> Millions of Soviet deaths; millions of Chinese deaths; deaths from the Khmer Rouge
We could count the dead of capitalist imperialist oppression and come to similar conclusions, but I don't think that's a productive converation.
> It's a voluntary exchange system, where people who provide the most get the most.
That is not true. You either participate or you starve and are denied housing and health care. It is "voluntary" on paper only.
> That money was earned by providing value.
That money was earned by exploiting labor.
> If listing a company on a stock exchange isn't valuable for companies, then they wouldn't do it. But it is. So they do.
I'm not talking about profits for companies - which are the very source of the ills described in the article we're commenting on. I'm talking about value to society.
"That money was earned by exploiting labor."
Exploting labor without providing value wouldn't have earned that money.
> We could count the dead of capitalist imperialist oppression and come to similar conclusions, but I don't think that's a productive converation.
Capitalism and imperialism aren't the same thing. That's the difference. Socialism is a total system where power and money are both controlled by the state. Under capitalism, the state has power, which can take different forms, and the market has money.
And ironically, the most imperial moves recently are with Socialist countries: Russia with Ukraine, Georgia, and Crimea, and China with Taiwan etc.