miss_demeanourGuided By Voices
nexguyCommunism isn’t bad. Socialism isn’t bad. Capitalism isn’t bad. It’s what humans do with them that is bad. Don’t be a greedy dick and they would all work fine.
masquenoxDon’t be a greedy dick
Sure thing… it’s not like capitalism is fundamentally designed to empower the pathologically greedy or anything, eh?
There’s nothing morally wrong with being greedy by itself. If someone does a good thing for selfish reasons, that’s still a good thing. If I decide to become a doctor because I selfishly want respect, admiration, and social or monetary capital, the world is still better off for me doing so. Sick people will get better.
Greed only becomes bad when you empower people to use violence to keep themselves on top. Most often it is the threat of state violence that forces people into situations where abuse occurs.
No, you can’t disassociate from my factory because I own the patent (says the state), I own the land (says the state), and I own the distribution liscences, (says the state). If you violate my state given rights, the police will come and beat you. I can abuse you, and you can’t leave because the state will punish you if you do. It’s against the principals of the free market.
There’s nothing morally wrong with being greedy by itself.
Says who?
It’s against the principals of the free market.
What other mythical things do you believe in, liberal?
The tooth fairy, perhaps?
Self interest is a massive part of the open-source movement which is inherently anti-capitalist.
Self interest isn’t greed.
For example, philanthropy is usually done entirely in self interest.
Read about mutual aid. “Survival of the fittest” isn’t the only mode of evolution, even in other animals/organisms in nature.
Right, but greed is just the term for self-interest that is harmful to others. My point was that the “non-harmful” greed that knitwitt was talking about is the same constructive self interest that drives society in both capitalist and socialist systems.