Do We Really Live Under Capitalism?

One of the most common objections to critiques of capitalism is "we don't have real capitalism, we have corporatism" or "crony capitalism" or even "techno-feudalism." These claims are often well-intentioned, but they miss the point. Let's talk about capitalism, corporatism, and cronyism.

Do We Really Live Under Capitalism?– Second Thought

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Citations and Further Reading:

Two definitions of corporatism

Wikipedia crony capitalism

Meta and Google mergers & acquisitions

Wal-Mart

On the necessity of the state for capitalism

Monopolies in free market systems

Libertarian utopias

Other videos on the same topic

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[kalitor]

It's literally what the game of Monopoly was originally intended to model. The first part of the game is the "free market" where everyone starts with the same amount of resources and compete for control. It's a fun game when everyone is racing to get a monopoly. Once someone has it though, the entire objective of the game changes. No longer is that one with the monopoly simply seeking to own more, if they're good at the game, and a little lucky, their goal is to prevent anyone else from obtaining a monopoly. If successful, the remainder of the game is a slow burn of starving everyone else out. Everyone hates that part of the game except for the person who has the monopoly. That person has all the control and essentially governs the game, obtaining an oligarchy/monarchy in the end. The vast majority of the game is played in that state. This is exactly how the "free market" always leads to monopolies and oligopolies. It's fun for a time, until someone wins, then all it does is stagnate innovation and essentially freedom. And no one enjoys it.

[SquiddyHiggenbottom]

7:43 "There is no version of capitalism that respects competition, but not competition's outcomes. If your idea is to turn the clock back to when there was more competition, it'll only be a matter of time until we're right back here. It's not a solution."

THANK YOU for articulating so concisely what I've failed to explain to my older conservative relatives so many times. They talk about the "good old days" of "real capitalism" without realizing that the state of the world now, that we all agree is terrible, is the direct result of the fundamental failure of the system they're wishing to go back to.

[LocoGeorge]

Anytime libertarians are asked to explain how it would work, it devolves into a bizarre world where every corporation owns the roads and waterways, and owns their own banks, insurance companies and private police. In other words, their perfect world is going back to Feudalism. It’s fascinating and baffling lol.

[thepeacefulenemy]

I was a libertarian/anCap from high school till my early 30s. I’m embarrassed to say I used to use this argument all the time. Recognizing the fallaciousness of it was a major reason I finally decided to actually read Marx (rather than repeating what others said about him).

So thanks JT. Hopefully this will help those who are too stubborn or naive, as I was for so many years.

[gwils]

Holy cow. So true. I've been saying this forever. "Just because someone is good at accruing money does not mean they should be assigned any authority. Being good at accruing money does NOT mean you're a good leader."

[КапитанКакао-ьщ]

Thank you for this video. We have the same problem in Russia.
-Do you see what capitalism did to Russia?
-pff, its not a capitalism, in russia we have soviet partocratic oligarhy, or straight up feudalism.
I even heard that we actually have slavery here. There so much excuses that its not a real capitalism that you couldnt even count all of them. So tired of fighting this absolute mess that people call their "political view"

[knavishknight]

"With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. *To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.* " Oscar Wilde (1891) _The Soul of Man Under Socialism_

[Thraeryn]

That one simple idea, "any time businesses threaten to take their ball and go home, government scrambles to ensure they don't, " explains about 3/4ths of the current world. (And a bunch of history, too!)

[nepoleon]

I had a guy try to convince me that Canada isn't capitalist because we have free healthcare. I told him 3 times that socialism is when the means of production are commonly owned and not just the government doing things. He still has no clue.

[bigbillhaywood]

As a former ancap/libertarian spewing out their typical lines, someone directed me to a Hakim video (I think) where he said: competition yields winners and losers. Losers join the workforce, maybe compete again. Winners increase their profits and market share and eventually get big enough to lobby govt to legislate to keep themselves winners as long as possible. You're doing great work. Thank you. Capitalism was only made possible by MASSIVE state intervention. There is no measure of how much corruption = crony Capitalism how much = pure Capitalism, there's no real distinction.

[pickyourswitchoriginal]

This shifted my thinking. I am one of those who tossed "crony" in front of capitalism. I no longer think it makes much sense to do that.

Thank you.

[Robustacap]

Capitalism has become not only economic, but also a governing system.
When profits are all, everything else looses value.

[snapgab]

"I also happen to think that business acumen shouldn't be a justification for power"

That's an incredibly concise yet effective way of putting it!

[tpope]

The funny thing about Capitalism, is that by creating an economic system that relies on harnessing the worst aspects of humanity, you end up with the worst humans having the most power.

[MrElvis]

I lived in Venezuela during the ”socialist” take over, a lot of people think that socialism is the reason why Venezuela is broke, but in reality was the greed that people in the government got when they saw all the oil money flowing in and started hoarding it and turning themselves into business owners.

[thecatsbackyard]

I like this question. Is it truly life? Is it truly life when we're so disconnected? Is it truly life when we're so alienated from ourselves, each other, nature and the product of our labor? No, it is not.

[behr]

It's incredible what a clear and concise, accurate, well reseacrched, well presented and explained, in-depth and comprehensive, and generally deeply ethical and forward-thinking channel *_Second Thought_* is.
One of the very few (and best presented) progressive purveyors of truth, fact and observable objectivity out there in on line media.
No bullshit, just the facts and demonstrable results.

[roy]

America is the country where capitalism is most unbridled. Most unrestrained. If you ever want to see the end trajectory of capitalism, look at the US and you'll see we're often 5 steps ahead of everyone else. Want to privatize healthcare? Insulin costs almost as much as rent in some places. Want to privatize housing? We have the materials, the land, the people, but we've made it literally illegal to build more homes so we can jack up rent costs for the private landlords. Every single thing you can imagine can be privatized often is and if it isn't, it soon will be. There is no reasonable defense of capitalism.

[theimprovisedgarden]

"there are no natural conditions on which to base an economy." once you truly understand this you realize this you're free to imagine a better way.

[GTAVictor]

I always find it funny when pro-capitalists mock leftists for their "It's not real socialism, it's state capitalism!" excuse, but those same people then turn around and use the "It's not real capitalism, it's cronyism!" excuse.

Also, with recent Congress resolution denouncing socialism in all its forms, we can only hope that was pure pleasantry and not the beginning of another red scare where they might even go after channels like this one.

Stay strong, comrades ✊