this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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[–] irmoz@reddthat.com 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

do whatever they want and all required resources just magically arrive when they need.

"Whatever they want" is creating and distributing those resources, but I suppose labour is magic to you.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca -3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, and distributing resources efficiently is one of the core strengths of capitalism, its the reason why capitalism is so successful.

No, I'm not saying capitalism is perfect nor that it doesn't cause suffering, nor that it does not need a shitload more limits than it has right now, but communism is NOT known for its efficiency, nor for letting people just do whatever the hell they want to do. Communism forces people to do what the boss says, if you don't like it you can go to a gulag. If you're talking about "Communism gives people the freedom to find the most efficient ways of distributing resources" then you're kind of confusing that with Capitalism.

[–] irmoz@reddthat.com 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

If capitalism is so efficient at distributing resources, why are so many people starving?

Also, yet another "communism is when capitalism". Communism wouldn't have an upper class of "bosses".

Also, pointing to socialist states as proof communism has leadership is laughable. That's not communism. It's socialism. At least do some research.

[–] Pipoca@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Efficiency in economics has a particular technical definition.

Pareto efficiency or Pareto optimality is a situation where no action or allocation is available that makes one individual better off without making another worse off

Free markets are great at producing outcomes that are efficient in a particular technical sense, but not especially equitable.

[–] irmoz@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, capitalism is insanely efficient at its real purpose - funneling wealth to the top.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

why are so many people starving?

There are loads of reasons for people starving, but in democratic capitalist countries, people typically don't starve. Don't agree? Name one. There is poverty in the US for sure and capitalism in the US is an absolute shitshow, nobody would deny that. But people in the US rarely starve to death.

Wanna talk starvation? Lets talk starvation! Warning: All following links are wikipedia but have stomach churning content. Here be dragons, but please do read because you need to learn. Also note: All the following is from within the last century.

1: Russian famine: about five million deaths

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922 (famine caused directly by communism)

Quote from that page: The famine resulted from the combined effects of economic disturbance from the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War, and the government policy of war communism (especially prodrazvyorstka). It was exacerbated by rail systems that could not distribute food efficiently.

Fun quote: canibalism

Communism is awesome!

2: North Korean famine: estimated between 600,000 and 1 million deaths

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_famine (Famine caused directly by communist government policies)

Quote: Economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly. A series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis. The North Korean government and its centrally planned system proved too inflexible to effectively curtail the disaster.

Fun quote: uses of words such as 'famine' and 'hunger' were banned because they implied government failure

Communism is awesome!

3: Chinese famine: 15 to 55 million deaths (yay!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine (Caused directly by communist government policies)

Quote: The major contributing factors in the famine were the policies of the Great Leap Forward (1958 to 1962) and people's communes, launched by Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong, such as inefficient distribution of food within the nation's planned economy; requiring the use of poor agricultural techniques; the Four Pests campaign that reduced sparrow populations (which disrupted the ecosystem); over-reporting of grain production; and ordering millions of farmers to switch to iron and steel production.

Fun quote: Cannibalism, AGAIN

Communism is awesome!

Want to know more?

Communism wouldn’t have an upper class of “bosses”.

......... I don't even know where to begin with this one. What are you? 5?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekism a nice side effect of communism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chekist < I F*$#king double dare you to watch that movie about the non existing upper class of bosses

In conclusion?

Communism sucks and causes nothing but suffering. There is not even a fucking silver lining about it and people need to stop hippy-dippying communism. Its fucking evil.

Yes, capitalism as it currently runs is fucked up with problems. But at its core its the driver of success that got you your mobile phone in your hands. Use that mobile phone to fix those problems instead of dreaming of perfect mass murdering societies.

[–] ComradePorkRoll@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

We just removed the child tax credit which made child poverty soar. The most "pro-union" president forced railroad workers to take a shit contract in December instead of allowing them to strike.

[–] irmoz@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't even know where to begin. That entire comment is full of lies i have debunked before. This is exhausting.

9 million per year. The number that starve due to capitalism.

I have already addressed the Soviet famine. The root cause was a crop blight and Stalin's lax response ultimately worsened it.

As for china and north korea - any reason to believe the communism they don't live in is the cause of that? Your own quote claims north korea mainly suffered because the USSR failed to supoort them.

[–] Shyfer@ttrpg.network 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Capitalism is good at raising production, generating lots of products very quickly and efficiently. But it's notoriously terrible at actually distributing resources in a fair way. Like, that's it's biggest weakness and the things it's worst at.

Communism has the opposite issue of not usually being able to make enough things in the beginning, which is why Marx thought it would happen in already industrialized nations, not poor peasant states like Russia or China.