What is the point of radical politics? Do we face any extreme problems in the West anymore...

What is the point of radical politics? Do we face any extreme problems in the West anymore? What is the reason for demanding a completely new system filled with risk, when we already have one that works? Of course we should fight for a better semi-direct democracy, an end to unjust wars, fair healthcare and climate sustainability, but other than that we have everything that we need.
inb4
dependency theory nonsense
incorrect graphs of us profits from nextrecess blog

Attached: 1545253369311 353DE4D7-E6A2-495B-9E65-070EA9F29583.png (719x952, 534.86K)

Could a mod delete the other two?
My internet lagged so when I reached 100% it would just stop and I assumed the thread didn't get uploaded.
Sorry for killing 3 threads…

boring sage

yes we do, and it isn't all about the west. it's about improving the world as a whole. what about all the billions of people in the rest of the world? are they not important?
because the current system doesn't work and if we don't change it to one that has historically shown to be better at improving the lives of the common person, we're all going to fucking die because of the greed of corporations and bankers who are going to let the world die as long as they can fill their own pockets.
ah yes, besides the fact that we don't have democracy, access to healthcare, and are destroying the world through wars and neglecting the issue of climate change, everything is fine!

and no, "we" dont have everything we need. there are millions of people all across the world who are homeless, who lack a basic education, or access to food, water, and medicines. you have to be either well off yourself or wearing rose tinted glasses to not see the many problems we face because of capitalism.
repost because i fucked up formatting

How do you think we are going to get those things? You think voting for your local succdem is going to save us from climate collapse? You think the military-industrial complex is going to shut down once your milquetoast liberal gets voted in? Don't be naive.

lul how fucking conceited do you have to be to declare data taken from primary sources as incorrect

You know, earlier I'd understand the point ("things work okay-ish today, at least in [insert country], so why risk it all on revolution?"), but these days I frankly don't. We're fast approaching climate disaster through the rampant overproduction of capitalism and the private market hasn't done dick about it the last decades. Everyone is saying that radical change is needed to avert catastrophe, but nobody is willing to a make any radical change if it means having to envision an alternative to soulless neo-liberalism. No liberal that I've ever pointed this out to has had a good counter-argument, and it usually boils down to their own defeatism regarding the climate situation coupled with liberal ideology.

IMO, if you're not at least anti-capitalist in 2019, you're likely an idiot or you just don't give a fuck.

Nooooooooo….. we clearly don't, Jesus man this is so obvious how do you even ask this? People these days man.

Do we face extreme problems? Are you kidding? This is literally a lull before shit hits the fan, especially in America. We in America experienced over 150 years of continuous wage-growth, with the living conditions of most people undeniably improving generation after generation – that’s what happens when you control a massive country cleansed of its original inhabitants, control an imperialist empire and have had an almost continuous influx of new labor through immigration. It’s no surprise radicalism has been fringe in America, especially after state-repression of real left-wing radicals and ideas like the “American Dream”.

The truth is that wages have been stagnant since the seventies while productivity has continued to rise, more and more Americans are getting into debt, 60% of Americans can’t afford a $400 dollar emergency and world wealth inequality has reached a point where 26 individuls have more wealth than HALF of the world population, not to mention the impending climate catastrophe and the new nuclear arms race that is about to begin with the recent scrapping of the INF. There’s a reason why socialism - even in its watered-down version is for the first time in fifty years beginning to be discussed in America.

Because my life as a worker is a daily nightmare which makes me want to fucking die and even if i get out of it some other poor sod will take my place, all the while social democratic institutions that provide at least some degree of security is certain spheres of life get plundered by the unending hunger of shareholders who haven't worked a day in their life. Fuck you and fuck your myopic liberalism you spoilt faggot.

Which country? Why not join a union and raise awareness about your working conditions?

Most scientists agree that it is because of overpopulation though.

Yes, how about:
Global Climate Change
The Rfugee Crisis
The errosion of liberal democracy
The fact that there are still ppl without healthcare
The fact that burnout is becoming as common as flu
Us polluting everything with micro-plastic
The ocean dying
Western nations destroying third world countries
There still being homeless people
The number of children under the poverty-line growing
The sex-slave-trade
Rising opioid addiction

But hey, no need for radical changes here. Everything fine ;)

only happening in poland, brazil and hungary. here in norway it is as powerful as it has ever been. your communist party even got a 10 year record high number on the poll, 6,2%.
the crime rate here is so low i never see police officers in my city. all the people i know enjoy their jobs and are satisfied with our politicians for the most part.
Not trying to argue in bad faith, just pointing out that my society is basically a safe haven, and I don't want to see it change.

TOO BAD NIGGER THE REDS ARE COMING

Stfu, liberal. Fully Automated Communism will make your hometown even more peaceful. The number of cops patrolling will drop to a negative.

And on climate change,
the guy who won the recent nobel prize of economics, William Nordhaus, proposes that instead of revolution, we should advocate for a carbon tax that incentivises people to stop using co2 emitting things. (never mind when he said in 1991 that agriculture isn't important to society because it is only 3% gdp, he probably realizes now that it was a stupid mistake, at least i hope so.)
meanwhilst naive children striking from their schools in belgium (and UN I guess) think an apocalypse is coming and that we need redical change.

...

How much are we to trust an elite to plan our economy then? The lack of competition and the inefficiency will probably make everything stagnate, as happened in the Brezhnev era in the eastern bloc.

a much better planned economy, obviously

It is important to note that Marx's idea of a planned economy is not a small group of elites directing production. It is actually the opposite, in communism, all the producers will have a hand in directing production.

Note the phrase Marx uses here, a "republican and beneficent system of the association of free and equal producers". He explicitly characterizes planned production as a democratic affair carried out by the producers themselves. With the communication technology we have now, this is no longer a fantasy. As long as the proletariat has the will to take power, communism will be relatively easy to establish, and it will be prosperous.

Neither Cuba nor DPRK (nor Bolivia/Venezuela) have such a system, because it is unreliable. And why couldn't the eastern bloc adapt to new communication technology and decentralize?

It doesn't.

Attached: Real wage vs productivity 48-11.png (616x546, 108.33K)

This chart does not account for how better our technology has gotten in the past few years. Our new cheap technology allows us to do so much more with our wages.

...

There are numerous reasons why. The first and most obvious is that the elites in the Eastern Bloc did not want their power threatened, so they were not willing to democratize their production. This is not merely a hypothetical, we actually have an example of this in OGAS.

As for why Bolivia and Venezuela don't have such a system, it is because they don't have the resources to be independent from the world market. It's not that hard to understand.

Attached: Viktor-Glushov-Sputnik_00065255.HR.en.jpg (750x470, 76.73K)

We're seriously about to have a massive catastrophe on earth which will probably end up killing all, if not a large swathe of the human race. The third world is being super exploited to the benefit of the First world. When the time comes, mass refugees from the third world will need to immigrate into the first as the third is going to be the most devastated and torn. First worlders WILL FUCKING DEBATE as to allow their victims refuge. Even if you don't care about those people, or are well off enough you think you'll live through it. Now that the first world no longer is able to super exploit the third. They will do it to you, or your countrymen. So we're all comfy now, if you're well off that is, but just wait until this shit begins to start. Good luck buying your overpriced water(tm) from a monopoly

Attached: Stefan.jpg (567x565, 28.48K)

Um, climate change? Which our system basically refuses to do anything about?

there are a lot of problems that require radical solutions. just not leftist ones.

literal nigger talk

Attached: youknowhans.png (747x722, 644.66K)

nah nothing much, just the impending boiling of the oceans rendering like 75% of the world uninhabitable leading either to megacities or to megagenocide.
and that's just the planetary scale problems, fuck if you're gonna get me to go into the details as to why the entire financial system is SHIT because capitalism's dynamics inherently bias it against the solutions that could save it.

Yes, i.e. workers are exploited more than ever

This has literally been the case since the industrial revolution and yet the link between productivity and wages broke down only with neoliberalism.

Imbibe motor oil.