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by SnazzyJeff 882 days ago
> Prisoner's dilemma

This falls apart pretty rapidly when you move beyond one person—groups of people don't tend to act collectively rationally. Hell, the entire reason "capitalism" is a thing at all is it provides some consensus in the face of byzantine faults even if it fails to represent our collective needs with any accuracy.
1 comments
anonymouskimmer 882 days ago
I'm pretty sure capitalism is a thing because it provides a means of legal ownership and the growth of one's exercise of power through the exploitation of that ownership. Consensus would exist due to the power of the state regardless of the economic system.
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SnazzyJeff 882 days ago
> Consensus would exist due to the power of the state regardless of the economic system.

What does this mean? Genuinely confused what you think a state is in the modern age if not the infrastructure necessary to support a market.

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anonymouskimmer 882 days ago
For some reason this comment of yours was dead.

Power drives consensus. Capitalism is just a means to allocate this power within a functioning state. But even in a non-Capitalist state consensus still exists due to allocated power.

Capitalism has uses other than consensus as well.

Ah. I think I was talking past you by hyper focusing on just the "capitalist" and "consensus" parts of what you wrote. I was taking it to mean that there was a special connection between capitalism and consensus, and not just that capitalism is one means by which consensus is created.

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SnazzyJeff 881 days ago
> Power drives consensus.

Power is able to manipulate consensus, but ultimately it exists despite consensus. Its existence is relative by definition.

> Capitalism has uses other than consensus as well.

False

> Ah. I think I was talking past you by hyper focusing on just the "capitalist" and "consensus" parts of what you wrote. I was taking it to mean that there was a special connection between capitalism and consensus, and not just that capitalism is one means by which consensus is created

There are of course other means of consensus. For whatever reason these means are not available to us now, allegedly.

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anonymouskimmer 881 days ago
> > Capitalism has uses other than consensus as well.

> False

You're making the word "consensus" do too much work on its lonesome.

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