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Comment by geofft | Hacker News Reader

Is this very different from the tendency in the US to say "the problem isn't capitalism, the problem is 'crony capitalism', if we were living under real capitalism things would be okay"?

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Well, mostly, because capitalist systems work. Look at Sweden, or Germany, or Japan, or the United States (largely) or Canada. These are all capitalist economies. Communism for a technological society doesn’t work in any capacity because of the basic tenants of communism. Some forms of capitalism work better than others (maybe look at Norway vs idk Brazil or something) but they largely work.

>These are all capitalist economies. Communism for a technological society doesn’t work in any capacity because of the basic tenants of communism. //

Work for the betterment of the community in preference to selfish ambition; from each according to there abilities, to each according to their needs; ...

These are what I think of as basic tenets of communism ... What about this is not consistent with technological progress of society?

Communism seems, to me, to be our last great hope for a long future for the human race.

I suppose some would prefer technological advancement over sustainability.

IMO in terms of technological advancement, the primary difference between (theoretical) communism and (theoretical) capitalism is that the former lacks a strong forcing function. One has to admit that market pressures are a tremendous incentive to develop new technologies. But it's also totally misaligned with what's important. I feel a communist-tech society might develop slower, but in more meaningful ways.

It's hard to direct and regulate the use of technology. The barrier is getting to first breakthroughs, once it's available then it spreads and adapted. E.g. military technologies getting into the civilian markets, or faster computer chips getting into medical devices (surely a market too small to be targeted by Intel, NVIDIA and others).

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