Comment by refurb
1 day ago
> Capitalism is good at driving down prices for consumer goods, also great at extracting rents from essentials (housing, medicine, education, etc). You gain on trinkets and lose on the things that make life worth living.
I find it funny when capitalism is blamed for rent extraction.
First off, extracting profit is not unique to capitalism. It happen in the Soviet Union as well, just on the black market. Even in the legal market workers would "sell" things they had control over for personal benefit. It's not like this disappears with other economic systems - it's a core human behavior to do things that benefit yourself.
Second, almost all of the things you listed - housing, medicine, education - are rent extractions not because of capitalism, but because of government regulations that allowed rent extraction. If people could build as many houses as they want, treat patients without jumping through the AMA quota hoops or charge a tuition that students can actually afford (and not backstopped by the government), none of this rent extraction would happen. We have plenty of examples of those economic sectors where prices are much more reasonable.
> it's a core human behavior to do things that benefit yourself.
That's an assertion often made without evidence. Humans are one of the most cooperative species in existence.
The evidence is all around you. You just have to open your eyes.
Sure humans are cooperative, but but it's not an either/or scenario. Humans are often incredibly selfish at times, and even if not selfish are often focused on benefit for themselves.
And my point is that it's not unique to capitalism. Even prior to capitalism and under communism, humans are highly focused on benefit for themselves, even at the expense of others.
You realize of course that many other countries manage to provide these services for a fraction of the price of America no?
A colleague of mine that went to an Ivy League school in America told me her friends in Poland, not a wealthy country by any means, laughed at her for "buying her degree".