The unacceptable face of capitalism

[DodgyAgent]

I am confident there are a lot more builders wealthier than me.

Where is the spelling mistake?

Where the word " " was

[oracleslave]

I think you have a vastly over-inflated view of what people earn then. The mean (or is it modal) average salary is somewhere around £25k IIRC. Don't know how accurate this is but it seems to refute you: Income in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you look at the data just for contractors though he doesn't seem that far off.


Top contractors earning three times the UK

[Old Greg]

Capitalism let us remember is the free activity of exchange of goods and services between human beings. It is an activity ahead of any other that ensures that human beings coexist peacefully. For people to say it doesn't work well I am afraid they are lying because it does work.

the problem is in its extreme form people are left behind and it becomes a survival of the fittest, it is a metaphor for that other activity that human beings engage in - war.

Western civilisation has moved a long way and has largely managed to exploit the activities of capitalism for the benefit of nearly everyone. there is no other system that comes anywhere near this one that enables the human race to live peacefully and develop its potential.

Let us also remember that IT contractors are the ultimate capitalists, They can sell their services anywhere they wish at whatever charges the market will pay. They are unencumbered by red tape and bureacracy and free from the dead hand of socialism. They do not have to sign long term contracts with their employers and they are free to do whatever they like with the money they earn (as long as it is within the law)

there are of course those who feel guilt and sneer at the very dynamic that serves them so well. Sneering is a lot less costly than taking a permanent job for a public sector but it makes them feel better about themselves.

You are incorrect (again). A capitalist is someone who makes their living through the deployment of capital that they own, rather than through selling their labour. IT contractors sell their labour. You see?

[SueEllen]

I'd contend that there is no such thing as 'extreme' capitalism. The unfortunate problems most people see as being a consequence of 'extreme' capitalism, are really the opposite - they're consequences of people not adhering to the principles of free trade and voluntary exchange. it only takes something seemingly innocuous, like drug prohibition, or minimum wage laws, to upset the balance and cause a massively disproportionate skew. Then more interferences to fix that only make it worse.

For example, anti-discrimination laws make it very difficult for your average joes to collectively discourage anti-social business practises & other behaviours.

The principles of free trade don't work in all markets hence government regulation this in turn makes your other arguments nonsense.

[ZARDOZ]

Some good points in the article. Truth is at the extremes there is a Fraud masqerading as capitalism. It's little more than theft. Not sure what the answer is, but it shouldn't be possible to take a good business and feck it up for personal gain, while lumbering others with the debt. Adam Smith will be spinning in his grave.

[SpontaneousOrder]

The principles of free trade don't work in all markets hence government regulation this in turn makes your other arguments nonsense.

Only when one assumes that "The principles of free trade don't work in all markets" isn't nonsense itself. Which it is.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Some good points in the article. Truth is at the extremes there is a Fraud masqerading as capitalism. It's little more than theft. Not sure what the answer is, but it shouldn't be possible to take a good business and feck it up for personal gain, while lumbering others with the debt. Adam Smith will be spinning in his grave.

Exactly. That's the opposite of capitalism, not the extreme of it. It's the state's interference in markets which facilitates this fraud.

[Old Greg]

Only when one assumes that "The principles of free trade don't work in all markets" isn't nonsense itself. Which it is.

Everything 'works' in that it produces an outcome. Whether that outcome is desirable is a different matter. Feudalism 'worked'.

[SpontaneousOrder]

You are incorrect (again). A capitalist is someone who makes their living through the deployment of capital that they own, rather than through selling their labour. IT contractors sell their labour. You see?

Human capital.

[Old Greg]

Exactly. That's the opposite of capitalism, not the extreme of it. It's the state's interference in markets which facilitates this fraud.

You seem to be confusing free trade with capitalism. Look at the relationship in any society between labour and capital and then you will understand whether it is a slave society, a feudalist society, a capitalist society or something else.