[rapsey]

Yeah sure dogma. Capitalism is evil, yet it lifted more people out of poverty than anything in history.

Of the three economic powers, the one with the most social welfare and least capitalist is the one that never recovered from the 2008 crisis. Funny how that is. Strange when all the welfare gets spent in the economy.

The one with the unproductive capital buying back shares is building GW datacenters. The other with "productive" capital, is encouraging people not to buy ACs because the electric grid cant handle it and using energy is bad for the environment.

[psd1]

I travel to Spain regularly; I meet people in their homes and offices, in cities and villages. AC is commonplace.

The Spanish blackout, singular, last year was a cascading control plane faillure - i.e. independent of resource allocation. Texas failed to prepare for predictable winter storms - i.e. a market failure.

Germany is your counterpoint to Texas, if any, not Spain. I will help you throw rocks at German energy policy, if you like, otherwise I fear you would miss. Again.

> Capitalism is evil

I suspect I'm more pragmatic than your straw man. If you want my political stance, just ask.

> Capitalism ... lifted more people out of poverty than anything in history

Soap has lifted more people out of poverty than capitalism.

Capitalism overlaps historically with rationalism, the segue from divine right to representative government, the professionalisation of war, nationalism, colonialism, chattel slavery in the colonies, industrialisation, long-distance communication, long-distance travel, the labour movement, and countless technological advances in, e.g., agriculture and medicine.

It was not the cause of any of those things; it merely existed during that time. It was not capitalism that taught farmers to rotate crops and surgeons to wash hands, it was science.

We know this because China went through all the stages.

In 1950, America had an advanced industrial base and was the only power left standing. China was an agrarian society struggling with a self-inflicted famine.

Today, China is America's peer. Sick Man Of Asia to superpower in three generations.

A communist planned economy produced the same result as capitalism, and did it faster, from a worse starting point.

The USSR collapsed because of a skill issue, but it also went from agrarian to superpower in three generations.

Will you discard that piece of dogma now?

> ...is the one that never recovered from the 2008 crisis

You brought up the 08 crash... in defence of free-market capitalism. I can't tear my eyes off this car crash. Please, continue, I need more.

[rapsey]

> The Spanish blackout, singular, last year was a cascading control plane faillure - i.e. independent of resource allocation. Texas failed to prepare for predictable winter storms - i.e. a market failure.

No Spain failed to plan for green energy intermittency which led to cascading failure. They did not have enough base load power. Another country bad at planning is UK: https://watt-logic.com/2026/07/02/neso-cutting-exports-durin...

So we have Germany, UK and Spain managing their grid poorly. All government managed.

> A communist planned economy produced the same result as capitalism, and did it faster, from a worse starting point.

Capitalism is not tied to democracy. Read up on market reforms of China before being a smart ass. China has more free market competition domestically than any developed economy, which is why their EVs are so cheap or practically anything they make. The government making high level plans on how their economy gets developed is entirely normal for every major economy and has been done in the US and EU, they just regressed at it while China improved on it. They are the most capitalist society on earth.

> You brought up the 08 crash... in defence of free-market capitalism. I can't tear my eyes off this car crash. Please, continue, I need more.

Yeah now check the GDP growth of EU and US after that. We in the EU are going through a managed decline, the US lows are followed by highs and investment booms unlike anything the EU has or will ever see.

[psd1]

You doubled down, but you still lose: https://www.entsoe.eu/news/2026/03/20/entso-e-publishes-expe...

I do expect you to entertain my counterpoint and to look it up if you don't believe me. Repeating the same wrong point makes you look insincere.

The UK built solar without storage. But since it doesn't have blackouts, that is pure whataboutism. I'll help you throw rocks at German energy policy, but it should be noted that "fuck nuclear, Russian gas is quick and cheap" is coincidentally the maximally free-market direction.

> China ... [is] the most capitalist society on earth

Lol

> [muh gfc recovery]

Lol. Doubled down on a losing hand, again. We're done.