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Re:Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private by mattwest on Thursday April 14, 2022 @12:12PM (#31028915)
Yea for sure, it's totally awesome when individuals hold absurd wealth because they never abuse it and we definitely don't have countless examples throughout history of this phenomenon causing harm to society.
Re:Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private by FredPret on Thursday April 14, 2022 @01:10PM (#31029918)
And we definitely don’t have countless examples throughout history that shows the disastrous consequences of not allowing individual economic freedom and all it entails
Re:Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private by throwaway290 on Thursday April 14, 2022 @01:43PM (#31030435)
Economic freedom is like free speech (and any other freedom, really). It can not be absolute unless everyone behaves in good faith, once you assume you have rogue players who exploit the good faith behavior of others you have to have rules.

So you will find literally no place where absolute freedom is practiced, and for good reasons.

Sadly, in case of economic freedom a rogue player who has billions can also have political power to lobby against inconvenient to them rules, and ah everyone wants to be on their good side.

[dead]
Re:Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private by FredPret on Thursday April 14, 2022 @02:41PM (#31031416)
Your fact-free, example-free, and above all pompous line of argument is an excellent antidote to your own ideas
Re:Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private by jklinger410 on Thursday April 14, 2022 @02:59PM (#31031671)
I am not surprised that you are confused by my comment. Do you need me to provide the long list of times that the United States has gone to war with countries not participating in the global capitalist economic system?

Or maybe the number of ways that personal wealth is restricted throughout the world? Or how about the number of referendums around limiting personal wealth that have been submitted throughout history?

Or what about societies that successfully existed without what you would consider modern capitalism, whose ideas weren't necessarily proved wrong, but were victims of genocidal attacks by other capitalist countries?

Or should we discuss how the massive innovation and huge success of the United States, often attributed solely to capitalism, is actually (gasp) more complicated than a simple economic life hack?

I'm all ears Fred.

Re:Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private by FredPret on Thursday April 14, 2022 @03:27PM (#31032090)
I have neither the time nor the crayons for this, so I’ll leave you with this very simple thought:

Economic system A fought economic system B in a decades-long cold war. System A won, on every level, including the standard of living for poor people. System A, therefore, works better than B. QED.

Re:Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private by jklinger410 on Thursday April 14, 2022 @03:32PM (#31032151)
You are correct, it is a very simple thought, Fred. I encourage you to try a complicated thought in regards to this topic.
Re:Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private by julienb_sea on Thursday April 14, 2022 @03:04PM (#31031740)
Kindly provide a single example of an alternative to capitalism that was in any way "successful" by metrics vaguely comparable to capitalistic success. No, you cannot point at China, their success over the past 5 decades was entirely a result of privatization and allowing market forces in their country.
Re:Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private by jklinger410 on Thursday April 14, 2022 @03:18PM (#31031975)
Japan did not adopt a form of modern capitalism until the 1800s. The Byzantine empire was never capitalist. Ethiopia did not adopt modern capitalism until it was invaded by the west. Ancient Egypt was never a capitalist society.

> by metrics vaguely comparable to capitalistic success

If you measure by quality of life I'd say it's a dramatic loser.

If you unlearn decades of propaganda and realize the technological revolution was not created by simply stealing the value of labor from the worker and siphoning that up to the ruling class, and then combine that with the understanding that global trade controlled by massive banks created the capacity to destroy alternative economic systems, you might start to reveal the truth.