void_star

lol

How is a 30 minute video about the Soviet economy a valid answer to alternatives to landlordism in a capitalist market? At least give me a timestamp where they speak to this point.

I agree I think they should probably be taxed accordingly. My comment was more just a face value judgement that they do exist and they are of value because people do rent houses.

I’m also not really sure what a viable alternative is in a free market.

It really frustrates me when people talk in absolutes, is there no room for nuance and grey area? I didn’t claim what socialism or what capitalism is, but it’s definitely true that today’s economies do borrow ideas from various economic theories. How is that a controversial statement at all?

Ok c’mon you’re just being pedantic now. Social welfare programs are definitely inspired/borrowed ideas from socialism and communism. Social security is literally a form of comunal wealth.

I’ll freely admit I’m not an expert in economic theory, but I am entitled to my opinion and to have discussions about it. I don’t have a PhD in the field, next time I’ll be more careful on c/memes.

Capitalist countries are not a “mixture of the two extremes.”

Yes they are, the US and most European countries have free markets, but they also have social welfare programs.

You asked me what my opinion was and I gave it. If it’s not up to the rigor that you expect from a meme thread on Lemmy then my bad.

And fwiw idealized economic theory is mostly vibes based anyway. The only way to truly scrutinize the theory is to test it in the real world, and most countries have converged on something that borrows from both capitalism and communism. Probably some mixture of these two extremes is where we net out.

What on Earth do you mean here? Communism isn’t when everyone gets paid the same thing.

I thought communism was when property and wealth are communally owned. The extreme of this is that higher value labor doesn’t get proportionally rewarded at an individual level. In other words, it tends to favor equality of outcome over equality of opportunity.

If someone is rich, and they gain their wealth by stealing from everyone else, why are you saying that seems to be the best model?

I’m not claiming that capitalism is perfect or objectively good, all economic theories are idealized and I don’t think there is a magical system with a simple set of rules that actually works.

The real world is complicated and messy and has exceptions and bad actors. Capitalism clearly needs some form of regulation without runaway effects, but I think I would prefer to live in a free market at least to some degree. I personally cannot afford to be a landlord, but I also don’t think that it’s unfair for them to exist.

I didn’t say anywhere that regulation will make it work or make it better, I just meant that it will certainly not change without some form of regulation.

I’m also not claiming that capitalism is perfect or even good, all economic theories are idealized, I actually don’t think there is a magical system with a simple set of rules that will actually work. The real world is complicated and messy and has exceptions all over the place.

I think there probably is some mixture of free market and socialist ideas that do work, and most countries work like this today.