• fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Yep, it’s obvious that that’s how many people here see all their problems.

    • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Many people have problems related to income inequality. We went to college, got good jobs, and we still don’t have enough money to maintain the lifestyle we were promised. We don’t live in a socialist country, we live in a capitalist country.

      • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        What were you promised? Like, owning a home? Home ownership rates in the US have been in the 63-70% range during all of 1966-2023, almost completely stable. Local purchasing power is #5 in the world for americans. What exactly is the problem over there?

        We in Europe are having it much worse if you look at the data, especially now when Russia is being fucking Russia.

          • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            So 30% of people can’t afford their own house and that doesn’t seem like inequality to you?

            Income inequality is a completely different thing from home ownership. Also, some of those 30% choose to not own a house. Also further, the average home ownership rate in EU is almost exactly the same as in the US, but our local purchasing power tends to be quite a lot worse.

            USA is doing pretty fine economically.

            • irmoz@reddthat.com
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              1 year ago

              some of those 30% choose to not own a house

              [citation needed]

              And even if true, what do you think is driving that decision? Decisions aren’t made in a vacuum. I posit - it’s the financial burden.

              • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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                1 year ago

                Perhaps things are different where you live, but where I live, there’s always a significant additional bureaucratic cost when selling a house and buying another one. Because of that, renting has at least a single clear benefit beyond just being able to afford it: greater flexibility. Also, the financial risk is almost zero when you rent.

                • irmoz@reddthat.com
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                  1 year ago

                  there’s always a significant additional bureaucratic cost when selling a house and buying another one.

                  This really only affects landlords and estate agents. Most people looking for a home are looking for a place to stay for life, and any “bureaucratic cost”, if you’re purely talking about red tape, form-filling, phone calls etc, is more than worth it for a lifetime home. Again, citation needed. If you’re talking about a literal monetary cost… whoa, look at that - capitalism!

                  renting has at least a single clear benefit beyond just being able to afford it: greater flexibility

                  “Flexibility” is a daft measure, only useful for people who plan to move often, which, again, is not common, except in the case of people needing to move often for work, which - hey, it’s capitalism again!

                  Also, the financial risk is almost zero when you rent.

                  “Almost” is doing a lot of work in this sentence. The risk of being made homeless by your landlord for petty reasons is a pretty clear risk. Having your rent hiked is a financial risk. Having to bite the bullet and choose an expensive place to rent because it’s the only one reasonably close to work is a financial risk. Being under someone’s thumb to provide them income is itself an inherent financial risk.

                  And by the way - what do you think causes the financial risk of home ownership, since you’re so intent on proving my point for me?

                  • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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                    1 year ago

                    And by the way - what do you think causes the financial risk of home ownership

                    Accidents, subpar maintenance, market changes, divorce.

        • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Now do the home ownership rate in socialist countries

          (Hint, the “American dream” of owning a home is much easier under socialism)

    • Kichae@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      It’s also clear that people who deny the extent to which capitalism actually makes the world worse either a) don’t know what capitalism is, or b) are rent seekers

        • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          What history? What economics? Vague gesturing and feigning superiority without actually saying anything is peak.

          Edit: turns out the economics was just Sowell all along, lol. Guess we have an AnCap over here.

          • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            You’re implying that the meme “capitalism bad” has amazing amounts of nuance.

            • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              You weren’t replying to the meme, you were replying to someone else in the origin of this fork of the comment chain. I’m implying that you in particular have no nuance.

              • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
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                1 year ago

                Well, you’re not wrong, but what I replied to (“don’t know what capitalism is” and “are rent seekers”) wasn’t exactly filled with nuance, either.

                • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  Fair enough, but again, you somehow had even less nuance and pulled the classic bit of feigning superiority.

                  Edit: oof, you unironically suggest Sowell in another comment as a good resource. Looks like I’m correct, the superiority was indeed completely unfounded.

                  • HardNut@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    Instead of berating him for not leaving a robust enough comment for your taste, why don’t you ask for more information? Calling capitalists uninformed or rent seekers is way more unfair than alluding to historical or economic evidence to the contrary. The latter clearly leaves itself more open to good faith discourse, getting nothing out of it has simply been a failure on your part

        • kaffiene@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Or not. Adam Smith - the father of Capitalism recognised the problem of Rent Seeking behaviour.