- cross-posted to:
- socialism@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- socialism@lemmy.ml
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46475483
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67 brands of shampoo from 3 different multinational corporations whose CEOs are all best friends
flips it over
palm oil
“yep…”
Even the first kind of freedom, for millions of Americans, is limited to whatever Walmart sells.
Cause there are no other shops left where they live.Also it’s the freedom to choose between shampoo from Unilever and also shampoo from Unilever, but yellow.
You think its 63 choices but it’s actually 2 when you follow the money back to the parent companies. Oh, and you’re prematurely bald thanks to the stress
The freedom to speak your mind and live the life you want. So long as it conforms to what the ruling class decree.
That’s America, not capitalism.
Europe, Canada etc, the unemployed have medical coverage.
Even setting aside America’s bullshit Medical industry, yanks have really weird ideas about freedom.
As an Australian the American concept of freedom always seemed nuts, even pre-Trump. Yes American’s have the freedom to carry firearms, but I much prefer the Australian freedom to live without fear of being shot.
Not to mention their ridiculous belief in their right to drive over the speed limit without consequences. Canada included.
Ah, yeah I suspect a lot of Australian’s do that too.
Perhaps not over the speed limit, but loads of drivers definitely feel as though they’re entitled to zoom around right on the limit and any impediment to their passage is an outrageous insult.
I hate that when the world thinks of the US, they think of these 2A freaks. I get why it happens but I still hate it.
The one thing I’ll push back on is your last point. Pretty much no one is afraid of getting shot. Gun violence IS an issue but it’s not affecting 99.9% of people
Americans do not fear being shot on the daily either.
Americans do not fear being shot on the daily
Maybe if they did, something would be done about all the shootings
Wow what an original thought and original suggestion nobody has ever thought of that
Oh they absolutely do. It’s one of the reasons they have such an ingrained gun fetish in their culture and incessantly complain about needing the right to open carry in a Walmart to “protect themselves from a bad guy with a gun.”
Normal Americans*
The people you’re talking about are the minority who are also the root of most of our problems
If you get stopped by the police because you’re driving too fast or driving erratically, is there any chance they would draw their firearm during that interaction, even if they dont point it at you?
For now…
Always has been.
Despite, not because.
Europe has it due to how strong Socialism looked post Second World War. Neoliberal Capitalism has been eroding it as best it can.
Just give it some more years and it’ll be gone anyway
It is still capitalism, and capitalism is based off of exploitation regardless of whether you have health insurance or not.
Okay but none of that makes the posted message true for most places.
One form of capitalism.
All forms of capitalism is exploitative. It is intrinsic to the system of private property ownership in that it creates a hierarchy of owners, who relegate access to necessities and the means of producing them unless one pays a fee, over workers who must labor for the owners in order to access said resources that they need to survive through being provided a wage from revenue that was generated through their labor, while the owner takes the lions share because of said private ownership.
Someone needs to read theory.
I just wish we had full pharmacare in Canada. I know we got a partial rollout but I got laid off and lost my insurance and the actual price of some of my medicine is way crazier than I expected.
The last time I went to pick up medication, it cost me $450 (CAD) for only for 3 prescriptions which insane. Its nearly half of my EI which already pays less than what my rent is
Luckily I actually just got hired by another place and should have insurance again but damn, our system is still terrible
Crazy idea, but medication should cost nothing. Nobody should have to choose between groceries and getting the medications they need.
You’d get no complaints from me. I don’t understand why you can go to the doctor which is covered by the government, but any medication for the treatment the doctor literally prescribed is something only those with insurance can have
The sole fact that mostly capitalist countries provide healthcare for the unemployed is by no means a testament that capitalism is fundamentally compatible with this idea.
No country is purely capitalist or socialist - it’s always a mix of the two. Sometimes it’s a somewhat even balance, like in some European states. Other times one clearly dominates, like in the USA.
Universal healthcare is a concept deeply rooted in socialism. It functions within mostly capitalist countries, because they’ve decided to implement some socialist policies. Not because it follows capitalist thought. Because it doesn’t.
The sole fact that mostly capitalist countries provide healthcare for the unemployed is by no means a testament that capitalism is fundamentally compatible with this idea.
That’s a wild take. “The fact this exists perfectly fine in a capitalist system doesn’t mean that it’s compatible with a capitalist system!”
Don’t let such a low bar lead you to complacency
Based on my observations, the freedom a lot of 'Muricans are thinking about is the freedom to be racist/sexist/ableist/homophobic/transphobic/xenophobic/islamaphobic/antisemitic/misanthropic/all-around intolerably intolerant assholes
Spoiler …all 63 brands of shampoo are owned by the same shareholders and shadowy investment firm
No because you see you’re free to start your own telecoms company or hospital or bank with the money from your trust fund
That’s just America. There are plenty of capitalist countries where that’s not the case.
The rest of the world may lag behind, but someday everyone will have the 63 shampoo flavors
We have the best of both worlds. 63 shampoo flavors and unemployment support.
My dream is instead of three people that own all 63 shampoo flavors, the workers own them
Get out of here you filthy socialist commy anarchist antifa wanker! That would benefit the people…think of the billionaires who would suffer!
Buy a cottage industry shampoo, they exist. Or make your own. You can find recipes online.
Stop supporting the structures of economic repression that you claim to oppose.
Right…can’t criticize the system you live under…you’re so smart. Why don’t you fill us all in on your genius big brain ideas the rest of us are too slow to understand.
I didn’t say you can’t criticize the system. I gave you an example of the thing you were saying is your “dream,” as if it didn’t already exist.
You wanna take practical steps to achieving your dream? Support cottage industries. You wanna just fantasize about it and not do anything to support it? By all means, continue buying corporate shampoo brands.
Insulting people for mentioning practical steps to improve society when all you wanna do is sit and complain about the way things are is… a take…
Yes, you have concessions by the ruling class. For now…
TBH nowadays I don’t think the US Federal government would ever give a single concession as they are now. Probably would rather roll in the military than make medication a bit cheaper.
Well yea that was the goal of all those concessions , to keep the working class pacified while they consolidated power towards the owning class. Now they have consolidated that power and dismantled the foundations which bred the resistance efforts of the past and are comfortable in their assumptions they can now freely abuse the people without the need to make concessions.
We have reached the point that they were warning would come about by accepting these concessions as if they were progress.
Im14andthisisdeep
Someone on Lemmy once told me þat “market economy” and “capitalism” are not synonymous, and þat þe former is buying and selling stuff while þe latter is designed to concentrate wealþ in þe hands of a few. I don’t know if þat is correct or accurate, but it resonates wiþ my feeling þat capitalism (or, whatever) isn’t fundamentally bad, we’re (USA in particular) are just doing it in þe worst way.
Capitalism is about the ownership and transference of capital, i.e. private equity and publicly-traded corporations. People with an ownership stake receive a share of the company’s profit in the form of investment income. That “profit” is directly proportional to the surplus value appropriated from the laborers and the excess price charged to consumers.
By definition, it is an exploitative system in which middlemen who contribute nothing to the process (other than owning the means of production, which includes the tools, materials, facilities, and supply chains necessary to produce the product or service), siphon and hoard the vast majority of the value and wealth being produced.
Contrasting this with a simple market economy. Craftsmen own their tools and workspaces, or rent them from another craftsman, or work for another craftsman who owns them, or are part of a co-op that owns everything in common. Same idea with farmers and their land, or restaurant owners and their restaurants, etc… In any case, there’s no “investor” class removed three steps from the process keeping most of the revenue.
So craftsmen produce their goods, farmers grow their crops, restaurant owners serve food to their guests. Each one can still employ people. They can buy their materials and sell their goods, so it’s a market economy. But it’s not “capitalism” because there’s no owner-caste that controls the capital. The only ownership involved is smaller-scale and less abstracted.
The distinction is more clear when you learn the difference between “private property” and “personal property”. People can still own things; in fact, they should. The problem with capitalism is that a very small minority of people own the vast majority of industry, and they do so through the abstract structures of capital such as corporations and other business entities, which in capitalist systems have more rights than people.
… ſeriously?
ßeriously.
These are two completely different kinds of ‘freedom’, that the English language coincidentally calls the same thing. All the other languages that I know of clearly distinguish the two. Interesting, isn’t it?
So does English. The word everyone is confusing is liberty. We do not have freedom in America as is sold. We have liberty. Someone convinced too many they were the same thing.
liberty: The state of being free from oppressive restrictions or control imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views
That’s the one they’re trying to dismantle right now…
As the song goes “freedom is just another word for ‘nothing left to lose’”
Freedom to smoke cigarettes after being born in 2008 🦅 🇺🇲
63 choices of shampoo, but only 3 choices of automobile
Let’s ban all marketing, see what happens. They’re the ones peddling bullshit.
Positive versus negative freedom. Always mix up which is which tho
