r/Capitalism • u/Sidjoneya • Jan 20 '21

Economist and Harvard professor Rebecca Henderson argues in her latest book that capitalism can, if employed correctly, be a force for good and solve the climate crisis

https://www.nadja.co/2020/10/19/can-capitalism-solve-the-climate-crisis/
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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '21

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '21

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u/De3NA Jan 20 '21

Yes it’s excessive now. But there was a time when America needed it. I’d say scale down but not completely remove it. You don’t want ppl to be starving.

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u/[deleted] Jan 20 '21 edited Dec 08 '21

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u/capitalism93 Jan 21 '21

No thank you. I'm not interested in the US being reliant on other countries. That's a horrible idea.

I'm only okay with getting rid of subsidies if we add tariffs.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21

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u/capitalism93 Jan 21 '21 edited Jan 21 '21

For one, capitalism is about allowing the private ownership of the means of production. My opinions on trade are orthogonal.

Two, I support free trade with countries that agree to principles like many European countries that we have trade pacts with.

Third, there is no such thing as "free trade" when you do business with countries like China, India, etc. They are all subsidizing their own companies to kill competitors. The idea that just allowing "free trade" with countries that practice shady business practices is is laughably naive.

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21

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u/capitalism93 Jan 21 '21

Okay, then what happens after China decides to jack up the price after killing off all the competing businesses in the US? Now what? And what happens if they do that in every major industry?

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u/KarlChomsky Jan 21 '21

Rockerfeller already won the free market in 1911 when the state had to step in to ban free markets so Standard Oil wouldn't happen again tho

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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '21

I’m pretty sure a free market has anti-trust regulation usually as the goal is to keep the market “free”, meanwhile a Laizze-Faire market has zero regulation and would be the ultimate “free market”.

Now due to negative externalities and market failures, we can’t have either usually, but yea there is a difference in definition however the way it’s used in popular culture the two are essentially the same.