Socialists don't hate markets, they hate workers not having any power or democratic choice in how they interact in the market.

Workers owning the means of production just means the workers are doing the same work but they are in ownership of the factory and the profits. They will still sell the products they produce in a marketplace.

Wtf is an uncorrupt government?

Do conservatives on lemmy ever do anything but whine that they're not immediately worshiped for their opinions?

I think you will find any place thats well moderated and cracks down on bigotry and hatespeech will skew left.

Weird how that is, huh?

Most would agree with your point - right up until you suggest that having an "uncorrupt government" is remotely possible.

Pretty much the same level of unrealistic idealism as folks who think it's remotely possible to transition a state to communism without it turning into authoritarianism.

There, now I've pissed off everyone lol

Edit: Except, I guess for the hardcore capitalists, but I assume those guys are all too dumb to read, so no point, really 🤷

Why do you want a middle class? So you have a class to aspire to and a class to denigrate? Why do you want classes?!

Honestly, I think capitalism wouldn't be so bad if it was limited to what it's good at. Fashion, tech, entertainment, snacks, ect.

But essential food, housing, water, healthcare, even electricity and internet access, the idea that these things that will always have infinite demand is haphazardly controlled through profit motive is disgusting.

Infrastructures should be government controlled and free. Essential resources should have some sort of universal basic "food stamps" system. Then actual money just becomes the luxury "fun bucks" that you don't lose out on if you don't have a lot. For example pet owners would be given a credits for pet food and free vet care, but a silly pet costume would use money.

Disclaimer: This is just a personal idea I've been mulling over, I'm sure there's a million holes in it.

Capitalism is not "when you have markets." I totally agree that it's important to have well regulated markets. But capitalism perverts democracy with bribery and lobbying. Democratic Socialism is when you have a democratic government and a democratic economy.

Markets don't "create wealth". People's work creates wealth. Banks don't create wealth, they create debt and allow more money to go into circulation than actually exists.

Regulation isn't only desired, it's crucial for any market economy to work, lest they devolve into corrupt, abusive monopolies and oligopolies. Granted, bad regulation can be equally abusive and real cases are plentiful.

Just as important as regulation is taxing who has more money, because generating wealth won't automagically distribute it in any ideal manner. The worst problem nowadays is just how easy it is for rich assholes to legally evade taxes no matter which country they're from.

I agree! Let me know when you find an uncorrupt government or uncorrupt corporation.

My experience has been the opposite. I've found that the majority of users tend to lean towards neoliberal and center-right ideologies. I guess most of them are probably American, so their warped worldview has them considering these ideologies as 'left-wing' instead 🙃

"uncorrupt government"

😂😂😂

There are hardcore liberals around here too. That's what you get when there isn't an algorithm to promote fascists.

Market != Capitalism. You can have a free market without capitalism, and capitalism without a free market.

The hexbears will attack me for saying that a regulated free market is good and a planned economy is bad. The others will attack me for saying that capitalism is bad and that we should have market socialism instead. But if we can't have that, a capitalist free market has proven much less bad than any planned economy, as long as it's regulated enough that it stays free.

I thought left also meant protection against unregulated markets? Without regulations it is just going to be capitalismplusplus.

I just really dislike the whole left/right tribalism. Politics is a lot more complex than left/right and just marking someone as either just increases polarisation...

The statement in the image is just loaded with terminology that comes with a lot of baggae. It's no surprise people tear into it. Can't speak to whether that makes them leftist or just poly sci students.

"Uncorrupt" misunderstands the nature of corruption. How do you envision resolving the interests of the forces that give validity to said government while still keeping a capitalist structure?

"Generate wealth" presupposes a specific kind of wealth created by the government and given validity by the capitalist structure. You win at the rules of the game you made up. "Middle class" has a similar problem. "Prosperity" to a nation starving under the global capitalist regime might look quite different. Why use one benchmark over the other? Because of the game you want to choose.

I wish it was just "towards the left".

I'm very much on the left socially and left of center economically, but even I feel like every other comments section on here reads like some insane tankie commune.

It's weird. It's almost like educated people skew left. So very weird...

Pity, you have to defend your ideas in a free market of thought.

uncorrupt government

I think you meant "free real estate for the CIA and their a puppet dictators".

It's what happens every time another country doesn't want to sell their natural resources for pennies.

In today's skewed political spectrum, "Left" is what would be considered moderate in a reasonable perspective.

Boot-flavored capitalist Kool-Aid must be so refreshing during such a torrid summer

I believe you are probably right. the problem is that capitalists only focus is profit. so if their profit is limited by this hypothetical non-corrupt government they will try their absolute best to make sure they get their way in the government, and since they have a lot of money they also have the power to do that.

also the ideology of endless growth for the sake of growth (how capitalism works) is literally impossible on a planet with limited recourses

"Uncorrupt government"

This is as delusional as anyone can get.

A wise man said it all once: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

There is not such thing as middle class, pure sophistic. There are only 2 classes, proletariat and bourgeoisie.

I'm actually very centrist; I don't want to eat the rich.

After all, I'm a vegan and think that anyone involved in the meat industry should be put in jail.

So, dead center. That's me.

But 'we'd be better off in a world free of corruption' isn't a right-leaning position.

I'm lower-left quadrant but always cop a fair amount of shit from others on 'the left' (nebulous term though it is) for my feelings on capitalism. The people I speak to have never seen anything but corruption, and have a combo of zero faith and utter hatred for it.

My personal feelings are that with strong, enforced checks & balances, capitalism can be combined with socialist policies to create a fantastic standard of living (see Norway), without it becoming cancerous. Unfortunately most of our western political systems (and capitalism is strongly influenced by political systems) seem to be run on a wink and a nudge, an assumed sense of 'fair play' which we all know has been shown to be worthless in recent years.

Strong unions; an educated populace; politicians who actually give a shit; this is what we need. But, capitalism has an absolute stranglehold on the populace of most western countries via print / tv media. The foxes are in charge of the henhouse and the hens are getting shit on.

All great social media does. The secret is that reality favors the progressive left

If money can make money that feedback loop will always break the system

The problem is how do we get there? In a market there will always be actors powerful enough to corrupt the governmenta and influence regulation in an undemocratic way.