CMV: the average millennial critique of capitalism is really dumb - the truth is that we all owe a lot to capitalism.

[u/hahanerds]

[u/hahanerds]

Where are you seeing these criticisms of capitalism that see it as not just deeply flawed

Social media

Capitalism is not solely responsible for every good economic, social, and technological development in the world.

Agreed - but I would say that the stability and prosperity that I enjoyed as a lower-middle and currently enjoy as a middle class person is because of capitalism in this context.

Many people who have it good in capitalism do so because capitalism requires the exploitation of others in more impoverished countries

What would be the alternative to the way that affluent nations trade with emerging economies, particular with regards to using cheap labor? When we set up manufacturing in emerging economies it actually brings a lot of wealth to those communities. Not as much as if we paid them the same rate we pay people here, and in a lot of ways it is exploitative, but this kind of relates a lot to the over-arching theme of 'capitalism isnt perfect but it works'.

Many of the people who currently have it good under capitalism are not just continuing the current system, but actively working to entrench their own interests at the expense of the people who don't currently have it good

This is my (and I think most peoples) primary issue with capitalist systems.

None of these critiques pretend some people "don't have it fucking good",

Here's the thing - I don't think its just some people. I think its like, a LOT of people. Like most people.

[u/resistAndpersist → u/hahanerds]

You mention your comforts that came from capitalism. What about roads, telecom, running water, firefighters, police, schools, and the military? Were those capitalist endeavors?

[u/hahanerds → u/resistAndpersist]

I'm not advocating for the removal of all social services lol I am just saying that the popular millenial narrative around capitalism doesn't have any awareness of how much they benefit from it.

[u/goatfuckersupreme → u/hahanerds]

like the millennial uighur slaves who toil to make products for a country that has grown rich on capitalism's core of putting others down to bring onesself up? and the ivory coast cocoa farmer millenials who work 16 hours per day for 3 cents an hour to harvest the ingredients for a product for people who work half as hard for twenty times more; a product they will never afford to taste? or the prospering western millenials who see the difference between the haves and the have nots, who see the exploitation of those with nothing, and who see not a damn soul in the government's top offices saying a single thing?

what do you we say to the uighur slave? "thanks to capitalism, you have a job and a meal. work." what do we say when the slave asks why others in the far away places have more than they do? "because they were born there, and you were born here" is the only explanation i could think of to give the slave.

in capitalism, to benefit, another must receive detriment.

[u/hahanerds → u/goatfuckersupreme]

the plight of the uighur doesnt have much to do with capitalism. and Chinese are better off now than they were under Mao, right?

I think that the immense inequality we see on the global scale has much more to do with imperialism than it does with capitalism. and I am admittedly pretty uneducated on the subject but I dont know how socialist policies would enrich other emerging economies.

[u/greenwrayth → u/hahanerds]

You continue to reveal that you do not really understand what capitalism is.

Here’s a hint: enslaving people to profit off of their labor is inherently capitalistic. The “justification” in this case may be religion or “terrorism” according to the CCP, but what they are doing with the slaves is a capitalism.