Capitalism wins again - Countries and Continents begging the US for Vaccines (1 Viewer)

[Maurile Tremblay]

I guess I thought it was a pretty safe assumption.  If you have 10 teams and they keep playing games where the loser goes out of business, eventually there will only be one team left right?  At least that's how it seems to me theoretically.  

A single person ending up owning everything is the exact opposite of the trend in capitalism. In capitalism, the median person achieves greater wealth over time. In your version of it, the median person ends up with literally nothing. It's not obvious that your version is more correct than what's been observed so far.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I guess I thought it was a pretty safe assumption.  If you have 10 teams and they keep playing games where the loser goes out of business, eventually there will only be one team left right?  At least that's how it seems to me theoretically.  

In a market economy, "teams" come and go.  Players on "losing teams" don't vanish -- they move to different teams, or they start their own teams.  "Winning teams" don't just collect a trophy and then just sit there.  They win a championship on Sunday and then have turn right around and play again the following week, every week, for as long as the exist.

Also, sports leagues are zero-sum games.  Every W for one team is a L for some other team.  The economy obviously doesn't work that way.  Amazon doing well doesn't stop GM from also doing well and also doesn't stop my local coffee shop from doing well.  

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

 In capitalism, the median person achieves greater wealth over time. 

I don’t think this has been true in the U.S. for the last couple decades.  

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

Also, sports leagues are zero-sum games.  Every W for one team is a L for some other team.  The economy obviously doesn't work that way.  Amazon doing well doesn't stop GM from also doing well and also doesn't stop my local coffee shop from doing well.  

Starbucks put a lot of local coffee shops out of business.

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

Everybody would individually control their own stuff. I view this as a weird question, like asking: if physics continues to be true a thousand years from now, won't everyone fall off the earth because it's spinning so fast?

What I mean by this is that I think it's probably easy to find non-physicists who think that the earth's rotation should throw us into space, but it'd be hard to find someone with a PhD in physics taking that view.

Likewise, it's probably easy to find a non-economist who thinks capitalism's long-term result is that a single person will own everything, but I think it'd be hard to find anyone with a PhD in economics taking that view.

Maybe because, as with climate scientists, they've all been brainwashed...

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

I don’t think this has been true in the U.S. for the last couple decades.  

Without looking at any numbers, I suspect that the median person in the large majority of capitalist countries is materially better off today than twenty years ago.

But twenty years is short enough for some random blips. It's almost certainly true for 100 years ago.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Starbucks put a lot of local coffee shops out of business.

Sure.  Nobody thinks that Starbucks is the only coffee place though, or that it's likely to become a coffee monopolist in the near future.

 

[The Commish]

The quality of the last few posts is far above what this thread deserves....take it to tha capitalism thread.  This one is for fishing!!!!!!   

 

[TripItUp]

So the Dems in this forum aren't giving any vaccine credit to our form of capitalism...my oh my.

 

[squistion]

So the Dems in this forum aren't giving any vaccine credit to our form of capitalism...my oh my.

With 545,000 deaths to date in this country, I don't feel like cheering for our form of capitalism at the moment. 

 

[The Commish]

So the Dems in this forum aren't giving any vaccine credit to our form of capitalism...my oh my.

We're not all "Dems" 

And @ "our form of capitalism"  

 

[encaitar]

Any liberal that can't recognize the role the Trump administration played in this by paying to get this vaccine out and ordering hundreds of millions of doses before it was even proven effective is being intellectually dishonest.

Any conservative that can't recognize the role that the Biden administration has played in cleaning up the distribution of the vaccine is the same.  

They both did their part and both were necessary for us to be where we are on this path right now and deserve credit for it.

FYI, capitalism had very little to do with it.

 

[timschochet]

Any liberal that can't recognize the role the Trump administration played in this by paying to get this vaccine out and ordering hundreds of millions of doses before it was even proven effective is being intellectually dishonest.

Any conservative that can't recognize the role that the Biden administration has played in cleaning up the distribution of the vaccine is the same.  

They both did their part and both were necessary for us to be where we are on this path right now and deserve credit for it.

FYI, capitalism had very little to do with it.

Trump did one good thing (operation warp speed, and that was basically him staying out of the way) and dozens of bad things (not using the Defense Preparedness Act, not taking the virus seriously, discouraging mask use, encouraging states to open far too soon, etc.) On the whole it doesn’t equal out; his performance was almost wholly incompetent and awful. 
On the other hand, I have trouble seeing anything Biden’s done wrong on this issue so far). 
 

It’s not even. 

 

[BroadwayG]

I love this capitalized health care concept where the government funds R&D, buys the product, and delivers it at no cost to the people.

"PatriotCare" will get my vote in 2024 if Republicans run on expanding this resounding vaccine success to all things healthcare.

 

[apalmer]

So the Dems in this forum aren't giving any vaccine credit to our form of capitalism...my oh my.

I could use a new car. I'm hoping that we can use the same capitalistic methods to get the government to pay for the development of a nice, roomy, comfortable, fuel-efficient sedan and then deliver one to me for free.  As with the vaccine, I won't even care which company's version I get.