Capitalists literally collaborate ALL the f***ing time dude

Nobody cares abt ur irl identity fam were u alive in the 80’s or not

When have capitalists competing ever led to a good outcome for the workers

Adam Smith aka the literal FATHER of capitalism, the one who theorized its internal mechanisms, said that it should’ve only been implemented for 80-100 years, that all workers should receive the entirety of their labor value, that landlords and capitalists were greedy people who needed regulation and control, and that the system was inherently exploitative

What happened to all that

Like at minimum you have to recognize that the system should be considered irreversibly flawed and immediately undesirable on the basis of the fact that we are in the middle of global warming and a mass extinction event

And when your new company eventually outgrows and absorbs your old one and they don’t have to worry about you leaving, are they ever going to give you raise? Think f***ing long term

People never think long term. Competition means there will be a single winner. Basically all consumer goods in the US are owned by six corporations. What will happen when there’s no competition?

Yeah and the state has no profit incentive and thus no reason to omit the entire worth produced by workers under socialism. The economic dynamic is entirely different

The theoretical $1000 of value created by a worker is returned to the worker while in capitalism $250 is returned to the worker while the rest is pocketed by the owner of the business on the basis of them being the owner

capitalism is when u change the brand of milk u buy

you see and hear about it practically everywhere as you grow up in there. in many peoples' eyes you basically won at life if you got to study in Europe or somehow leave the country. from what I know if you leave the US for Europe (and vice versa) its kinda cool but whatever, and for Europe to Europe it doesn't matter because it takes a few hours to go from one country to another. in Russia though its a HUGE deal, and in the last decade this idea of 'leaving' has become more prevalent in young Russians' lives as they become more opened towards western culture and all

so, everything is being compared to Europe or the US, at all times. therefore it shouldn't be surprising when people hear about bringing some of that cool western stuff closer to them and their very first reaction to it is positive

the ussr had full employment

the reason european countries are wealthy is because of the expropriation of value from third world countries that they exploit

Like people hear all about the existence of western mining companies and plantations all across Africa where children are paid cents on the dollar for their labor and don’t think twice about where the money goes and who benefits from it

westernization is good becuz of values!

they're rich becuz they have good values!

those poor dirty colored people are poor becuz they have bad values!

jesus christ if they could only hear their own thoughts

And meanwhile the processes of capitalism means that more money has to go into companies to keep the rate of profit increasing

This means that most first world capitalist systems are in the middle of removing most social services that guaranteed their citizens the degree of comfort that people like @RoomOnFire thought was naturally occurring in the system. UK is in the middle of dismantling the NHS, the US is experiencing massive amounts of inflation because companies want to squeeze more dollars out, and Japan is experiencing its own decay because they’ve worked people to the literal maximum

no I wasn't, nor do I have any first-hand knowledge of anyone starving in ussr in the 80s. surely wasn't nice and dandy over there, but yeah, im not 100% with RoomOnFire on this one

not the first time when I see americans arguing how good the ussr had it with people born on that soil arguing the opposite on some turn tables s*** but I know the Sovok is quite popular among western leftists so its whatever

What zero theory does to a mf

I mean I hate Russian capitalism already so if I was living in that system times million like yall do id probably run towards any alternative that sorta worked historically just as quick

Japan and South Korea have some of the most destructive work-life practices in the world and it’s the reason why they have a shrinking population, increasing suicide rates, and stagnant economies. It’s only further exasperated by the fact that they won’t allow immigration so that they have cheap labor to keep
poor

NHS is explicitly not a capitalist social service in terms of its dynamic. The fact that people do not pay for the goods and services provided by the NHS, and especially not at a profit, is distinctly the reason why it’s being dismantled and privatized

Inflation being caused by companies setting prices is a direct argument against capitalism

I’m not saying the USSR had it perfect and that it was a Utopia.

But it was absolutely a better alternative to what the West is right now, even up to the 1980’s. Think about it. What was Russia in 1910 compared to the US and UK? There was massive illiteracy, famines every decade; an artistocratic, agrarian society controlled basically all aspects of life .

In only 4 decades, even after two devastating wars and a famine that was caused by land owning peasants literally choosing to burn grain instead of distributing it, the USSR was able to provide free secondary education and advanced medical care, basically ended malnutrition, and was able to compete with the west in quality of life in many of the areas where development was moving along

It just makes no sense to point to a system predicated on exploitation and theft of labor to further power as preferential to one where social well-being is a priority

I know all about how people who don't live in Western countries think Western consumerism and what not is heaven on earth and I understand why some people may have a positive first impression of it from the outside looking in, but the reality is very different

And either way, what country in recent history has risen from poverty the most? That's China. Did they adopt Western values? F*** no lmao. Material conditions bro, rid yourself of that idealist thinking s*** will have you looking goofy talmbout Western values make you rich like roomlnfire, unfortunately that's not how the world works