Religion Catch All

Would you move to Libya to get a democracy?

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There are a lot of things close to democracy. Only a few countries are run as a theocracy. I am not saying it can’t work. Just that it typically doesn’t work as well as other forms of government.

It is a bit like communism. So far the outcomes in the countries that have tried it have been pretty poor. However, that doesn’t mean that it will always fail.

What does this mean? Work as well for whom? What does it mean for a government to work well?

In what way has it failed? Its failures are caused by what it is. Communism is always doomed to result in victims and suffering, unless it is 100% voluntary. People are not communistic, so it has to be forced on them(unless it’s on a small scale/100% voluntary/commune-type of thing).

Well I suppose it is subjective that it doesn’t work well. With theocracies, someone at the top decides what the holy text or God wants. It often doesn’t work out well for the ones who disagree with them.

Some countries are just close to theocracies (see many of the middle east countries). Their law is heavily influenced by religion. IMO, it isn’t great to be a woman in those countries. You can go to jail for not wearing a head dress, or get honor killed after being raped in some of them. Again it is subjective, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

In capitalism man exploits man, in communism it is the other way around.

I am not convinced this is true. Perhaps on a large scale this is true. On a small scale it seems people end up with a system like communism often. Think of many of the Native American Tribes that basically formed communes. It wasn’t forced. I see in your edit you mentioned this.

Now that is an interesting position. My first instinct is to point out why I think your wrong, but I would like to hear why you think this way. Why do you think a monarch or theocracy is better than democracy other than what it can potentially devolve into?

I guess it depends upon one’s connotation of “exploits.” In capitalism, all dealings must be mutually beneficial or they won’t happen. In communism, a few force communism on the rest.

I’m short on time and I’ll try to elaborate later but it’s not a matter of democracy potentially devolving into oligarchy but that it always has, including today. Corporations, billionaires, Wall Street, and the media run the government, not the other way around.

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If anyone puts their religion or god ahead of a constitution or of basic human morals, you are a dipshit.

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In general with capitalism, it is mutually beneficial, but one party often does much better than the other. You probably are not getting hired unless the employer thinks they can make more from you than they pay you. Many wealthy people are rich because they have skimmed profits off of other’s labor. Anyone who has made money (including myself) in the stock market is doing this.

Mutually beneficial benefit to the party that isn’t winning the deal is often to survive and put food on the table. They take the deal as it is there only option other than indigence.

You’re probably not looking for a job unless you believe working for that employer will be more profitable than working for yourself. Again: Mutually. Beneficial.

It makes people complain. If people aren’t complaining, then government isn’t doing a good job.

What about the slave trade?

Working for yourself is not an option for many people.

Many people are somewhat economic slaves under capitalism. They can’t stop working, they can’t start their own business. Many times these situations come from bad choices, but do happen.

Of course exploitation occurs, which can be dealt with if there’s the will to end it, but I don’t think there’s something wrong with capitalism inherently. In most cases, the man with the capital and starting and heading the company has characteristics that most men don’t, the talent, energy, risk taking, etc.

I’d add to that, most people are inherently ordinary. And that’s not a matter of failing to be extraordinary. Besides, a continuum of talent and intelligence is needed for a division of labor.

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Swap out democracy with capitalism and government with economy, and you have my opinion.

I think it is our best option if we can use regulation to sort out undesirable outcomes. This is what is done in most first world economies including the US. We can argue about how much regulation we want, and at what point more regulation causes more issues than it solves, but I think capitalism with regulation is the best way.

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I don’t actually disagree with you as much as one would think to a point.
Just to clarify we are a constitutional republic, not a strait democracy, but I get where your coming from. Especially now that we are in a constitutional crisis where people are openly subverting the constitution because they don’t like the duly elected leader and are approaching his removal with an ‘Any means necessary’ ideology.
And ideally a ‘benevolent monarch’ is the best possible conceivable government, save for the problem of benevolence and the fact that those who have that trait are extremely few if any. But sure elaborate when you have time. I wanna see what you mean fleshed out a bit.

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Absolutely. Both buyer and seller must believe the exchange is beneficial for it to occur. If you’re talking about the enslavement of people, that’s not capitalism(but the growth of capitalism has brought it to low levels)
unless, I suppose, the slave agrees to his enslavement(in which case, I would expect terms the slave views as favorable to his prior condition).

It’s not? Capitalism does not have a rule against considering other people property.

The main point of democracy, republicanism, and capitalism is to protect against human frailty. Giving everybody a certain amount of legislative and capitol power provides a space, especially when the three are combined, to reel in people with too much power.
Ironically, it has been the instrests of those trying to reel in certain entities without doing the same to the counter to those entities that have provided for most of the imbalance we see today.

How can competing ideologies actually compete when a few people can donate a few hundred to say the Susan B. Anthony Center but then Jeff Bezos can donate 100 mil. to planned parenthood?