Innovation

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It's not so much capitalism that breeds innovation, but competition. If there's no competition, where's the incentive for companies to innovate or improve in any way?

Take the private water companies in the UK as an example. You can't choose a different provider, and the service they provide has been getting steadily worse over the years, to the point where they don't improve infrastructure and we end up with Victorian pipelines pumping sewage into our rivers and seas. But nobody can change provider unless you move to a different part of the country, so there's no incentive for the companies to improve anything.

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the latest innovations are always in money making

Look at the history of leaded paint and gasoline in America, and you'll discover its far from the latest.

There is no incentive to innovate in a way that serves a common good, but there is massive incentive to “innovate” in a way that drives profits up.

The incentives tend to be towards ballooning consumption/spending/debt, which is rarely good for any given individual who isn't on the receiving end of revenue.

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If there’s no competition, where’s the incentive for companies to innovate or improve in any way?

What if instead of competing we were cooperating towards a shared goal?

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how could you say that when capitalism literally fucked innovation into existence?

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Pure Capitalism = bad

Pure Socialism = bad

Healthy mix of capitalism and socialism = groovy

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dotworld moment

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Innovation is a byproduct of capitalism searching for new things to sell.

That's the BEST case scenario. Much more often, the "innovation" consists of taking something that already exists and making it worse by all other metrics in order to make it more profitable.

veroxii

If we were to cooperate then everyone should co-own it. Which means it should be a public utility owned by us ie the government.

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So the amount of competition is the exact same as when it was run by the government like crucial infrastructure is supposed to, but the quality is the same or worse?

Sounds about capitalistic..

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New government regulation causes companies to adapt or die

I curse the day some scumbag ruined everything by adding the third option "regulatory capture" 🤬‍

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Oh don’t forget that many innovations don’t come to the surface until companies have gotten their money out of the old ones. We miss out on a lot of technology for years because of that. And then there’s tooling changes leading to companies saying “what the fuck are you gunna do about it?” as they all keep making the same old crap.

Sony had to invent the litium-ion battery for their cameras because all the battery companies were fine with making the old lead-acid stuff.

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The one problem with that is a thing called human nature.

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That is how capitalism breeds innovation.

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Could you define Capitalism and Socialism for the class?

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A lot of critiques of capitalism (not to discount them entirely) ignore factors like consumer and inter-agency choice. And ironically, "free market"eers ignore the importance/power of unions as a market mechanism. We collectively have the ability to stop using companies that abuse consumers, the environment, etc., but largely fail to use it and have developed a culture of ridicule against people who do. Unions are a critical factor in suppressing corporate abuse of workers and consumers.

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Sure. I did hours of research and found these incredible pages that answer your question for you. I linked them below to save you so much time.

Capitalism: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism

Socialism: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

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I know the definitions of both. Your statement was in conflict with those definitions, which is why I asked you to define them, to determine why you would make the statement you did.

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And now American private equities are buying all the hospital chains in India... Now they're exporting innovation abroad too

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Yep they adapted alright

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Humans famously incapable of working in large numbers towards a common goal.