Billionaires and trillion-dollar monopolies is not a failure of capitalism; it’s capitalism working exactly as designed.

Aral Balkan

Billionaires and trillion-dollar monopolies is not a failure of capitalism; it’s capitalism working exactly as designed. The biggest lie you’ve been told is that capitalism is essential to democracy. The truth is capitalism tolerates democracy when it’s weak and replaces it when it’s strong.

Laxystem (Masto/Glitch)

@aral it's apparent in naming.

Whoever named ideologies believed social democracy was democratic, but that capitalism and socialism aren't. Says something poetic about balance. Now, it's not really a single person naming these things. The intended effect in socialism is to give the government direct control over most of the economy. In capitalism, the opposite. In social democracy, it's to prevent both from having absolute power. Balance.

(Capitalism, ie the system where companies are legally obligated to abide by shareholders' will; Socialism, ie the system where companies are legally obliged to abide by politicians' will)

Laxystem (Masto/Glitch)

@aral (note, I talk about socialism, social democracy, and communism with different meanings and contexts a lot, so reading my profile about that might be confusing, sorry)

Gilbert Pilz

@laxla Socialism, in general, has nothing to do with with giving government direct control over the economy. Socialism is essentially about ensuring that the people who do the actual work of making things and providing services control how the excess value of those goods and services is distributed. *Some* people say that this can only be accomplished when the government controls the economy, but they don't speak for all socialists.

Laxystem (Masto/Glitch)

@gpilz yes, the correctier word is communism.

But people hate communism and won't listen to anything mentioning it. Socialism, less so.