My issue with capitalism

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StudentMI said:
So one needs ‘direct experience’ to know how patents and copyrights work? How would one acquire such experience?
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What do patents and copyrights have to do with corporate monopolies and capitalism? (Not a trick or pejorative question - sincerely curious where you’re coming from).
 
Polak said:
I’m going to pretend that wasn’t a serious question.
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It is quite serious. You said this:
Polak said:
it’s funny how a lot of these big corporations and big businessmen often seem to receive help when in trouble.
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Why do you think this happens? Especially if all the “help” just goes directly to their pockets?
 
@TULIPed are you trying to tell me they don’t? You’ve not read the stories of big companies owing millions in tax and never having paid them?
 
Why do government allow them to not follow the rules other businesses and taxpayers have to follow? You’d have to ask the governments.
 
Polak said:
Why do government allow them to not follow the rules other businesses and taxpayers have to follow?
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Ok - now you’re making a different point. Your point now is corporate fraud. This is different from your original point, which was related to business assistance.

But back to your original point - why, if a business (big or small) is in trouble - would it be bad for that business to get assistance - let’s say in the form of a government loan. Said another way - why would a government do such a thing?
 
Ah - ok now I see where you’re coming from.

So - Big Pharma for example. They come up with a cure for Covid and it should be open access.
 
What is it except government intervention in the market if it’s not open access? Company x creates a vaccine. Company y analyzes and duplicates it. How is that not free trade?
 
I’m not talking about government loans. I’m talking about the ‘top dogs’ in the capitalist system receiving better treatment. Why can a company like Amazon get away with not paying the tax they owe in the UK for instance, while if a little business did it, they’d have serious problems? The government knows Amazon owes them millions in tax, so why don’t they just make them pay up?

Communism and Capitalism both have elites at the top who get preferential treatment.
 
It certainly shouldn’t be extortionate prices, particularly since in this case it would be a cure for a potentially lethal sickness, not just some unnecessary item that people might be stupid enough to pay a lot of money for.
 
StudentMI said:
What is it except government intervention in the market if it’s not open access? Company x creates a vaccine. Company y analyzes and duplicates it. How is that not free trade?
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Ok I’m confused again, sorry. Are you arguing for completely free markets? Is this an anti-trust argument? Sorry I’m struggling to follow.

HOld on - I just re-read what you wrote about monopolies. You were making a free market, anti-trust argument? IF you were, than my apologies, I probably agree with you. 🙂
 
This constant argument of, capitalism isn’t the problem, it’s the corrupt people in it who are the problem. That’s the exact same argument socialists make about communism. It’s a wonderful and fair system, but the people who ran it were corrupt so it didn’t work.

Perhaps the takeaway from this is that no system is every going to work, because some people are always going to be corrupt and mess it up?
 
Polak said:
I’m talking about the ‘top dogs’ in the capitalist system receiving better treatment. Why can a company like Amazon get away with not paying the tax they owe in the UK for instance, while if a little business did it, they’d have serious problems?
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Ok good. Let’s take this example. How many people do you think Amazon ITSELF employs in the UK? And then, how many people in the UK do you think are employed BECAUSE OF Amazon - e.g. delivery drivers, real estate companies, pilots, etc. etc.
 
Doesn’t matter. So what if it employs a lot of people? They shouldn’t have to pay any tax, only the people they employ? No, they don’t get to break the rules because they provide more jobs than other businesses.
 
Polak said:
Doesn’t matter.
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Really? I know quite a few people who work at Amazon (27,000 in the UK alone) who would disagree violently with you.
Polak said:
So what if it employs a lot of people?
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I thought your whole argument was about the “little guy”? Now all of a sudden they don’t matter at all?
Polak said:
No, they don’t get to break the rules because they provide more jobs than other businesses.
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What rules are they breaking? If they break a rule, they pay a fine like everyone else, no? If you’re arguing about tax abatements, those are negotiated in good faith by the government and business - usually as an offset to the benefits the business brings to the community.
 
TULIPed said:
I thought your whole argument was about the “little guy”? Now all of a sudden they don’t matter at all?
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Don’t twist what I’m saying. I meant they should not have to get away with paying taxes just because they employ more people. A business shouldn’t get to pay tax or not based on whole many people it employs. If that’s what the government wants to happen, they should make it official.
TULIPed said:
What rules are they breaking? If they break a rule, they pay a fine like everyone else, no?
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Do they pay that fine though? As for abatements, what’s the point of having tax thresholds if big companies can ignore them every year and just pay a government negotiated lower fee based on ‘the benefits it brings to the community’ as you put it.
 
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