Linux and open source in general completely blow apart capitalist arguments that profit motive is necessary for innovation and technological advancement. Open source ecosystem primarily run by volunteers has produces some of the most interesting and innovative technologies that we’ve seen. The reality is that people make interesting things because they’re curious and they enjoy making stuff. Pretty much nobody makes anything interesting with profit being the primary motive.
After two years, it’s pretty clear that the west is not capable of doing anything of the sort. All the west managed to achieve was to ensure that hundreds of thousands of people died, and that Ukraine lost large parts of its territory in the process. We now have admissions from Ukrainian negotiators that a peace deal was close to being reached last March before the west sabotaged it.
Companies compete with one another, and that means the conditions of employment tend to be comparable from one employer to another. What the employees get is largely superficial choice, similar to how you get 50 brands of chips that are all basically the same. That’s capitalist relations in a nutshell.
Undeniably. But the benefit of this exploitation accrues first and foremost to the ownership class.
Of course, but the conditions of the working class are also improved by imperialism and that’s the reason there is sufficient support for ruling class policies from the working majority in the imperial core.
They’re not importing a bunch of Global South doctors and teachers to get the cost of their socialized programs down.
My point was that many of the stable goods consumed by the people in Scandinavia are either partially or entirely sourced in colonized countries. This eliminates a lot of the hard labor jobs in Scandinavia that would otherwise be necessary.
I’m not arguing that the proletariat are the primary beneficiaries of colonialism, I’m just pointing out that people in western countries enjoy a higher standard of living because of it. And this is a necessary part of the social contract that keeps capitalists in power.
Cuba isn’t “principled”, its “embargoed”. Cubans would be more than happy to get the Scandinavian tier of treats if they were on offer.
Cuba would not exploit other countries if it wasn’t embargoed because exploitation isn’t inherent in Cuban economic system as it is under capitalism.
Trump would’ve done the exact same thing. You’re not minimizing any damage your regime is facilitating a literal genocide. The fact that you’re keep trying to minimize this fact because it’s your fascist in office shows how utterly morally bankrupt you are.
A lot of the mainstream economists in the west focus on the stock market, even of you don’t personally.
Meanwhile, GDP and inflation are not great measures either. GDP in particular is very problematic because it doesn’t measure productive labor. For example, health insurance industry is a large chunk of the GDP in US. It employs a lot of people while producing nothing for value for society
And the problem with inflation is with how it gets measured. For example, food and housing prices are growing far faster than the official inflation numbers.