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Re:'Waffle House Index' is a real thing during disasters by roenxi on Friday September 06, 2019 @08:47PM (#20901083)
You are inches away from a sudden lightbulb moment that people's ability to have a positive impact is not that closely related to their intentions.

It isn't cynical to claim they are being opportunistic as much as it is myopic. If you want all recovery efforts to be done by gloomy stoics who are clawing back at a lifestyle stolen from them by cruel nature while telling heartbreaking stories about how hard it is to rebuild ... that will miss the opportunity that the situation will be quickly and dispassionately sorted out by some faceless corporation exasperated that its profits are down.

People like to think of capitalism as some sort of siphon system moving comfort from poor to rich, but it is a very powerful stabilising force. If there was an economic equilibrium and a disaster breaks it, letting capitalism happen will restore most of the status quo extremely quickly.

Saying that that is opportunistic is simply framing a positive thing negatively. If people are happy to do something out of their own self interest that is better than them doing it out of a sense of charity; and much more sustainable.

Re:'Waffle House Index' is a real thing during disasters by falcongod082 on Friday September 06, 2019 @11:43PM (#20901662)
Didn't we already try the bread and circuses thing? Capitalism is exploitative by definition, civilizations lasted longer that it has existed so how "stabilizing" it is is certainly not a given, in fact there's evidence for the exact opposite. Capitalism doesn't "restore equilibrium", it dictates it, it's authoritarian and non-merit based.
Re:'Waffle House Index' is a real thing during disasters by lucifirius on Saturday September 07, 2019 @05:41AM (#20902790)
Capitalism is the private ownership of capital. That's the definition.

Capitalism is also 100% merit-based and unauthoritarian. Nobody is forcing people to use Amazon or McDonalds or Walmart. You might be confusing it with socialism, which is authoritarian as hell and has no regard for merit...

Re:'Waffle House Index' is a real thing during disasters by cyphar on Saturday September 07, 2019 @11:23PM (#20908411)
> Capitalism is also 100% merit-based and unauthoritarian.

Except for inherited wealth, government subsidies and large-business-friendly tax cuts, and regulatory capture (among many other examples)?

Even for people who believe in capitalism as a religion, that statement is a bit too much.