Yesterday I got very triggered by the video about Orange stage. I think Leo does not understand the more technical reasons of why too much socialism fails.
First, some things about me:
- I have taken psychedelics, done meditation, self-inquiry, read Jed Mckenna, and I think I understand non-duality.
- I don't think poor people are mostly lazy
- I think the goverment should give you baisc food, shelter and medical services if you can't afford them.
- I think we need to pay taxes to pay the police, basic stuff for poor people, defense and basic stuff like that.
- I think we need certain regulations to protect the environment for example.
Things said by Leo about capitalism which are wrong:
- 2008 financial crisis happened because of lack of regulation. Reasons: banks took too much risk because they knew the goverment would bail them out. Politicians shouldn't have the power to take tax money to bail out any private business. The owners of these business shouldn't be privileged like that. Bail outs are the opposite of free market.
- Olligarquies in from lack of regulation. Reasons: in a free market, nobody has special rights to be the only one to operate a business. These special rights are granted by the goverment.
- Inequality is bad. Reasons: No, poverty is bad. But poor people are not caused by big fortunes. The economy is not a zero sum game. Actually, thanks to capitalism, poor people can buy more stuff with the little money they have.
In general, these are the problems of socialism:
- Information: a central planner can't have enough info to control resources the best possible way. Business specialized on a reduced market niche have way better information to do things efficiently.
- Incentives: most people want to get ahead. Everybody benefits if they try to get ahead by working. But with socialism, people try to get ahead with politics, taking other's people money for their own benefit.
- Corruption: absolute power corrupts absolutly. If you give politicians the power to tax you half your money, control it, and set regulations to the money they didn't take, there are HUGE incentives to bribe them.
In conclusion:
The problem is not just free market and capitalism. It's not that simple.
In general, countries with more capitalism live better. You may think there are counterexamples in Sweeden or Finland or Denmark. Actually, these countries have way less regulation than places like Spain (where I live).
Economics is an extremely complex topic. I recommend the book "the human action" by Ludwig Von Mises. Really complicated. I know better sources but they are in Spanish.
But I don't think we should say things like "increase the minimum wage", "put a cap to corporate profits", "tax more money to pay for this intellectual think that I think is the most important", so lightly.
I would recommend listening to debates between economists with opposites viewpoints.
Being favorable to capitalism doesn't mean you lack empathy for poor people. For example, you can believe that capitalism creates more wealth for everybody, including the poorest. Maybe some of these pro-capitalism economists actually are lacking empathy, and are stuck at orange. But that doesn't mean what they defend is bad for poor people.
