• unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    People are dying because the entire economy, the entirety of processes of production and distribution, is under massively centralized control, and driven by the profit motive, which is inimical to human survival and flourishing, in a word, corrupt.

    I have been browsing comments for the post quite aggressively, and have even read most of them now several times. I have found none advocating for supply and demand being “discarded by government”, nor any for expansion of authority.

    • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      waves hand

      I am actually advocating for supply and demand being “discarded by government” :)

      Sorry, I realized after clicking “reply” that you’re already someone I’m having a (slightly heated, sorry!) discussion with. I promise I’m not following you.

      But nonetheless, even Adam Smith (the founder of capitalism) had some problems with unrelated markets wrt necessities. We don’t have to go off the deep end to say “supply and demand economics should be discarded for food and healthcare if it’s the only way to stop poor people from dying inches away from trashbins full of food”

      • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The phrasing is intrinsically nebulous and rhetorically charged, useful more as a tactic for constructing a straw man than for advocating meaningful social change.

        • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          The phrasing is intrinsically nebulous and rhetorically charged

          Really? I’ll be less nebulous. I think the government should step in and provide food to all Americans, setting a purchase price based upon actual cost to produce.

          useful more as a tactic for constructing a straw man than for advocating meaningful social change.

          I think you might be confusing me. Because it sounds like you’re saying I should lie and pretend I don’t want to undermine supply and demand because it would be easy for a dishonest interlocutor to make me look scary. I don’t like my side lying about our positions.

          • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I think you might be confusing me. Because it sounds like you’re saying I should lie

            You are not the one who chose the phrase. You expressed affinity for it, and I explained my concerns.

            • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Huh? What are you actually talking about?

              I simply pointed out that there are a lot of us on the left who are “advocating for supply and demand being “discarded by government””. You came up with the phrase, and it is a clear reference to capitalism.

              I am for the government intervening to break “supply and demand” in some cases. I hope you’re not saying “supply and demand” is a nebulous term. It’s a clear term with a clear meaning.

              • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                The phrasing is not a serious explanation of a desirable political course.

                It is just dishonest rhetoric, being given to collapse the gamut of transformative possibility into a bogeyman of consolidated state power.

                • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  I feel that unfairly disrespects socialism, the same way people try to backpedal “defund the police” until it only means “give the police more money”.

                  The whole point of the left is that we’re not in love with unregulated capitalism. Price regulation is an “entry level” view for being Left of center.

                  I have to ask. Is English not a first language to you? Are you possibly running your replies through a translator? Very often your responses to me come across as nonsense, not in a logical sense, but as if language is failing us trying to communicate with each other.