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[+] 8 points 1 year ago* (20 children)
  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Purchase of the device is Capitalism, because your money IS your vote, and YOU are the Capital of Capitalism!

    Capitalism describes the division of labour and profits, not the purchasing of goods. YOU are not theCapital in capitalism unless you are working for the profits of the owner. The root word of Capitalism is Caput, meaning head or cattle. Capitalism's root definition is basically the ownership of cattle or chattel.

    In a planned economy, there are beepers and payphones. No one builds the most expensive commercial endeavor in all of human history – advanced silicon fab nodes

    According to? The Soviets made it to space before we did, and China currently fabricates the vast majority of that technology. Technology isn't native to any economic structure.

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  • [+] -1 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • I would argue that is a better semantic dispute, but still forced. You can interpret things as political capital, technological capital, or even militaristic capital.... But it becomes a little over done pretty quickly. There are better and more accurate ways to describe these claims than to claim everything is capital.

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  • [+] -5 points 1 year ago (3 children)
  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Semantics do not create meaning, they describe it, poorly in most cases as vernacular evolves.

    Claiming something is a semantic dispute by rote when being corrected is different than engaging in a reasonable semantic dispute.

    Words do have meaning, and vernacular hasn't changed enough to completely alter the meaning of an entire economic system.....

    Most of the people that worked for William Shockley have been interviewed and recorded, along with their protégés. Bo Lojek of Motorola also wrote History of Semiconductor Engineering (Springer).

    Are you claiming that certain technologies can only be developed under capitalism? Or that semiconductor engineering would have never surpassed a certain stage without a particular economic system? What does any of that have to do with the division of labour and profits?

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  • [+] -5 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • do not care to argue with you like this. I come here to hang out with digital neighbors, not to have some angry debate.

    I don't think we're engaging in an angry argument? At least, I'm not upset. I think I'm just rebutting some of your claims and asking for clarification?

    I get nothing out of this, and for a disabled guy in social isolation, these have a disproportionate negative impact. On my original LW account I just blocked everyone that argues or down votes as such toxic negativity is unwelcome, unnecessary, and mildly harmful to everyone.

    So anyone who disagrees with you is being negative or harmful? I don't really see how being disabled gives you the right to make inarguable inflammatory claims in a public forum.

    The trials of physical disability may include a much reduced margin for adversarial encounters and contention. It is a subtle prejudice that is impossible to avoid.

    You may want to talk to someone about that, but In my experience any prejudice you are self aware of are prejudices that can be avoided.

    Have a great day.

    You too.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    creation of a surplus of devices, through exploitation, for the purposes of profit is capitalism.

    just buying stuff is just markets. barters and lemonade stands are not capitalist.

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  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Where can I find this arbitrary definition of capitalism? Because barters and lemonade in a free market stands still sounds like capitalism to me, just on a smaller scale. Just because it seems more sympathetic doesn't mean it's not the same thing.

    Im not saying that what you describe in your first paragraph isn't bad, but words have meaning. If you intend to spread your thoughts on them, you'd do well to go beyond "capitalism bad mkay" because it makes people take your thoughts less seriously. So you end up preaching to the choir who's already on your side and we've learned from reddit, Twitter and Fox that echo chambers are bad.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    from wikipedia, for instance, with my highlights:

    Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by a number of basic constituent elements: private property, profit motive, capital accumulation, competitive markets, commodification, wage labor, and an emphasis on innovation and economic growth.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Why would anyone build beepers if there are no mobile phones? That's an entire wireless infrastructure that doesn't need to be created or maintained. Beepers were the impetus for early wireless repeaters and signal towers. Phones created the data and load bearing standards but the hardware was built for the devices before phones.

    In a planned economy the onus is on the person to be where they need to make or receive a call. Like the 70s and rotary phones. "Plan your day around what the day has planned for you" is what one of the most annoying teachers I've ever had said and it's the perfect model for blaming the individual for problems outside their control. And that's why central planners will use it to deflect from criticism.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Absolutely nothing requires the only two options to be capitalisim and planned economy. Market socialism is a thing.

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  • [+] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    The reason it isn't capitalism with extra steps is that the defining trait of capitalism vs socialism isn't the presence of markets (which long predate capitalism as a distinct concept), but rather who owns what and how that ownership is justified and structured. Now, arguably market socialism is more similar to capitalism than a planned economy is, but capitalism doesn't just mean an unplanned economy either (as those, again, are much more ancient than the term implies).

    I don't think the meme implies any particular solution. To be honest, it doesn't really even imply a problem to be solved. To my eyes it just looks like it's just mocking a particular argument used to defend capitalism, without really communicating much beyond a distaste for that argument and presumably with capitalism in general.

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