Thursday, January 23, 2014

"It's A Wonderful Life" - Capitalism Edition

Check out this video by Emily Hulsey:
How many anti-capitalism activists have ever wondered what life would be without capitalism? How many of them have ever bothered to ask an immigrant from a post-Soviet country what their life was like?

In the Soviet Union, a reel-to-reel tape recorder (like the one in the video) cost around 300 roubles (about 1.5 average monthly wages). Compare that to the price of a typical cassette player in the US. For those who are too young to remember, I can tell you that in mid-80s a portable cassette player (not a pocket-size "Walkman", but smaller than today's netbook) cost $32. How many monthly wages was that? (Sarcasm.)
Of course, I’m not sure scaring people with terrifying imagery is the best way to win an argument, but this does have a good point at its heart: We have freedom and capitalism to thank for many of the things we enjoy today.
What Emily said.

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