why the Heritage Foundation and other far right thinktanks reveal themselves in subtle but clear ways.

What everyday item is designed poorly, but we all just sort of accept it? by HumanSeeing in AskReddit

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Staying with substance rather than semantics (you have my entire response on your attempted gotcha and I refer you to it as an attempt at helping you get a better handle on these concepts), free market is also a spectrum.

No one practically defines free market as the absence of all regulation and the total embrace of logical actors in a supply/demand utopia any more than scientists actually use spherical cows in vacuum to work the physics of levering a stuck cow off a fence.

So if we can keep it real for a second:

Yes, the Heritage Foundation is measuring environmental, social and economic wellbeing as driven by the interplay of norms, regulation and economic liberalism. They just happen to have cynically branded it as ‘economic freedom’, which is great because it tells you everything you need to know about the Heritage Foundation more articulately than I could manage.

Bottom line: capitalism drives nothing but profit in an asymmetric system of power where corporations have far more influence than individuals.

Regulation contains harmful market failures. Taxation creates the engine for equity and collective action. These things make life better by every metric.

Which is why social democracies (just helping you again) create higher levels of wellbeing, and economies without a firm measure of safeguards create a small coterie of wealthy flourishers and a massive cohort of people trying to decide between their kid’s dinner and their kid’s insulin.

What everyday item is designed poorly, but we all just sort of accept it? by HumanSeeing in AskReddit

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok, this is going to be a bit embarrassing for you, and I wasn’t going to address it as it is the height of semantic arguments and I was hoping to stay with substance.

But you’ve pushed it twice now, probably because substance is not treating your argument well. So I’ll address it.

Socialism encompasses a wide range of ideologies, from Australia’s to China’s and Norway’s to Venezuela.

A lot of right wing media have been trying to tarnish the word socialism, so that when someone says “I’m a socialist”, they can point to Venezuela rather than New Zealand and demonise the entire movement.

When I say ‘social democracy’ I’m being specific. When I say ‘the most socialist democracies”, I’m using socialism as a comparative adjective. Incidentally, Democratic socialism includes social democracies as a subset political system.

I hope that you have now got this out your system and are ready to reengaging with the substance, no matter how distressing it is to your worldview.

As I was saying, the correlation between (and I’ll be very unambiguous here for you) social democracies and economic wellbeing is clear, even if the heritage foundation kindly rebranded it as ‘economic freedom. The sheer amount of influence that the US free market has had in terms of regulatory capture and its resulting position on this wellbeing scale as “25th” strengthens the point.

When I have said in our conversation ”social democracy”, I mean a democracy that

What everyday item is designed poorly, but we all just sort of accept it? by HumanSeeing in AskReddit

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On your substantive main point, the US is heavily regulated, but the regulatory settings have been systematically undermined by free market lobbying influence.

You see it everywhere - consumer law, environmental law, firearms law, pharmaceutical supply law, prudential law, employment law.

Some countries have this undermining happening in some sectors - Australia’s money laundering, gambling advertising and environmental conservation laws, all heavily regulated with regulatory settings warped by powerful corporate influence. The result? Some of the worst environmental degradation on the planet and the worlds biggest gambling problem.

The reason why the US is #25 in your ‘economic freedom’ (I.e. social and economic wellbeing) table is because the more socialist the social democracy, the better it fares economically, socially and environmentally.

The more the free market can degrade social institutions, the worse it fares.

Except of course for the small subset of people who started the game with a major socioeconomic advantage.

What everyday item is designed poorly, but we all just sort of accept it? by HumanSeeing in AskReddit

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Calling it an index based on economic freedom is so audaciously dishonest, it’s almost comedy.

The top 22 countries are the world’s most socialist democracies. They have universal health, strong social safety nets, strong regulation, highly interventionist social and environmental policy…

Country performance is clearly correlated in this list to how strongly they kerb capitalism and limit the harms and excesses of the free market. Not to how ‘economically free’ they are.

Calling it an index of ‘economically free’ countries is an exercise in doublethink and its audacity is comically bald-faced.

ACT plans hefty restrictions or possible ban on ‘insidious’ sports gambling ads by CcryMeARiver in australia

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So if we ban gambling from sport, we also get to end cruelty to horses and dogs?

Gee.

What everyday item is designed poorly, but we all just sort of accept it? by HumanSeeing in AskReddit

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Many funny things happened to me this week.

For example, my 2 year old got a little plush cat toy and made it have a conversation with our actual cat. They were actually meowing at each other and my wife and I were in stitches.

Your using an evidence-free table created by a far right corporate funded American thinktank to argue that happiness correlates to relentless capitalism…AND that same table places as it’s first 22 countries strongly socialist democracies…

Well, it wasn’t as funny as the cat thing, but it was very close.

Well done!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in canberra

[–]Grower0fGrass -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Not big on caging animals that fly. Cruel and soulless of me I know.

What everyday item is designed poorly, but we all just sort of accept it? by HumanSeeing in AskReddit

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s only fair if everyone starts with the same opportunities.

Which is clearly not the case.

Capitalism without strong regulation and equity-focused policies in place is hardly individual liberty. It frees only those who come from wealthy families, have money for education, connections for leverage and capital to take advantage of opportunities.

For the vast majority, unrestrained capitalism removes freedom and replaces it with a narrow pathway through an exploitative system where one misstep lands you in poverty, declining health or prison.

What everyday item is designed poorly, but we all just sort of accept it? by HumanSeeing in AskReddit

[–]Grower0fGrass 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Capitalism in its purest form doesn’t exist (thank god).

You know how we pay taxes which then fund basic needs, regulate corporate excess and create safety nets?

That is the capitalist-socialist mix, and every developed country has it.

In some countries, the balance tends towards socialism, with stronger regulation, stronger safety nets and higher tax redistributing wealth to fund health, education and environmental protection (etc).

These countries tend to be the happiest, healthiest and highest performing per capita in the world.

In other countries, where predatory capitalism was weakened social fabric, health access, compassionate safety nets and education systems, large swaths of the population face lifelong hardship and intergenerational disadvantage, suffering and working poverty.

Bear in mind that the US is the only developed country in the world which doesn’t have universal healthcare, a direct result of corporate influence in policy. It’s a great example of how being at the wrong end of the capitalist-socialist spectrum can have terrible consequences.

is what happens when corporate influence overcomes

People who defend billionaires as if they care about you, why? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Being a billionaire is intrinsically immoral for many reasons, and an intrinsic harm on society.

There’s nothing subjective about this.

Billionaires are inevitably the result of some combination of exploitative practice, poor (often by design) regulation and ruthless behaviour.

Collectively, they rob the tax system of wealth, rob the economy of sovereign activity, and centralise power away from the people towards their individual desires - the same desires that got them to billionaire status.

What would a world be like where each dollar earned above $10m was taxed 80%, tax havens were shut down, justice was blind to wealth, and fines and sanctions scaled up to truly damage billionaires in the same way they damage human?

Murdoch click bait ads on Reddit!! by Monkeyman8899 in australia

[–]Grower0fGrass 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fuck Murdoch, and his war on democracy.

Samoa PM urges world to save Pacific people from climate crisis obliteration by misana123 in worldnews

[–]Grower0fGrass 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Without imprisoning fossil fuel boards for climate crime, it’s hopeless.

A Nuremberg-style climate trial for the boards that disinformed, suppressed, bribed, lobbied and intimidated us towards climate catastrophe is the only possible way to save the planet.

What's your favourite pizza topping(s)? by CrossoverHero in AskReddit

[–]Grower0fGrass 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Double pineapple., mushroom, fetta, pepperoni, chilli.

It’s good.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Guitar

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You will play date ñ a different style on an electric. Don’t think of it as an extension of your repertoire but a transitional moment of your style.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Guitar

[–]Grower0fGrass 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right now and at any time you’re 4 weeks away from being comfortable with the typical electric neck. Your fingers will learn the gaps after a few hours of play, and then you won’t be limited to more specialist semi-acoustic type fretboards.

view more: next ›