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Re:Boeing cutting more than 12,000 U.S. jobs with thousands ... by thephyber on Wednesday May 27, 2020 @03:22PM (#23328525)
You say "Modern capitalism" as if there was a different capitalism before it. The system is the same (perhaps more optimized from longer innovation); the culture and the players are different.
Re:Boeing cutting more than 12,000 U.S. jobs with thousands ... by Avicebron on Wednesday May 27, 2020 @03:45PM (#23328897)
I think he's saying that the modern economic shell game that is going on is actively damaging the economic welfare of a large body of people. From my perspective the "modern" part of it has become more extractive than generative. A lot of "innovation" has been to cut as many corners as possible while isolating wealth into fewer and fewer groups.
Re:Boeing cutting more than 12,000 U.S. jobs with thousands ... by jackcosgrove on Wednesday May 27, 2020 @04:16PM (#23329353)
"Modern capitalism" might be better called "managerial capitalism". It is different from entrepreneurial capitalism, which preceded it.

Entrepreneurial capitalism was a constellation of small private enterprises, often family-owned. Managerial capitalism is characterized by the dominance of firms publicly traded on capital markets, and managed by professional managers who are often distinct from the shareholders.

Entrepreneurial capitalism, I believe, better aligns incentives by combining the shareholder and manager role. It also reduces dependence on capital markets, which can become a single point of failure during a financial panic. Lastly entrepreneurial capitalism makes coordination between competitors less likely, whereas such coordination is embraced by the mergers and acquisitions arms of banks in a mangerial capitalist system quite openly.

The only advantage of managerial capitalism is scale. Pooling capital in public markets permits massive economies of scale and their efficiencies.

Re:Boeing cutting more than 12,000 U.S. jobs with thousands ... by netsharc on Wednesday May 27, 2020 @06:50PM (#23331126)
There was capitalism when communism was still a force. That capitalism had to offer something better to workers to keep them from thinking "Maybe communism is better?": https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cuny/cp/2020/00000052...

Nowadays, well, you got your Bezos and you got your Uber...

Re:Boeing cutting more than 12,000 U.S. jobs with thousands ... by ken on Wednesday May 27, 2020 @05:02PM (#23329939)
I believe capitalism can work well on a micro-scale when the products are simple enough that consumers can exert perceivable pressure on producers. Make a better hammer? I'll buy a better hammer.

Where modern capitalism falls down is complexity. There's 3 (non-niche) desktop operating systems, for example, and way more than 3 attributes that consumers care about in a computer. Or cars, or TVs, or airplanes, or anything else that costs more than $20. There's simply not enough levers by which consumers can send any meaningful signal through the market to producers. This breaks the Invisible Hand.