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 threadRDAug 5, 2023

@pyperkub @HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic

It's quite simple really: if it involves a state, it's not socialism or communism.

If it involves a state existing from, let's say around 1900 or so on, it's either a private capitalist state (like the US, or even "Nordic Socialist" states) or state capitalism (like USSR, China, Cuba, DPRK, Vietnam, etc).

Hope this is helpful.

Show threadPyperkubAug 7, 2023
@RD4Anarchy @HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic From Britannica - you are still conflating "monopoly/oligopoly" with "capitalism". The point being that what we have is NOT a free market based economy (Defn of Capitalism here), based on market principles, but rather an oligopoly based on monopolistic principles. That is what #enshittification is all about - Rent Seeking through Monopoly.
Show threadPyperkubAug 7, 2023
@RD4Anarchy @HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic And here's a starter on Monopolies - and realize that those excess profits are being invested, not in better products, but to create more monopolistic advantages: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042215/how-does-monopoly-contribute-market-failure.asp
How Does a Monopoly Contribute to Market Failure?

According to some economic theorists, a monopoly is by nature inefficient and can lead to shortages and increased prices.

Investopedia
Show threadHeavenlyPossumAug 7, 2023

@pluralistic @RD4Anarchy @pyperkub

All capitalist property is a monopoly.

Show threadHeavenlyPossum

@pyperkub @pluralistic @RD4Anarchy

It’s important to understand “enshitification” in the broader context of capitalist critique. Thorstein Veblen observer a century ago that “business” (ie, capitalists) were often at odds with “industry” (ie, the people who work to materially supply society), and would often deliberately slow or “sabotage” production to maintain artificial scarcity and thus profits.

We see this more expansively today, from copyrights and trademarks to planned obsolescence to product crippling to the deliberate destruction of oversupply. Industry works to supply us; capital restricts to profit. You cannot profit from something that is not scarce, but many things we experience as “scarce” are not organically so, like access to social media. There is no shortage of tweets.

Aug 8, 2023 at 9:18amWeb
Show threadHeavenlyPossumAug 8, 2023

@pluralistic @pyperkub @RD4Anarchy

Jonathan Bichler and Shimshon Nitzan have built on the work of Veblen and others to identify property itself as a form of sabotage—a declaration of interference—and capital as a measure of *social power* over others. This is why we do not identify your personal home or a farm you work yourself as “private property” or “capital” because it entails no command over anyone else. A property relationship becomes capital when it entails command—I own *your farm* that *you work* and collect a share of *your income* by virtue of ownership.

Their capital-as-power theory helps explain how both dollars in a bank and a farm or factory can be “capital” at the same time—because they represent the ability to command people to work for you, rather than the “stuff” itself.

Show threadAdminAug 8, 2023

@HeavenlyPossum @pyperkub @pluralistic @RD4Anarchy

Yep, we have had 20 years of #dotcons selling us libertarian individualism to push aside collective support of the "revolutionary" #openweb which is when we last had left tech power.

For this 20 years we have had #geekproblem pushing #closedweb as left tech, this is OBVIOUSLY a disaster we can't keep doing. Yes, let's not get into a prat fight, this is needed as a supplementary.

#indymediaback #OMN #OGB #makeinghistory