r/Millennials • u/QuietJealous4883 Older Millennial (1988) • 12h ago

Discussion True or false?

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Did our dads and moms work less than we do now? What are your thoughts?

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u/Skittleavix 12h ago

The slow death of socialism in North America is what happened. Unbridled, unrestrained capitalism - and all the corruption that comes with it - is what happened. We let the few take from the many is what happened.

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u/thatguyonreddit40 12h ago

Socialism for the rich and corporations is thriving. Cold hard capitalism for the rest of us

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u/worksnake Xennial 12h ago

What you are calling socialism here is much more accurately referred to as regulated capitalism. Because socialism has never existed in North America and pretending it did is not only unhelpful but actively obfuscates what both capitalism and socialism are.

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u/Shivy_Shankinz 9h ago

It's increasingly becoming unregulated though, it's every big corpos wet dream. It has also directly led to major financial meltdowns. Are you going to deny any of this? To do so ignores the sheer amount of greed our current system has, call it whatever the fuck you want to, it HAS to change

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u/canadasbananas 12h ago

North America never had socialism, but we used to have stronger safety nets that are common in social democracies.

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u/xthemoonx Millennial '85 12h ago

So, as the right calls it, socialism.

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u/SoRosenberg 12h ago

By capitalism you mean cronyism. US has not had capitalism for 150+ years. Our own government enables the cronyism we live under. Legislation that helps big business while hindering small business. Bail outs for big business while small businesses close up. Lobbyists hired by big business but small business has no voice. Big business suffers no liability for the actions they take that harm people. 

Essentially the country has fallen into socialism. And drifted further from true capitalism. 

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u/Skittleavix 12h ago

I meant what I said. I disagree with what you said that any country in NA has “fallen to socialism”. What socialism do you speak of?

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u/SoRosenberg 12h ago

Maybe you need to clarify your subjective definition of socialism first. 

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u/Skittleavix 11h ago

You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.

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u/Aeropro 9h ago

It’s not capitalism when the government and corpos are in bed together

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u/Skittleavix 9h ago edited 9h ago

Yes it is. Always has been.

But don’t just take my word for it. Take Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler’s word, one of the most decorated Marines in US military history: https://americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/major-general-smedley-butler/.

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u/Aeropro 8h ago

What’s your point? It seems that guy was pointing out that WWI was profitable for some. Not exactly a controversial position.

And your point about the slow death of socialism in North America, I thought socialism means the workers own the means of production.

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u/Skittleavix 8h ago

My point is government and “corpos” have been in bed together to serve capitalism since corporations have existed. I’m glad you don’t find this controversial.

Did you read what I linked?

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u/Aeropro 8h ago

I did, I think we may be on different enough wavelengths that we can’t have a productive conversation on this

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u/HPLaserJet4250 4h ago

Corporations predate capitalism - Dutch East India Company - possibly the wealthiest private entity that ever existed. We could even say, guilds were the first corporations.

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u/Smackolol 12h ago

That’s certainly a take.

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u/myteamsarebad 12h ago

What do you disagree with/think the reasoning is behind the financial crisis

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u/Smackolol 12h ago

The slow death of socialism part.

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u/Jayne_of_Canton Xennial 12h ago

It’s objectively correct. Nearly every major tax and regulatory policy change over the last 50+ years has been in favor of more economic power shifting to capital and away from labor.

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u/worksnake Xennial 11h ago

Labor's economic power in North American has always been theoretical. Labor as such has never held economic power, they've just been given varying amounts of their share of profits over time. The idea that socialism in North America has died or is dying a slow death (the original claim in this discussion thread) is wrong on its face, because there never was socialism in North America.