[quote name='elprincipe']Why equate capitalism with government corruption that allows some people to screw over others?[/quote]
Because capital as a matter of "good" economic policy seeks out those countries that will offer it the lowest regulation, the lowest labor costs, and the most hospitable government cooperation. A perfect host country would be one that allowed them to discard externalities as a cost of business entirely, a large exploitable labor force without labor protection recourse of any kind, etc. Sure, China deserves criticism. That's a obvious and a given. But should we pretend that capital doesn't have a significant role here?
thrust's analogy was perfect. A man punches his wife in the face. We buy teeth. We're against abuse but we buy any teeth made available as a result of abuse. And then we say the blame lies entirely with the man, then wink and say thanks for the teeth.
No way dude.
If the problem is China, then the problem would end immediately when China cleaned up its act right? There would be no more of this kind of hideous shit without China? Of course not. In fact as stated in this thread already by capital supporters, we all know that industry would pack up and move to the next country that allowed them to do this. American industry would lead the way in seeking out the next nasty regime. And then we'd all become apologists for the industry again with the end result exactly the same.
Nothing about that makes sense.
[quote name='thrustbucket']I'm just enough conspiracy theorist to believe the root cause of all we are both talking about is the corprotacracy. I really am starting to believe it's the evil large banks controlling everything that matters and preventing any real change. They are the true enemy to me. Government has little to do with it, because they are almost completely controlled by such now.[/QUOTE]
I agree and think it can be completely wiped out with two regulation changes. First, eliminate the limiting of liability or piercing of the veil. I'm not talking about torts per se, I mean stop allowing companies to allow one or two people to be the fall guys and everyone else's pile of money is safe. That's absurd and most lawyers and business people get a big grin on their faces when you talk about how limited liability entities have evolved to essentially turn companies into fortresses that allow them to evade any/all bad behavior liability. It wasn't this way until very recently and the change has been dramatic.
Second, make companies choose between being an individual or being a corporation in the eyes of the law. They far too easily dissolve back into a *limited liability* corporation when they get busted doing awful shit or want to hide income from the tax man, but then suddenly become individuals when it's time to grease Congress with money or talk about freedom of speech. The reality that a corporation has MORE freedom and LESS liability than a human being is positively absurd.
[quote name='bmulligan']The argument WAS about capitalism being bad and I stated otherwise in pictures. That was the point of the OP. The end result of capitalism is devastation with the implicit connection of being inherently flawed.[/QUOTE]
"Capitalism" is not bad. Capitalism as a mode of production is unrivaled in its ability to bring efficiency and innovation to the front. Those are inherent in capitalism and only a fool disagrees with that. But capital also partners with those that are oppressive, goddamn evil entities in order to increase its capital value. That's inherent as well and only a fool would see otherwise what is obvious. The body of evidence clearly bears that out.
Or we could just trust them to clean their act up without regulation. Like Disney circa 2007:
Reacting to three separate recalls of Mattel toys found to contain unsafe levels of lead paint, The Walt Disney Company said it would begin its own testing of toys featuring Disney characters, including random testing of products already on store shelves.
Executives at Disney made the decision to institute the testing on Thursday and intend to inform Mattel and other toy manufacturers today.
Yesterday:
Toys carrying the Barbie and Disney logos have turned up with high levels of lead in them, a California advocacy group says - a finding that may give holiday shoppers pause.
It would be funny if this wasn't so serious, ya know?
This is what happens when I wait for a city employee in order to finish my job. I end up writing damn thesis length posts. Damn city workers.