Permanently Deleted

  • glimmer_twin [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    a bunch of redditors will take down an extremely adaptable economic system that has survived multiple global wars, vast inequality, inconceivable changes in technology, and a concerted 200 year effort to overthrow it

    :doubt:

    • jabrd [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      an extremely adaptable economic system that has survived multiple global wars, vast inequality, inconceivable changes in technology, and a concerted 200 year effort to overthrow it

      An economic system that shits its guts out every 10 years because of something stupid exactly like this

      • glimmer_twin [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        And those crises always invariably increase inequality and hurt working people. Capitalism itself has always survived. Unless you’re arguing that the WSB crew are accelerationists of some kind?

        • PhaseFour [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          They are not "accelerationists", they are forcing major banks to owe them a shit ton of money through an infinity squeeze. Their ideology does not matter, material reality does.

          • shitstorm [he/him]
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            4 years ago

            And the material reality is that they're organizing and buying through private corporations who are already taking steps to shut them down. If it get's anywhere close to materially damaging banks long-term, the forces of capital will unite to stop WSB. The Biden admin will step in to stop it.

            I'm all for WSB people paying off their student debts or making a buck off this magic scenario, but you're not gonna beat capitalists by out-capitalisting them.

            • PhaseFour [he/him]
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              edit-2
              4 years ago

              buying through private corporations who are already taking steps to shut them down

              If legal stock brokers steal peoples' investments, that is going to cause a lot of problems. That's a pandora's box of legality and public outrage that I doubt will happen. If they could get away with that, the 2008 housing short would never have happened.

              If it get’s anywhere close to materially damaging banks long-term, the forces of capital will unite to stop WSB.

              Sure, that doesn't mean they can close pandora's box back easily. The Great Recession took years for the financial world to recover. And now, the US population is much more organized to oppose the state. An "Occupy Wall Street" pt. 2 will look a lot different than last time.

        • jabrd [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          Yea they're definitely an accelerating force. Crashing the stock market for a joke wasn't ok and all that

      • Owl [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        An economic system that survives shitting its guts out every 10 years because of something stupid exactly like this.

        • vsaush [he/him]
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          edit-2
          4 years ago

          There is going to be a terminal crisis in profitability that capitalism will not be able to withstand - without changing to socialism or a neo-feudalism. Is it going to be from the gme bubble? Who the fuck knows, lol, the global 2009 financial crisis started because some people missed a few payments on their mortgages, the 1929 and subsequent 1930s depression started because a few traders missed their margin calls.

          Capitalism doesnt survive, without changing, these big crises. The 19th century long depression ushered in a wave of imperialism that culminated in the scramble for Africa. The 30s depression ushered in new deal style social democracy, the 70s crisis of profitability ushered in neoliberalism. The 2009 crisis was averted just enough to not change the underlying logic of neoliberalism but between covid and the potential for wall street to collapse (the one place that has survived decently so far), neoliberal capitalism will die off too. What could replace it? Imperialism is global, the working class in the west is asleep and now precarious, the public goods are mostly privatized. What's left to extract profit from? The nearest I could see is moving to UBI and MMT, but if neoliberalism is the body of capitalism eating itself, UBI and infinite debt is the dmt vision we get before dieing completely.

          • read_freire [they/them]
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            4 years ago

            The 2009 crisis was averted just enough to not change the underlying logic of neoliberalism

            idk that the underlying logic changed, but they definitely didn't waste that crisis in bringing back unlimited money for robber barons, and that difference isn't insignificant. without 09 I doubt we get uber, wework, etc.

            • vsaush [he/him]
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              4 years ago

              Yeah, it only seems "obvious" in hindsight now. Like, given how hard neoliberalism pushes to eliminate unionization and crush any level of worker privileges... they'd have to bring back the 30s work line (where you'd be unemployed standing in a line at a factory and when someone died from the unsafe work they'd just pull someone else from the line) but in the 21st century it would have to be dressed up as a fun little app with bright colors and the fisher price aesthetic of adult lives.

      • shitstorm [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        An economic system that shits its guts out every 10 years

        That's by design. Capitalists can't make gains without people losing everything, so if you have a disaster-like scenario built into your economic system then billionaires can plan around it.

      • glimmer_twin [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        I’ll admit I was being melodramatic for effect, but I’m definitely in the “I’ll believe it when I see it” camp on this one. Maybe it’s because I’m not at all involved in the stock trading world, but I find it hard to get as agitated about this as I was during the uprisings last year. To me that was a much more visceral confrontation between ordinary people and the powers that be than a bunch of imaginary numbers being shuffled around.

        • CarlTheRedditor [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          To me that was a much more visceral confrontation between ordinary people and the powers that be than a bunch of imaginary numbers being shuffled around.

          I think a lot of folks think that only happened because those folks were rabble rousers and were stepping out of line, basically.

          Meanwhile, this is people doing capitalism within capitalism like you're supposed to do and when they got an edge by playing within the rules of the system (unlike the rabble rousers!) the system still stepped up and said "no."

          I think it's different in that regard and will radicalized people who weren't before. But yeah this probably isn't sparking the revolution.

    • Harukiller14 [they/them,comrade/them]
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      4 years ago

      Yeah it did all those things when it was young and full of possibilities for exploitation, but that isn't the same material conditions anymore. The soda machine is running out of syrup as Matt put it.

      • glimmer_twin [he/him]
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        edit-2
        4 years ago

        People have been saying that for as long as capitalism has existed, lol. Smarter people than Matt christman. Lenin and most of the Bolsheviks thought the world was on the verge of socialist revolution and that they were just the tip of the spear.

        But yes it does seem like the contradictions will spiral out of control in our lifetime. Climate change alone assures that.

        • KarlBarx [they/them,he/him]
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          4 years ago

          Yeah but the capital that was accumulated was destroyed by war. Unless we manage to have a world war without nukes the contradictions are unstoppable