Lumifer comments on Open thread, Aug. 03 - Aug. 09, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Communists (in the marxist sense) definitely take a systems thinking gear like approach, not a magical "evil people do evil things" approach. The entire idea behind Marxism is that there's a systemic problem with capitalism where the rich own the means of production. This will lead to a systemic unrest among those who don't own the means of production, which will eventually lead to a revolution.
I would say the problem is not systems thinking in this case, but lack of empiricism. Communism has been proven again and again to lead to corruption, but that fact is ignored by communists because it contradicts their systemic models. That's not just a leftist problem though. For instance, it's been shown again and again that raising the minimum wage doesn't lead to unemployement, but that's been ignored again and again by the right because it contradicts their systemic model.
That's not true. Or, rather, it's only true if you cherry-pick your economics papers. In fact, there is considerable debate as to the economic consequences (especially beyond short-term) of the minimum wage and the question is far from settled.
Well, yes.
Which still means that the right wing stance is at best, incomplete. Which isn't the stance you see any of the politicians taking, at least not in the US.
I haven't seen anyone (well, anyone who isn't drooling or foaming) claim "completeness" :-)
I think it's implied in the arguments you see them making.
Oh, like this one?
Yes, as I've admitted in the previous comments, that's not true.
And yes, I've seen the reverse attitude many times.