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RE: Adsactly Education - The Marriage of Democracy and Capitalism

in #education • 6 years ago (edited)

Just a few things that came to mind:

  • Capitalism predates democracy by about 4 centuries, and that's not even considering the Roman Empire, so they didn't exactly co-emerge;
  • Quite a few capitalist societies used slaves for production and did quite well financially; not exactly a "free and willing workforce";
  • There have been several moments in history when there was pressure towards fascism coming from large corporations;
  • The European institutions are steered by lobbyists more than by voters; let's be nice and say they aren't quite as democratic as they could or should be, partly because of pressure from corporations;
  • The USA has "the best politicians money can buy", or so I've heard; this would imply voting has a negligable impact on policies there.

I have the, addmittedly unproven, feeling capitalism is at odds with democracy, not because it necessarily has to be, but because money speaks louder than voters and because corporations' interests are often mistaken for the interests of everybody.

6 years ago in #education by
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     6 years ago 

    Very nice comment. I would bring only a couple of very minor things to discussion.

    1. Capitalism as an investment vehicle probably doesn't predate the Greeks by much. It took the rise of physical money to let capitalism even be possible.
    2. I strongly feel that slavery was doomed to collapse of it's own weight sooner or later. The industrial revolution sealed it's fate.

    Your other 3 points are simply spot on. Said much better than I could have.

    So. I agree that capitalism can be at odds with democracy, and is at the current time. I've had at least two marriages where I was at odds with my partner. Is it 'irreconcilable' ?

    Thank you for a terrific comment.

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     6 years ago (edited)

    Writing this quickly, must be off in a few minutes, sorry:

    Re 1: Full democracy is a 20th century development; universal male suffrage didn't happen until the 19th century. Only partial democracies, where only a minority of the population had a vote, based on social class and gender, existed before. I don't consider those democracies, but that's a matter of definition, I suppose.

    Re 2: Be that as it may, and it probably is: slavery existed for quite a long time in capitalist countries, and some (parts) of these countries functioned mainly on slave labour, which rather proves the point that a "free and willing workforce" isn't a necessary precondition for capitalism.