• Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Those “slums” don’t even look that bad in that shot. Just looks like a very lived in city. The area in the meme could use some cleaning up, but it was probably selected out of dozens of shots for the contrast.

  • OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I love it when they show price gouging and panic buying and long lines at grocery stores (pictures of capitalism in action) and say “this is what communism looks like!”

    It’s like they’re soooo close to getting it, but never will make that connection.

  • Lianodel@ttrpg.network
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    2 months ago

    My favorite was death panels.

    “The government is going to decide who lives and dies by gatekeeping access to healthcare!” Motherfucker, that’s what insurance does now. The potential failures of a collectivized system are treated with more scrutiny than capitalism working as intended.

    • lightrush@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Well it’s not the government doing this it’s private insurance companies. You’re free to shop around or start your own insurance company. This makes me feel much better about gatekeeping healthcare. 🦅🇺🇸

    • Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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      2 months ago

      You’re not too wrong.

      But despite all of the inexcusable ethnic cleansing shit of the PRC they have drastically raised the standards of living of the poorest.

      You’d be hard pressed to find anyone (who isn’t a member of a persecuted minority or political dissident) in conditions as bad as a Brazilian favella in the PRC. Let alone a favellasworth of them.

      (And to preempt, bright spots of favella culture such as community centres, art, and people succeding are despite the conditions (even if in response to them), not a sign that they’re “good actually”.)

      • j_overgrens@feddit.nl
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        2 months ago

        Not here to discredit the social improvements in China of the past 50 years, but there are still places in the countryside that are comparable to favelas.

        But they are disappearing, favelas are not.

        • Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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          2 months ago

          You’re absolutely correct.
          I’d also add that while they exist, it is also with fewer food and water poverty/access issues compared to favelas since they’re rural rather than urban spaces.

        • Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip
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          2 months ago

          I was talking about the other scenario of the the image. I know it’s possible. But if it’s not like that, i don’t want only a few leeching off the rest like how it is now. I hate people that sick rich people’s balls even when they themselves are poor.

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        While communism is often misused as a tool by authoritarians who fake being communist to implement their corruption, I think by its very nature it invites these issues. I love the ideals, don’t get me wrong, but it needs an answer for enforcement. The only one I’ve seen-- community enforcement of expectations-- only works if everyone in the system is 100% on board. Let me know what you think if you’d like, I admittedly don’t know a lot about communism.

        • samus12345@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I agree with you. Its a great system if everyone knows everyone else. On a large scale, human nature means pure communism will always fail.

  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    My take is that regardless of what system of government you use, there will be the affluent/aristocrats that run everything, get all the nicest shit, etc, and the unwashed masses who get whatever is left over.

    This is a people problem, not a system of government problem.

    The only way to balance everything is to basically make everyone in the country responsible for voting on all policy, which is impractical at best; the only alternative is to have a very altruistic leader in charge of making the final decisions.

    If the leader can’t consistently make decisions that benefit the people at the cost of his own happiness, affluence, wealth, etc, then what is demonstrated by this meme, is always going to be inevitable.

    IMO, someone that altruistic will not hold power since those that are supposed to implement their orders, will quickly turn against them, resulting in a coup, and the leader being ousted for someone more selfish, who will reward the those with power unfairly by taking the rewards away from the “lower class” to give to them.

    Everything is doomed to failure. Move to the forest and start from scratch.

    • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      This exactly. Every system of government will have leader(s) who take advantage of the system, resulting in them obtaining more money for themselves and their group. Power corrupts.

    • samus12345@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It’s a problem of scale. A utopian system where everyone knows everyone else can work quite well, but once it bets bigger than that it all goes to shit.