Even if everyone was class conscious, people could still act in self-interest. For example, cops could keep protecting capitalists if they were paid enough.
pancake
joined 1 year ago
Very interesting. I'd say China will only increase and cheapen its production even more, which will allow them to push their influence. They have been focusing on doing exactly that, by building efficient transportation networks, putting increasingly more companies' equities in the hands of the state (and therefore sidestepping investors), and, recently, setting up abundant facilities for cheap, green energy production. All three of those policies rely for their swift and massive realization on what US policymakers nowadays seem to refer to as "non-market" dynamics, which are basically out of the question for them.
Chemical damage to our bodies mostly consists of both oxidation and Maillard-like reactions. So we're both slowly burning and getting cooked!
Imagine a situation wherein everyone has more or less the same amount of money. They can afford the same number of houses, let's say, two small, or one larger house. Even if there's some inequality, it's not hard to imagine people buying larger or smaller homes and yet everyone being able to afford one. Renting is an afterthought in this scenario.
If inequality grows larger, some people will not be able to afford ownership, and then renting becomes profitable; those who can afford more than one house will buy more than they need, increasing demand and then offering those homes for renting and getting profit. This in turn increases inequality, but as long as the forces pushing it down prevail, this state can last for long.
The crisis breaks out when these mechanisms eventually come out of balance, pushing a large share of people out of the market, and homeownership starts concentrating.
The idea is that investing is only profitable when people don't have what they need; any solution that gives them that (increasing public housing is a popular proposal here) will reduce profit. In fact, profitability is at a maximum now because of the housing crisis, and even just going back to step 2 would reduce it. A "perfect" solution would give everyone homes at the best price physically possible and with full liquidity, which would sink renting yields to basically zero.
I think the article makes too many assumptions, like Grinchiy's views being anti-war rather than just anti-Wagner, or, implicitly, that the police didn't charge him because of popular support, rather than simply because he didn't break the law. Those things may as well be true, but the reasons are not clearly explained in the article.
Objectively, yes. But it was polarizing at the time because some of the people present were investing heavily in real estate.
From the title, I was thinking about actual red-colored flags lol.
You can imagine ;)
Seriously, though, I said (irl) the home affordability crisis in my country can't be truly solved in any way that simultaneously still allows people to invest in homes (rent them out, sell them at higher prices, do business with tourism, etc) to any meaningful degree. Everyone around had very strong, diverse opinions on that.
Well, not really an issue with the existing paragraph being hard to understand, but I would suggest more explicitly stating which symbol from the "math" section corresponds to each variable from the "code" section, at the beginning of the latter.
Hugely cool! Very clearly written too.
The benefits of a free market have been discussed by communists in the past, and newer experiments like the reforms implemented by China make it clear that socialism is compatible with a free market, to very good results.
Thanks for engaging with OP in a civil fashion, especially when you felt attacked... Anyway, hmu if you want to discuss this in more depth.
No, because that wouldn't be true. The bourgeoisie could trivially pay any sufficiently small group of people so that it's in their best interest to follow along. This is true of cops but also of lawmakers (small groups of people that exert great control), so the current system would be rigged in favor of the ruling class even under perfect cooperation of the proletariat.
That's not to say I'm 100% sure a revolution needs to happen. Most likely, it does, but the reasoning above does not rule out specific cases (e.g., conditions where the threat of a revolution could provide sufficient leverage, or "loopholes" in a legal system that might allow an additional advantage for a cooperating majority).