SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia

Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by ue_ on Wednesday May 24, 2017 @07:40PM (#14414303)

Although taking advantage of the power of politicians and the state is used to further the interest of capitalists in various occasions (the GP mentioned a few), why exactly is "crony capitalism" not capitalism? From a Marxian perspective, it fulfills all of the requirements for a capitalist mode of production.

And where do people "usually" call this "crony capitalism"? In fact, I tend to see this term only echoed around libertarian (the property kind, not the social kind) corners of the web.

It is also important to remember that natural monopolies can very easily form, and that the tyranny of property ownership isn't much better than the tyranny of the state granting various benefits to property owners. Proudhon in What is Property goes into this and Oscar Wilde talks about it in his essay The Soul of Man Under Socialism.

Why is the crony vs 'not crony' distinction useful, and in what ways would a 'pure' capitalist society alleviate the problems caused by crony capitalism, including but not limited to the difficulty of acquiring sufficient capital to start a business or firm, dealing with anti-competitive behavior arising out of natural monopolies, the destitution and poverty caused by the extremely low cost of labour-power in certain parts of the world?

Please don't feel as though I'm attacking, I want to learn more about your ideas.

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by wav-part on Wednesday May 24, 2017 @11:55PM (#14415212)

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskLibertarians/top/?sort=top&t=all...

https://www.reddit.com/r/libertarianbestof/top/?sort=top&t=a...

Check out the sidebars for 10-20 more subreddits specifically dedicated to these topics.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by ue_ on Thursday May 25, 2017 @08:39AM (#14416909)

I've read about new libertarianism, and I don't find it convincing, especially the idea of property rights. I prefer the old libertarianism that was about people, not property.

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by hiddencost on Wednesday May 24, 2017 @09:26PM (#14414713)

not capitalism as it defined in pure terms, or not capitalism in terms of how it always practically plays out? Can you point to a capitalist system that doesn't function like that? Can you lay out how buying regulation and manipulating market structures is not a core part of the incentives that a capitalist system lays out, and can you point out any practical ways in which you can protect capitalism from this particular pathology?

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by nodamage on Thursday May 25, 2017 @02:06AM (#14415579)

No true Scotsman in action. If all examples of capitalism eventually devolve into crony capitalism I think it's time to conclude it's part of the inherent nature of capitalism.

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by undersuit on Thursday May 25, 2017 @11:27AM (#14417891)

We see similar examples of socialism falling into the same actions; I think it's time to concludes it's part of the inherent nature of humans.

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by supremesaboteur on Thursday May 25, 2017 @01:44AM (#14415495)

Crony capitalism is captitalism, but it is not free market capitalism

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by daemin on Thursday May 25, 2017 @11:34AM (#14417931)

A "free market" is still by definition a market, and all markets have rules. Thereby the definition of "free" is up for debate.

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by danjoc on Thursday May 25, 2017 @04:05PM (#14419755)

Yes. This. Exactly this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/opinion/is-big-tech-too-p...

Scare quotes should be required for that phrase. "Free" market.

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by Pica_soO on Thursday May 25, 2017 @06:05AM (#14416322)

Eh, thats the original right there? May Scotts strike me down if it wasnt the same thing all along.

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by jonbarker on Wednesday May 24, 2017 @07:44PM (#14414314)

In order to understand what real capitalism is we'd have to understand where money came from, and even that is up for debate. Was it inefficient bartering of primitive people? (As it turns out, maybe not). Was it financiers of conquistadors? Possibly.

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by Godel_unicode on Thursday May 25, 2017 @02:06AM (#14415578)

I believe you're being downvoted because the prevailing wisdom is that currency was created to allow specialization and portable stores of value.

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Re:SoftBank Takes $4B Stake in Nvidia by jonbarker on Monday May 29, 2017 @03:55PM (#14441082)

This is similar to the argument for the creation of money as a more efficient replacement of barter systems.

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