• Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    72
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I don’t mind having a lot of different hot sauces. What I mind is “financial innovation” like debt-backed securities, and “tech innovation” like tracking people as they browse the web.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      38
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      The point is we’re getting “innovation” at the expense of people. That person says they have no teeth because they can’t afford dental care in America since for-profit healthcare is another feature of capitalism.

      • TurboDiesel@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I find it beyond infuriating that dental isn’t even considered healthcare per se. It requires entirely separate “insurance,” all of which is hot garbage. I need my wisdom teeth out, because they never fully erupted and now they’re rotting in my gums. I shred my cheeks eating because I can’t afford the $5,000 they quoted me for an oral surgeon. My dental “coverage” only pays out a max of $2,000 annually so I just deal with it and pull out the chunks as they break off.

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          12
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          $5000?!! That is insane.

          In the UK, dental care isn’t free (unless you’re below 18, a student, unemployed, pregnant, have been pregnant in the past year, or there is a serious risk to your wider health), but it still caps out at £307 for the most serious dental work. Most people here are furious about it costing anything at all.

          Though getting prompt dental care has been way harder after the COVID backlog…

          • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            1 year ago

            And $5,000 isn’t even out of range. Kids needed a couple fillings? $1,000 with insurance. Grandma needs a root canal? $1600 with insurance and Medicare.

            It’s a huge fucking racket and the fact that it still exists decades after Obamacare is extremely frustrating

      • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        This is one of the forms of alienation Marx talked about. Products aren’t made because they’re good or needed, but because they’re profitable

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        Well, the point is also that it’s not useful innovation. Profit is prioritized, not utility. Sometimes that results in useful innovation, but frequently it results in potentially useful innovation being avoided because it’d cost too much with a low chance of return on value.

      • KptnAutismus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        we have capitalism in europe, but also healthcare. this just proves america bad, but not capitalism bad.

        • 100_kg_90_de_belin @feddit.it
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          Healthcare in Europe has been eroded for decades. In my country healthcare basically covers very bad conditions,.such as cancer, chronic conditions, such as diabetes, or degenerative conditions, such as MS.

          Often, medical intervention fails to take into account quality of life or the psychological consequences of illnesses.

          For instance, my late father was diagnosed with a lung cancer and he was sent home without a pain management protocol.

          So, long story short: capitalism bad in the long run.

      • JustMy2c@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        14
        ·
        1 year ago

        Not true at all. Your country is just sold to the highest bidder. Don’t pretend you are a democracy. Don’t pretend you are a capitalism society.

        Please admit you are a slave of your corporate masters and that they need you toothless. It’s called a corporatocrazy (sic.).

        Europe has 418 hotsauces (incl from USA and Cuba) and nobody needs to have toothpain (but replacing them with expensive implants may require more money as average person has)

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          1 year ago

          Corporations being in control of a nation is the ultimate goal of capitalism. So I think I will call the U.S. a capitalistic society. One which has come very close to reaching that goal.

          • JustMy2c@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Capitalism is an economic system. Extreme capitalism leads to corporatocracy like the US, which makes it a political system.

            I don’t even think we disagree on anything… You are just confusing words/symantics

          • JustMy2c@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            1 year ago

            Nope, not true. Capitalism in its base is just the fact you are free to exchange with others.

            Businesses should not be allowed human rights. And especially not to influence politics (even if through third and such parties like lobbyists and superpacs)

            • grte@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              That’s not what capitalism is. People have been exchanging things long before the 1600s. Capitalism is about allowing private interests to own a state’s productive capacity for the purposes of profit.

            • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              You’re wrong, and you don’t know you’re wrong.

              If you care at all that you might be wrong, you would read David Graeber’s “Debt: The First 5,000 Years” and learn more about this.

              But you won’t, because this is the Internet.

              • JustMy2c@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                My take away from that book is that we should fight the oligarchy to demand the re establishment of a Jubilee.

          • JustMy2c@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            1 year ago

            Capitalism isn’t necessarily EXTREMIST. I can be limited, actually it IS in ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. however, in some shithole countries like the US of aholes, it’s limited in the wrong ways because of lobbyists and meek population being distracted by bread and games.

        • jack55555@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          Speak for yourself. The Netherlands still has seperate dental insurance, and even those don’t cover everything, fixing your teeth can still cost a lot here, and minimum wage people stopped going to the dentist.