I'm Brazilian (not a shaddy judge though) and this comment is baffling. It reminded me why I left it in the first place.
> No right is absolute, and that includes the right to privacy
Indeed true.
That's why you see Brazilian politicians embezzling billions of dollars and running away with it. At the same time, impoverished individuals are imprisoned for years after stealing a basket of eggs (literally).
No, it's not the same as in the U.S. Many innocent Americans are put in jail because they didn't know their rights. Impoverished Brazilians are not even given that choice.
The law isn't the same for everyone. If a Brazilian with a college education is arrested, he goes to a different, more pompous, prison "by law".
It's dangerous and biased to assume a company like Apple had its stock increased because of 'innovation' or 'disruption'.
A lot of it was a consequence of Fed's policies mainly with ZIRP and QE. From that angle, overvaluation of public companies is more likely than the latter.
And, if startups are 'less undervalued'~'more overvalued' than public companies, it only means they're more prone to volatility, busts and bloodbaths.
Genuine capitalism doesn't have a government controlling money supply, which is behind your 'exponential growth'. Instead of growing an economy, the truest capitalist is focused on freeing an economy
If you wanna name the socialistic Keynesian experience 'Capitalism', that's your call. I can't do it.
While investors look for gold and bonds as a response to falling equities, they're actually just trying to find 'safety'. That doesn't tell anything about which asset they'll necessarily choose.
Take the EM crisis we've been experiencing. Yes, everything going downhill, but many EM investors bought USD as a 'response'. If USD has problems, maybe certain commodities go up. It's hard to tell.
Unfortunately, most people don't have minimalist lives.
With a 'humble' example:
$3000/month SF/NYC apartment,$1000/month on clothing(specially bankers), $1500/month on food(no time to cook, so $50/day), $2000/month on entertainment($500/week), $1500/ month on a decent car +gas. That's already ~110k a year. It's really easy to go beyond that.
To be honest, I believe the trend is to only become worse.
Every generation appears to become more hedonist and think less about retirement. Many of my friends(millennials) make six figures and barely save any money for retirement.
Even if unrealizable business don't pay very much(close to doctors/lawyers), it still is a distortion in the market that wouldn't be possible in a free market.
Btw, big players are also dependent on a ZIRP, which goes beyond simply 'more credit'.
>government structures the economic regime to favor the interest
That's it. If there's central planning(no matter to whom) it's socialism. And, regarding 'lock-in advantages', without a government-backed credit expansion, it'd be really difficult for companies to get as much market cap.
Cronyism, referring to a system where incompetent agents are given special favors, doesn't survive in the free market - merciless competition destroys any underperfoming organization.
Cronyism only exists when competition doesn't work by means of a government. Get some politicians, create regulations, build a monopoly. No matter how uncompetitive it is, you're still a billionaire.
Anyone with a background on classical economics realizes the U.S is much closer to socialism than capitalism. The existence of 'prices' and greed doesn't imply it's capitalism.
Honestly, more and more, I challenge the idea of ever having a child: bright and smart kids have never been so intimidated.
Many of the hacks I did as a child could have gotten me in jail today. Something 'silly' or 'funny' becomes dangerous/offensive/harassment; creativity, ingenuity and imagination are turned into dullness, self-hatred and nihilism.
I realized I didn't have a hormonal or even psychiatric issue: I was an addict.
Addicted to sugar, fat, salt in extreme quantities. I would always go from a bowl to a box of cereal.
So I quit it all. Cold turkey. It could "fit my macros", but I took no sugar, no junk food, no snacks.
Only food. Real food.
And I realized it's really hard to become fat on rice, chicken and vegetables. You"d need an insane appetite.
And, after some time, I slowly regained control.
I stopped counting calories, and now I'm happy to say I'm able to eat half a Snickers bar and not crave anything else.
And I'm fit! Happy eating, keeping a bit of muscle and a low body fat =)