Reply to “just my opinion”, Part 1 of 2:
I find such forums to usually be low quality, but that’s just my opinion.
I thought the Capitalism vs Socialism subreddit was pretty great, though I didn’t spend a ton of time there, and I was mostly a lurker. But on several occasions I was impressed by the level of discourse there.
Why don’t you start you own? Establish your own rules, and set your own culture. I know such things can be difficult to get off the ground, but maybe it’s worth a try.
if the law is insufficient to prevent natural monopolies
Well it’s theoretically impossible (or extremely hard) to prevent natural monopolies, which is why they’re called natural. In practice, though, there’s not many of them. Usually they’re owned by a municipality, such as water supply for urban folks who lack their own wells, and waste processing for the same folks who lack septic tanks. Physical constraints make competition difficult in these markets.
Most large corporations are groups that grow vastly larger than their natural size due to government assistance and encouragement.
A tiny government naturally coincides with tiny businesses. Consider our founding culture in the Eighteenth Century; the big multinational companies were the Dutch East India Trading Co and the East India Co, both of which were state-chartered monopolies. By contrast, the nascent US flourished with only tiny businesses and family farms. That is our natural business culture, to which we should strive to return.
Just as a dictator (person) prevents freedom, so too can companies (people).
Apples and oranges.
- A dictator says “everyone must obey me,” and sends out armed forces to disarm the people and enforce the dictator’s laws.
- A company offers products and services for sale in a marketplace, which people are free to buy if they want, or not to buy if they don’t want. A company may employ people in a voluntary arrangement where employees sell their labor to the company for a fair price, and are free to seek employment elsewhere for a better price if they so choose.
When you picture a company, think of a man with a fruit cart selling fresh fruit at a farmer’s market — that’s the quintessential company. His family are back home picking fruit on the family farm, while he heads to market to compete against the other vendors. Customers are free to compare which fruit vendor offers the freshest fruit, and buy a little, or a lot, or none at all.
The fact that you’re comparing a fruit vendor, who offers you a fresh apricot for 7¢, to a blood-thirsty dictator who proclaims “everyone must placate those afflicted with gender dysphoria, on penalty of death” is a strain of the imagination. A company is a collective of practitioners of freedom.
You can definitely do that but your chances of success are not high.
True, but so? You keep trying and failing until you succeed. That’s the American way.
And those stories have the same chances of winning the lottery.
It’s fundamentally different. The lottery is pure chance, while building a business is a measure of one’s intelligence and drive to succeed.
I’m not pretending it’s impossible. I am stating the fact that it is unreasonable for everybody to just create a new business and live in la la land. Sometimes fantasies come true, but they don’t always.
It’s hardly a fantasy. It’s the American way. And it’s hardly “la la land”. Have you never started your own business?
you can’t just move to a different job to escape abuse when basically all american jobs are abusive.
What do you mean by “abusive”? Big bad boss man said you need to show up on time, or else you’ll get fired? No jobs are abusive. They’re voluntary agreements for the sale of one’s labor. Nothing more, nothing less.
You can’t just have freedom against buying from walmart when walmart is the only store within a 4hr drive. Does that clarify where I am coming from better?
It doesn’t, because I live in one of the most rural places in the country, and I barely ever shop at Walmart.
Why don’t you start you own? Establish your own rules, and set your own culture. I know such things can be difficult to get off the ground, but maybe it’s worth a try.
I really just don’t have as much free time as I’d like. I have a full time job, a disabled girl friend, ~3 active friend/family groups, etc. At best I get an hour or two a day to myself and I’d rather do something else other than moderating.
Well it’s theoretically impossible (or extremely hard) to prevent natural monopolies, which is why they’re called natural.
It’s definitely hard, but not impossible.
A tiny government naturally coincides with tiny businesses.
Historically that is not true. What you’re describing is laissez-faire capitalism, and every time it has been tried it has been an objective failure. It doesn’t result in tiny businesses, it results in huge ones that create corporate towns.
A dictator says “everyone must obey me,” and sends out armed forces to disarm the people and enforce the dictator’s laws.
Companies do just the same when given the opportunity. They just hire mercenaries and assassins, and that’s where the term “bannana republic” comes from.
And armed forces aren’t the only way authoritarians control the people, they also do so through law, which the corporations control.
The fact that you’re comparing a fruit vendor
I’m not talking about small family owned businesses, I am talking about mega-corporations. Google, microsoft, amazon, meta, etc.
A company is a collective of practitioners of freedom.
When the United Fruit Company toppled governments in latin america, they were in fact not practicioners of freedom. Companies are just as capable of subverting the will of the people and destroying freedoms as dictators.
You keep trying and failing until you succeed. That’s the American way.
You keep failing until you starve to death, the medical debt collectors come, etc. The american dream has long been dead because we do not live in a society with social mobility.
Have you never started your own business?
I am already struggling to pay for rent, food, and utility bills, and soon my student debt will add to that. I do not have anywhere near the amount of money to start one.
What do you mean by “abusive”?
I’m talking about violations of labor laws that go unpunished, workplace injuries, poverty wages, excessive hours, repetitive strain injury, wage theft.
https://www.greenamerica.org/choose-fair-labor/us-companies-exploiting-workers
https://apnews.com/article/how-companies-rip-off-poor-employees-6c5364b4f9c69d9bc1b0093519935a5a
https://hbr.org/2020/06/times-up-for-toxic-workplaces
Not all companies are bad ones to work at, but my point is that not everybody can just up and move to a new job when there are so many companies that are like this.
It doesn’t, because I live in one of the most rural places in the country, and I barely ever shop at Walmart.
Then it sounds like you’re lucky.
I really just don’t have as much free time as I’d like. I have a full time job, a disabled girl friend, ~3 active friend/family groups, etc. At best I get an hour or two a day to myself and I’d rather do something else other than moderating.
That makes sense. But then how do you find this time for long-form arguments with strangers on the internet?
What you’re describing is laissez-faire capitalism, and every time it has been tried it has been an objective failure. It doesn’t result in tiny businesses, it results in huge ones that create corporate towns.
Fiddlesticks. Look at Hong Kong until China annexed it. Small and medium-sized companies flourished. There are a ton of similar examples. I challenge you to point out a single huge multinational corporation (historical or present day) that grew without government assistance.
Companies do just the same when given the opportunity. They just hire mercenaries and assassins, and that’s where the term “bannana republic” comes from.
Yeah no. Read the wiki on banana republics. From the intro:
[…] thus, the term banana republic is a pejorative descriptor for a servile oligarchy that abets and supports, for kickbacks, the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, […]
Their governments instigate and enable their problem.
I’m not talking about small family owned businesses, I am talking about mega-corporations.
It seems we’re in general agreement that small family owned businesses are far preferable to mega-corporations. (After all, we’re both here in the Fediverse.)
Our only differences on this topic seem to be that I view small businesses as the essential heart of American market economics, and I view mega-corps as mutants resulting from government bloat.
You keep failing until you starve to death, the medical debt collectors come, etc. The american dream has long been dead because we do not live in a society with social mobility.
Again, you focused on negativity to the exclusion of truth. The American dream is alive and well, and there are numerous success stories all around us. The idea that it’s “dead” (let alone long dead) has no basis in reality.
A good example is Donald Trump, who took a small loan of a million dollars … (I’m joking, but my above point is true.)
I do not have anywhere near the amount of money to start one.
Depending on the type of business, you really don’t need any money, or perhaps just a few dollars. Going back to my fruit cart example, it doesn’t cost any money to pick fruit and sell it. And there are a ton of sub-$100 sweaty-startup ideas out there. You may not have the time or the drive to start one, but you certainly have the money.
Not all companies are bad ones to work at, but my point is that not everybody can just up and move to a new job when there are so many companies that are like this.
I have no doubt that some employees who hate their jobs feel trapped. But I contend that’s just their feeling, and they’re not really trapped at all. Especially in the post-covid epoch, when there’s such a labor shortage that you could walk into just about any business and get an interview.
Then it sounds like you’re lucky.
“Lucky” is not the right word. I didn’t grow up here. I’ve lived in a bunch of places, from urban to suburban, and now rural. I moved here because I like the area and the people here. And there are plenty of local small businesses I support as much as I can.
That makes sense. But then how do you find this time for long-form arguments with strangers on the internet?
I usually don’t lol. It’s very rare for me to get into a conversation as much of a tangled mess as this one.
Fiddlesticks. Look at Hong Kong until China annexed it. Small and medium-sized companies flourished. There are a ton of similar examples.
Hong Kong is an incredibly niche place. To point to that city state as a good example to extrapolate the effects of government policy is a bad idea/methodology.
I challenge you to point out a single huge multinational corporation (historical or present day) that grew without government assistance.
I think you missed my point, I am not stating that all or even many corporations become monopolies without government assistance. Usually what happens is that a corporation gets so big that they gain so much control that they can alter government policy, and therefore they grow with government assistance that they themselves implemented. Most if not all monopolies follow this pattern. First the start small, then they get big, then they push out competition, then they buy out the politicians, then they set the laws that make them even bigger.
Their governments instigate and enable their problem.
Instigate? No. Enable? Absolutely.
Our only differences on this topic seem to be that I view small businesses as the essential heart of American market economics, and I view mega-corps as mutants resulting from government bloat.
The mega-corporations are the natural result of capitalism. You can’t have one without the other.
The American dream is alive and well, and there are numerous success stories all around us.
There are also numerous lottery winner stories around. That doesn’t mean that everybody should buy lottery tickets as a means to success.
The idea that it’s “dead” (let alone long dead) has no basis in reality.
Nowadays people are too poor to reasonably afford a home, food, and the basic necessities. The retirement age keeps getting higher. The majority of americans are living paycheck to paycheck. It absolutely has been dead, and for a while.
good example is Donald Trump, who took a small loan of a million dollars
Inheriting wealth is not a means for being successful for the overwhelming majority of americans.
Depending on the type of business, you really don’t need any money
The success of a business is directly tied to the starting investment.
I have no doubt that some employees who hate their jobs feel trapped. But I contend that’s just their feeling, and they’re not really trapped at all.
If you don’t feel like you are free then what is the point? Regardless, it’s not just a feeling, because objectively, vertical mobility is not doing well in the united states. Horizontal mobility is not true mobility.
Especially in the post-covid epoch, when there’s such a labor shortage that you could walk into just about any business and get an interview.
“Just about any business” does not equate to a livable wage, because just about all businesses have employees who are being paid below a livable wage. And like I said, horizontal mobility is not true mobility.
