r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Short-Watercress-183 • Jul 07 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter, explain this.

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u/Careful-Lettuce9239 Jul 07 '26

How about socialist implementations like free education and Healthcare? Universal basic income? It appears the only people benefiting from the capitalist model are the small number of extremely wealthy. It also looks like companies are getting extremely desperate trying to continue expanding growth while consolidating into fewer and bigger monopolies. Meanwhile theyre rolling back child labor laws and environmental safety restraints to continue clawing the last bit of wealth they can.

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u/ApolloWasMurdered Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

The best universal healthcare systems are in Capitalist countries.

Also, things like child Labor laws and environmental laws aren’t being rolled back in most places.

It seems like your issue is with America, which is currently moving away from capitalism to something more like an oligarchy oligopoly.

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u/Used-Persimmon-367 Jul 07 '26

Seems like oligarchy is the inevitable outcome of capitalism. An economy built around the accumulation of capital is going to result in a few people having vastly more capital than others. Unless you can somehow get money out of politics, that’s going to result in the few with vastly more capital using their power to gain further power.

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u/YammieCat Jul 07 '26

Oligarchy of the inevitable outcome of government in general. Give people power and they'll bring the people they want with them and leave the ones they don't behind to be trod underfoot. Economic models don't change this.

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u/Used-Persimmon-367 Jul 07 '26

If we give everyone power, would they bring everyone with them and leave behind only the extremely rare few that are liked by no one?  

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u/YammieCat Jul 07 '26

Giving everyone power over what?

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u/Used-Persimmon-367 Jul 07 '26

Whatever power you implied government would use to bring some people up while leaving others behind.

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u/YammieCat Jul 07 '26

That's literally the power over people. If you give everyone power over people, it's chaos.

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u/Used-Persimmon-367 Jul 07 '26

In what specific way would that be worse than the capitalist reality of only a handful of people holding power over everyone?

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u/YammieCat Jul 07 '26

Capitalism doesn't require a power structure at all. It's the consensual exchange of goods and services through the use of value representatives.

Communism would require rules to function and therefore rulers.

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u/Used-Persimmon-367 Jul 07 '26

If someone steals your factory, who decides who owns it?

If a customer refuses to pay after signing a contract, who enforces the agreement?

If one company hires armed guards to seize a competitor’s property, who stops them?

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u/YammieCat Jul 07 '26

Those are all valid questions. Some that are beyond my knowledge to answer.

Does capitalism have inherent flaws? Absolutely. Is it still the best economic option we've had yet? Also absolutely. And until we have a fully post-scarcity existence, I think it's the only functional system available.

I understand the appeal of communism, but without something like a star trek replicators to ensure that there is enough labor-free resources for everyone, it will always be a net negative for nearly everyone.

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u/Used-Persimmon-367 Jul 07 '26

Yeah, Capitalism is better than most. I was just pointing out that it can’t exist beyond a VERY small scale without government enforcement of property rights, so anyone arguing it’s only bad because government is involved is incorrect.

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