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Why do so many defend capitalism? (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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[–] 4 points 3 weeks ago (10 children)

Even more benefit from a social market economy, which might be an optimal sweet spot if done right.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

    Capitalism with a larger social safety net is still capitalism, and it relies on the exploitation of workers in the Global South to function. As the Global North’s capacity to imperialize the Globe South deteriorates, so too does its ability to bribe its own workers at home with treats.

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  • [–] -3 points 3 weeks ago* (7 children)

    That's why I wrote "if done right".
    A truly social market economy also has to make sure that workers along the whole supply chain have to get similar rights and treatment as local workers.

    Besides that, centrally planned economies (being the opposite to plain free market capitalism), also don't really shy away from exploiting the resources of poorer countries.
    (Looking e.g. at imperialistic China here).

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  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago (6 children)

    China isn’t exploiting anyone. You really need to start questioning what your own empire accuses its enemies of. Previously:

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  • [–] -2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

    China isn’t exploiting anyone.

    Total Imports 2025 EU / China:

    Mineral fuels, oils, distillation products $467.75B / $442.95B
    Plastics $68.38B / $56.48B
    Pearls, precious stones, metals, coins $56.12B / $118.02B
    Articles of apparel, knit or crocheted $53.13B / $3.74B
    Articles of apparel, not knit or crocheted $48.56B / $5.79B
    Iron and steel $44.08B / $30.86B
    Edible fruits, nuts, peel of citrus fruit, melons $31.17B / $20.69B
    Fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatics invertebrates $29.23B / $19.93B
    Rubbers $26.46B / $20.57B
    Footwear, gaiters and the like $26.30B / $5.70B
    Copper $18.63B / $74.63B
    Oil seed, oleagic fruits, grain, seed, fruits $18.63B / $57.02B
    Pulp of wood, fibrous cellulosic material, waste $11.87B / $21.98B

    So, looking at the absolute numbers, China is eploiting the world's resources in a similar fashion as the old style European Union, so I have to disagree.

    I won't comment on the content of your provided reports and youtube videos (of which at least two look a little... juicy... at first glance), as me just providing you with a bunch of counter-reports and videos, whose reliability you would question in a similar way as I am questioning yours, won't change anything.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (4 children)

    Country X importing from country Y doesn’t magically equate to country X exploiting country Y. Exploitation is a matter of unequal exchange, and not every exchange is unequal. Exchanges coerced through classical imperialism or through neoliberal debt trap peonage are unequal.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (3 children)

    Looking at the top 3 exports of China (by a wide margin before anything else):

    Electrical, electronic equipment $1016.58B
    Machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers $603.82B
    Vehicles other than railway, tramway $248.31B

    That's all high price stuff.

    Combined with its huge trade surplus, this is a classical "Buy cheap resources - sell expensive highly processed commodities back" scheme, the same as e.g. the uprising European industrializing nations employed as a strategy during their colony exploiting times (and to some degree still do in a similar fashion as China).

    No, there is nothing equal here.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Somehow you’re still ignoring how those Euro-American exchanges occurred under duress, at the point of a gun.

    Buying raw materials at a freely-agreed upon price, and then applying labor to them to create a finished good, is not exploitation. No one was coerced into anything.

    Where are China’s guns? In China. The US has over 800 overseas military installations, while China has one, an anti-piracy port in Djibouti.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (1 child)

    But that free international market argument applies to all (well, most of all...) countries, which is exactly my point. Modern China is as exploitative as any other highly developed modern country, independent of economic system.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 weeks ago*

    Sure, as long as you insist on misdefining exploitation in that way, then by your self-serving definition, modern China is just as exploitative as the imperial core.

    That’s the definition the imperial core wants to promote, because if they can’t look good, they can at least claim that their enemy is just as bad. But the majority of the world isn’t buying the hogwash that the always the same map minority is pushing.

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