HeavenlyPossumAug 3, 2023

Capitalism must always grow. It can never stop.

Capitalists must always seek to maximize differential profits—they have to collect *more* profits than their competitors.

Because you can reinvest those profits in buying up more revenue generating assets, you can expand your business and grab more market share. Or, like when Microsoft bought Nokia to grab the patents Nokia held, you can invest in blocking your competitors from expanding.

If your share of the market falls so far that you can’t make payroll or pay your creditors, you go out of business. Your capital is seized and sold off, and you become just another worker, subject to the whims and commands of capital owners.

So capital owners in competitive markets must always try to grow at a rate faster than their competitors. If they stop, if they take a break, if the global ecosystem collapses, then so does capitalism.

Show threadAlexander_Anotherskip_DavisAug 3, 2023
@HeavenlyPossum Cute, but no.
Show threadHeavenlyPossumAug 3, 2023

@Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

Wow thanks

Show threadAlexander_Anotherskip_DavisAug 3, 2023
@HeavenlyPossum Sure, i mean if you can cite research to prove your point I'll look at it but really. its a pretty poor theory that only has minimal observational support. If you can prove it I'll happily use it to smush other tweets I have seen in my thread today so win-win.
Show threadHeavenlyPossumAug 3, 2023

@Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

I’m trying and failing to figure out what it is you’re trying to accomplish here

Show threadPyperkubAug 3, 2023
@HeavenlyPossum @Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis IMHO. mostly that you are conflating monopolists with capitalists and what passes for capitalism today is NOT capitalism, it is the opposite of what Adam Smith meant by free markets in capital and labor, and most your issues appear to be with what monopolists are doing to corrupt free markets and perform rent-seeking. Capitalism with good rules and referees is what's needed, but both have been corrupted by monopolists (and not for the first time).
Show threadPyperkubAug 3, 2023
@HeavenlyPossum @Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis See @pluralistic 's examination of Private Equity and the Carried Interest Loophole: https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/29/writers-must-be-paid/#carried-interest
Pluralistic: 29 Apr 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Show threadPyperkubAug 3, 2023
@HeavenlyPossum @Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis @pluralistic And then realize even **THAT** scam isn't enough, and needs more scams: https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/20/continuation-fraud/
Pluralistic: Private equity ghouls have a new way to steal from their investors (20 July 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Show threadHeavenlyPossumAug 4, 2023

@pluralistic @[email protected] @pyperkub

Why would the existence of “scams” be antithetical to profit-seeking in competitive markets by capital owners?

Show threadPyperkubAug 4, 2023
@HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic See above- "Capitalism with good rules and referees is what's needed"
Show threadHeavenlyPossumAug 4, 2023

@pyperkub @pluralistic

Capitalism *is* the result of rules—it is inescapably the product of state violence and cannot exist without massive state interference. This *is* capitalism acting according to the rules; there is no “good” capitalism but only degrees of violence and exploitation.

Show threadPyperkubAug 4, 2023

@HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic and socialism/communism isn't?

Hmmm... might need to come up with some way to differentiate here...

Show threadHeavenlyPossumAug 4, 2023

@pluralistic @pyperkub

When in doubt, what about

Show threadPyperkub
@HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic lol tho I will admit that today's capitalists do seem to want to make feudalism great again. The point is that it is the people who are generally awful, nowadays...
Aug 4, 2023 at 7:53pmWeb
Show threadHeavenlyPossumAug 4, 2023

@pluralistic @pyperkub

I don’t understand what you’re saying here. “The people are generally awful” what?

Show threadPyperkubAug 4, 2023
@HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic Stalin, Mao, Xi, Trump, Musk, Bezos, Zuck, Putin, Bork (per Cory), etc. Greed for Power is not limited to capitalism. (Side note, I can make a pretty good argument that the Magna Carta was a market reaction to feudal kings' power grabs... the thing is that imbalanced markets like that will violently come to a new equilibrium, literally! sometimes, and that is not good for anyone if there are alternatives).
Show threadHeavenlyPossumAug 4, 2023

@pluralistic @pyperkub

I agree that greed for power is not limited to capitalism, although there is no meaningful alternative to capitalism right now, but I’m not sure why you felt the need to tell me this.