wait for putinnnnnnn

That was a great video, thanks for sharing.

inb4--

dammit Thucy

I have to say I object to the notion that under capitalism a simple block arranger would become super rich. I think the video would have been more accurate if he had been poor regardless of the system of political/economic organization.

What if he was arranging blocks of shares?

@Mafia: I think the whole point was that, the idea of capitalism is that if you work hard you can become wealthy, which is what he was supposedly doing, but he gave up his empathy for his fellow man in the process.

@ Kingdroid
''the idea of capitalism is that if you work hard you can become wealthy,''

I am not sure if you are proposing this or not. In any event I view it as a much used phrase which serves more to obscure the truth than to reveal it.

The idea of capitalism is that you are wealthy you can become more wealthy, and if you are poor but you work hard you might keep your head above water. The sort of “rags to riches” stories we like to hear about of street urchins becoming industrial tycoons are nice, and a very few of them actually happened, but if anyone tries to suggest that rich men are rich because they all worked really hard, well... go to a steel foundry or a coal mine and ask the men there, “Do you work hard?” and, “Are you rich?"

@Aurevir -- not that I disagree with your actual point, but I might rephrase it. Hard working industrial workers not being rich doesn't mean that those who are rich didn't work hard... the issue is less that rich men don't work hard (though that is in some cases certainly true) and more that hard work doesn't guarantee wealth in capitalism, as much as a lot of people would like to think otherwise.

@ Aurevir and President

I fully agree with both of you. I would extend the argument a bit and say that is a useful myth which acts in the interests of the privileged. Unfortunately, both here and in the US things appeared as though they might have been heading in a different direction in the 50s and 60s. This has now been reversed and what might possibly have become a more equal or even meritorious society has been firmly stamped on by those in power.

@Fulhamish:I think i'm in complete agreement with you.

Whatever the economic system there will be those with more power, and they will ultimately shape the course of the society and the distribution of wealth. Whether they will always act out of selfish personal interest is a separate question. Whether acting selfishly in your own nations interest (as i'm sure Vladamir Putin acts when governing the Russian Federation) is enough to benefit the average worker's living standard is a separate question again.

Whether the capitalistic system of rewarding SOME lucky individual entrepreneurs who happen to make it big is enough to keep the American Dream alive is an interesting topic... but not one which i think is discussed. We mostly discuss what is the most efficient economic system for improving the average standard of living of a nation - and both capitalism and communism have allowed for massive increases in the USA and USSR in real living conditions over the past ~100 years.

I was not trying to say that was the case by any means, simply that that is the theory.