this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
540 points (95.3% liked)

Memes

53486 readers
757 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Saapas@piefed.zip -2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I mean the best countries are still capitalist. So eh, once a socialist vountry take that top spot your argument will be stronger. But we're not there yet.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

"Best" in what way? A tiny number of countries that fund their safety nets through plundering the global south doesn't mean capitalism is good at safety nets, it means capitalism forces plunder. You never engage with this point and it sounds like you're pro-imperialism.

[–] Saapas@piefed.zip -1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Best in the way we've talked about the whole time... Least amount of people living paycheck to paycheck and since social safety nets count, the ones with best of those too. Nordics are top at that.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

And it makes no difference to you if these safety nets are eroding, and depend entirely on depriving people in the global south of their own wealth and safety nets? By your logic billionaires have the best safety nets, so being a billionaire is the best system.

[–] Saapas@piefed.zip -2 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

I think you know how I feel about speculation about the future. And being a billionaire would be a great system, though they seem to exist in both system we talked about, since there's billionaires in socialist countries and capitalist ones.

Maybe your theory about billionaires being the ultimate winner is on to something.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Billionaires cannot exist without the workers they plunder from, just like imperialist countries cannot exist without the countries they plunder from. Trying to isolate a subsection of the economy and erase those doing the work to prop it up is your error. The workers in the global south that prop up the Nordic systems are contained within that system, and as a consequence the actual working class is below China in terms of safety nets. China doesn't rely on this system, and as such is ahead.

[–] Saapas@piefed.zip -1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I mean there's loads of billionaires in China.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Sure, but China is a socialist country that orients production towards common prosperity, and the billionaires aren't in control of the state. The billionaires in the Nordics exist at the expense of the global south, the billionaires in China exploit Chinese people. The major difference is that China takes care of their working classes, while the Nordics take care of their internal working class while forcing austerity on their external working class. Comparing the bottom in both systems, China surpasses the Nordics by a long shot.

[–] Saapas@piefed.zip -1 points 15 hours ago (3 children)

I mean, this doesn't seem as much based on numbers than "well China has socialist rhetoric so less social safety nets is actually more so I win". I think better to just stick to the numbers tbh

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Replying here because we reached the max comment depth.

If you cut the Nordics off of their imperialism, they would not be able to have these same safety nets. The people doing the bulk of the labor for the Nordic safety nets do not get access to them. China does run its safety nets from its own labor. You're taking a selectively blind approach that apologizes for imperialism.

[–] Saapas@piefed.zip -2 points 15 hours ago

I think the max comment limit was the hint that it might be time to stop hah. If you do this or that, eh. But situation is what it is right now and it was countries that we compared.

I don't think there's anything that interesting coming out of this tbh

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

It's not about "rhetoric," but the system itself. China has more social safety nets for those it depends on than the Nordics do. The Nordics just withold the safety nets for those inside the imperial core while depending on austerity abroad, while China is internally driven. Again, you're trying to remove those that the system depends on from consideration, equivalent to saying "being a billionaire is the best system." The Nordics are not a self-sufficient, closed loop, but instead part of the imperial core.

[–] Saapas@piefed.zip -2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

I mean yeah of course we are talking about people in the country that are actually eligible for the welfare and such.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

You erased imperialism, continuity, motion, and history, in favor of steering the conversation towards imperialist countries somehow being a better system for enjoying their plunder.

[–] Saapas@piefed.zip -1 points 14 hours ago

I guess the hint to stop was a bit too subtle...