17h ago

This led to a very confusing discussion in the replies about the varying fares and systems of public transit in the Oakland-San Francisco area

As it turns out it doesn't actually cost that much on regular transit, there's an AIRPORT SURCHARGE because it's an "airport train".

No wonder Americans don't use public transit, even when the system exists it's ridiculously difficult and expensive to use.

Source

118 comments

Why do Americans think everything has to profit?
- Not only must everything profit, it must profit MORE than it did previously. If you make $10 million selling widgets last year, and make $10 million again this year, well that's a failing business and you should be fired.
  
  If you predict that your business will be up 5% this quarter, and it's only up 3%, that's considered a disaster, and the stock price will drop, and that CEO is still in trouble. Repeat every quarter.
- Because that's the foundation and definition of capitalism. The market will provide (as long as there's profit to be made).
  Not saying it's right though.
  
  That's not the definition or foundation of capitalism, it's the definition of a market economy.
  The foundation of capitalism is a system where investors can pool small amounts of money together on big projects, to share risk and reward. Historically to fund trading ships on their way to the indies.
  So it destructures ownership, which has a million ripple effects on the organization and economy.
  
  Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by a number of basic constituent elements: private property, profit motive, capital accumulation, competitive markets, commodification, wage labor, and an emphasis on innovation and economic growth.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
  In the context of "Why do Americans think everything has to profit?", then the point is that the train is considered only for the profit it can make, and not for the environmental etc benefits. This is a result of the market economy as you rightly state (and private ownership of transportation).
  
  You're describing corporatism.
  
  Not at all, corporatism is a system where interest groups have a high amount of power : guilds, syndicates, unions, etc...
  Capitalism literally refers to pooling capital together from multiple sources to allow shared risk taking and allow for the creation of companies that can get bigger by having more than one owner.
  This eventually leads the way for pension funds and multinational corporations whose sole purpose is to extract maximum value for pensioners and billionaires.
  
  Capitalism literally refers to pooling capital together from multiple sources to allow shared risk taking and allow for the creation of companies that can get bigger by having more than one owner.
  Sounds way more like corporatism to me. Capitalism is just when the private investors own businesses for profit. Pooling capital from multiple sources and reducing risks are not fundamental properties of capitalism, and are much more representative of Limited Liability Corporations specifically.

118 comments