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Hey tech billionaires, if you want to talk about radical change, let’s abolish venture capitalism
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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What the hell are you talking about. The nordic countries constantly rate as one of the most economically free countries in the world. Capitalism is everywhere in the nordic countries, but it's also used to support comprehensive welfare state.
And yes, I come from the "happiest country in the world" so I guess I can literally see that we are quite capitalistic.
Edit: it seems that the original comment was edited so my comment looks kinda unnecessary now
Who are these special "capitalists" you are referring to? Majority of Finnish citizens and literally every major political party here?
No lol. Also the Finnish health care system is already heavily a mix of public and private sectors because of how our social security system and occupational health care system works.
If we are talking about power hungry people, I'm much more concerned about the authoritarian power hungry leader right next to my country currently at war with another european country than some hypothetical power hungry billionaire who could try to harm our society.
I guess by that logic the socialista are also the problem because last time they were the ones who invaded us.
Are these Capitalists in the room right now?
They're in my government right now.
I've had so many debates with people who say "socialism is a success, it works in Scandinavia".
And I'm like, when have the Scandinavian and Nordic countries ever been socialist?
Nordic countries are socialist, unless you have a very narrow view of socialism in that it's basically a synonym for communism. Socialism is the transition state between capitalism and communism, and therefore exists on a large spectrum. On one end of the spectrum is pure capitalism where capitalists have complete control and autonomy over production, and on the other end is pure communism where workers have complete control over production. Socialism stands ambiguously on the communist end of the spectrum, but theirs a large gray area. Government policies and institutions like progressive taxes, trade unions, welfare states, regulations and nationalized industries serve to empower workers and move the system towards the communist side of the spectrum into the socialist territory.
No, they're social democratic, which is not the same as socialist.
Socialism isn't necessarily about taking away economic freedom, there are versions of market socialism that may be considered economically free. Socialism is ,theoretically , the transition state between capitalism and communism, so capitalists might still exist in a socialist state, but not a communist state where they are completely abolished. Socialism therefore is about disempowering capitalists and empowering workers until one day the workers hold all the power and cast off the capitalist. This can be done in many ways from a revolution to sieze the means of production to a progressive tax that takes away capitalist wealth.
Most modern socialists in the west realize without a large scale crisis the likes of the great depression, the people won't support a revolution. The best they can do is to disempower the capitalists with tactics allowed in the current system. These tactics, trade unionism, welfare states, progressive taxes, nationalization of industries are all in heavy use in the Nordic countries, and imo contribute significantly to their happiness.
Socialism is measured by the power of the workers, not the control of the market.
Yes, I don't disagree with anything you said. The original comment before OP edited it said that the nordic countries don't have capitalism which was something I found highly misinformative.
TIL Nordic countries are not capitalist :o
Those countries are capitalist. Research the Nordic Model.
Those studies tend to be heavily Euro-centric.
Some of the happiest countries on earth are in East Asia. Bhutan, in particular, is the happiest country you've never heard about. Vietnam and Singapore also tend to rate very high. Bolivia also tends to punch well above its weight class.
But it should be noted that the Nordic states have historically been very far removed from war. With the Ukraine/Russia conflict, Fins are significantly more unhappy than they've been in prior generations. I don't think you can blame that on their domestic policy or their economic model. As more refugees are forced through Europe in an effort to flee conflicts in Armenia and police crackdowns in Hungary and industrial sabotage through the Baltic Sea, happiness in the region is plummeting.
The fact the Nordic countries are rated as the most happy in the world proves that abolishing capitalism is a fucking awful idea. The Nordic countries are all capitalist.
I think most of the happiness comes from the strong unions and long history of worker’s rights movements. Sweden don’t have a law that determines minimum wage for example. It is the unions that determine a fair wage.