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Comment by Refreeze5224 | Hacker News Reader

This is the inevitable result of a system that equates capital with power, and relies on an uneven distribution of said capital-power. A system designed for inequality will result in equality, and those with power-capital will only find more and better ways to increase their power-capital, to the detriment of us all. Humankind is doomed if we do not find a better way than capitalism.

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Maybe we need to stop measuring success based on the number of IOU notes passed around. Even measured on a per capita basis the number goes up doesn't mean better outcomes if the variance also goes up (as you've mentioned with inequality).

Some kind of eudaimonia metric with the whole cohort of people happy, healthy and thriving reducing the variance.

> Humankind is doomed if we do not find a better way than capitalism.

better way is regulated capitalism. Its just citizens don't stand ground when capitalists compromise regulation, and our regulated capitalism becomes not regulated.

Your "better way" is what got us here. Capitalism has always been regulated. You cannot create a system where having more money == having more power, and expect those with more power not to tilt the scales in their favor. It's not possible. Double standards for the rich and poor has been a trope since there were poor and rich people, and that's because by design the rich have more power.

We can't even keep laws on the books that were passed as a result of the Great Depression or Great Recession. All normal people agreed that we should not repeat those catastrophes, and yet the rules were repealed because they inconvenienced the rich people who wanted to make more money, and what they say goes.

We need a system without coercive hierarchy, and without a system of haves with power and have-nots without it.

> Your "better way" is what got us here. Capitalism has always been regulated. You cannot create a system where having more money == having more power, and expect those with more power not to tilt the scales in their favor.

If citizens stand ground I think we can. I consider Scandinavian socialist capitalism as success. If citizens don't care then capitalists do regulatory capture as you described.

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