[immibis]

Berlin is the best proof that capitalism destroys culture. We should probably find a way to prevent that from happening. The current German and Berlin government would rather accelerate it though - besides the funding thing, they're currently ramming a highway expansion straight through a cultural area.

To answer the question in replies, good East Berlin developed in the relative anarchy when the Soviet Union collapsed and no new system was really established yet. (Being able to exchange deutschemarks for groceries is not capitalism - they had that in communism too.) The western end of Berlin, by contrast, wasn't culturally interesting in the same way, and didn't change much when the wall fell. Not that symphony orchestras and painting galleries aren't culture, but they're not the kind we're talking about here, the kind that develops bottom up when people are given the freedom to do what they want.

dang informed me by email that this is a bad comment and I deserve to be, and have been, punished for posting it.

[Thorrez]

Did the prior good Belin culture develop under a economic system other than capitalism?

[worldsayshi]

Yeah I don't agree that this proves something about capitalism but it does indicate that an abundance of cheap housing/buildings makes culture thrive.

[lukan]

"but it does indicate that an abundance of cheap housing/buildings makes culture thrive."

Not on its own, though. Plenty of abandoned/underpopulated cheap places in europe that do not thrive. But it certainly is beneficial.

(in the case of Berlin, there was for example a special effect, that all germans living in west berlin did not had to go to the army (to not having to shoot their relatives in east berlin) - so lots of counterculture people evading the army came to Berlin and they created culture)

[pantalaimon]

It's politics that prevents the construction of cheap housing, not capitalism.

[worldsayshi]

Don't you think that a lot of that politics stems from politicians wanting the value of houses in places where they (or their friends) live to go up rather than down though?

[immibis]

Capitalism is a subset of politics

[pantalaimon]

But capitalism doesn't have an interest in prohibiting housing being built in certain areas or limiting density to a fraction of what was possible 130 years ago.

[worldsayshi]

It doesn't? People owning housing has an interest in keeping housing supply low to make the value of their assets go up.