Gregory's ServerCapitalism is a having a burger delivered to your door in minutes but dying because you can’t afford medical care.
 86 comments
 @aral @gary_alderson  @HereToChewGum @Raccoon @aral we all get darwin awards sooner or later...hate to break it to ya @gary_alderson @HereToChewGum @Raccoon @aral dying is inevitable. Dying stupidly isn't. @aral capitalism: by seeking increasing profit, free markets converge to satisfy the needs of the people efficiently everyone who has ever programmed a gradient descent: no it fucking doesn't @elrohir @aral Speaking as someone in a country where privatisation of the water has led to the water companies investing absolutely nothing in fixing the infrastructure, pumping sewage into rivers on such a scale that cocaine can be detected in the water, taking loans to finance dividends to shareholders and wanting to raise prices by 40% for that, I find those sorts of claims about the free market being more efficient utterly ridiculous @matthewbdaly @aral @elrohir it’s way more efficient at the thing it’s trying to do. Regrettably that isn’t delivering safe water and sewage services to residents - it’s extracting profit @matthewbdaly @elrohir @aral  @aral I believe you got it wrong Science and innovations in transport as well as other people's work is why you get the burger in minutes, capitalism is dying because you can't afford healthcare  @witix @aral my usual understanding is that given options and open information people would tend towards buying quality because of their utility maximizing nature, but thats just the model, real world is messier. Fewer options due to consolidation, monopoly, and economies of scale:, imperfect information from shills, bias, and corrupt reviewers. Choosing the cheaper without knowing the quality tradeoff in the walmart way. Its only an economics model, not a good mapping today. And innovation changes the playing field that they had rigged in their favour. So they have EVERY reason to stifle innovation.  @aral The former would have happened even without capitalism once we collaborate (thru non-exploitative ways), while the later happens only because of Capitalism.  @aral There are immigrant doctors who would gladly work for cheaper. But because of absurd regulations and immigration rules, they are working in food delivery. Not to get all libertarian but I'm not sure this has much if anything to do with capitalism. High medical costs are largely a result of our immigration and border systems.  If deregulation lowered prices, why is the privatized healthcare system of the US more expensive than the public healthcare system in Canada, Europe, Japan, and Australia? @KFuentesGeorge @aral It would be silly to talk about "regulation" as if it were one thing. As I said, one issue in the US (among others!) is that we block immigrant doctors from working. Combined with the high price/low availability of med school in the US, and you get artificial scarcity of doctors. But to answer your question, the biggest problem in the US is that insurance is private and contingent. We have millions of professionals earning well to feud over who should pay for what. Bad.  @stevenbodzin @KFuentesGeorge @aral @duckwhistle @stevenbodzin @KFuentesGeorge @aral In a capitalist system, everything is because of capitalism. @BigBadDog @stevenbodzin @KFuentesGeorge @aral @duckwhistle @KFuentesGeorge @aral Obviously it's all connected. I was arguing that this specific example might have more to do with borders than with capitalism. @stevenbodzin @KFuentesGeorge @aral @duckwhistle @KFuentesGeorge @aral Yes! And the US was closer to that goal in the 19th c. (Serious education was already expensive, but there were all sorts of other healthcare providers.) But doctors limited supply in many ways, starting with the creation of the American Medical Association in the mid-19th century specifically to eliminate midwifery and abortion, for overtly racist and sexist reasons. Racism, sexism and guild monopolies all predate capitalism by millennia. @stevenbodzin @aral Yes, the Salvadorean guy out front is why there’s a maze of HMOs, PPOs, managed care providers, and prescription management companies leeching all the money out of the health care system. Sure thing. Do you also model a horse as a sphere? @lkngrrr @aral when people ask "why do you have a policy against arguing with people who don't use their real names" i will show them this post please try to understand what i am trying to express, rather than reading as ungenerously as possible and then making me into a monster. i am arguing against borders, not arguing for the US health care system. @lkngrrr also, someone who brags about driving too fast has no place lecturing anyone about health care costs, many of which are the result of our car-dominated country @stevenbodzin @aral If you wish to be understood plainly, you should write plainly. But what’s important here is that you’ve found some way to be condescending about user handles on a free social media platform. Well done, 1997 salutes you, great warrior! @marcusdeh @aral Capitalism's exploitative tendencies are obscured through the fetishization of commodities which obscures the proletariat's labor underpinning the goods and renders human needs as purchasable items. @KFuentesGeorge @aral But, if that's the case and you can't help it, at least have the financial responsibility to not burn your cash on useless comfort services such as doordash and whatnot. @KFuentesGeorge Also, have you considered that you're poor BECAUSE you're wasting money on BS? Could save that money instead and out it to actually good use. A course of some kind for example? Starting a small business? Literally anything is better than spending on crap you don't NEED.   @aral Doesn't actually work in the USA though. All those bankruptcies from medical bills!! Properly functioning capitalism would have heard of something called "credit control", and wouldn't provide service to people who can't pay, and wouldn't end up with bankruptcies. @TimWardCam @aral We used to have this. The US had to pass a federal law that prevented emergency rooms from refusing care to people who couldn’t pay. Seriously. “Appendix about to explode? Fuck you, pay me.” @TimWardCam @aral @TimWardCam @aral I’m not a systems engineer, but I could describe part of my own gig as “rules lawyering some shit” so I feel you.  @aral *. Only if one resides in a capitalist state that does not provide free emergency care. Or reduced rate medical care. Or free medical care.  @aral when you no longer have 50$ gas / credit card stacks.. and go EV .. @ 4$? avg. 10$? - 15$ DC fast charge.. vs. 50-80$.. adds up. 200$ v6 trucks. ? v8 1000$ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muE21thIm00 @aral cuz seems pvtin or whomever outta RU capitalized on ' viewers especially post 0/9/11 .. it's funny but not - since there's taxes paid and taxes evaded.. * ? @aral capitalism despises the common good, while using "common good" as a marketing tactic. It's insidious.  @aral You forgot, that the burger will have the optimum in bad meat in it, to maximize profits for the producer. Just not enough to kill you or trigger liability, but enough to minimize costs. I mean animal proteins are animal proteins, no matter if they come from premium imported Japanese beef or maggots, right?  Capitalism is having multiple ambulances arrive at your door in minutes but you still dying because you can’t afford the cost of medical care (part of which is the ambulance and other emergency assistance cost).  @aral @aral@mastodon.ar.al only Americans. Everywhere else figured this out quite some time ago. @aral Request insert "of diet and stress" between "dying" and "because" to put a finer point on it.  @aral Having a burger delivered is commerce, which is a good thing. Not being able to afford health care is a multi-tier problem involving government policies but also the inability of people to prioritize health over superfluous spending. I know people who complain about health care costs but gladly buy every new version of an iPhone. Capitalism is a result of unchecked consumerism, not commerce. |
@aral dying is guaranteed everywhere, the burger isn't