Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by kenjackson 1217 days ago
That doesn't work. You're effectively saying that if I create an army and simply steal from you, that is capitalism because its my own private army. It violates many tenets of capitalism. Buyers and sellers must act voluntarily and enslavement against the will of the slaves, certainly seems to violate this.

That said, even if you simply view the slaves as property with no agency of their own, my original point was more that you can't compare the net worth of the slaves against the slave owners in terms of value created.
2 comments
lazyasciiart 1216 days ago
I'm not saying that and it is unreasonable to imagine that I am.

That said, I have no idea what your second sentence means.

link
pbhjpbhj 1214 days ago
>Buyers and sellers must act voluntarily and enslavement against the will of the slaves, certainly seems to violate this.

Can you go into this a bit. In general sellers can acquire materials (oil say) by invading a country and mining it. If that seller then sells the oil acquired thus, I can't see how the buyers and sellers are not acting voluntarily? Is war/violence antithetical to Capitalism in some way that I'm not aware of?

link