@Ed Taub

As someone who escaped communist oppression, I'm shocked to see a comment here that's so disdainful of capitalism.

Capitalism is why your electricity is on 24/7, why you have a dozen different kinds of bread to choose from in the supermarket and why you can buy fresh food year round. You have toilet paper when you need it, shoes when your old ones wear out, and you probably have a car. Imagine not having those things - which is what happens when something other than markets provide goods and services.

American-style capitalism is a bit broken, agreed, because we have something called corporatism - the collusion of big business and big government, and that certainly needs addressing, but capitalism itself has elevated more people out of poverty than the hundreds of millions of people the alternatives directly, and intentionally, murdered.

So, I'll take my damaged capitalism over your alternative any day, sir.

Regarding the recent signature gathers around our city, the opposition to that initiative was hedging their bet that if it was to get on the ballot, they would have filed a lawsuit to stop it claiming fraud.

No one produce one video of said wrong doing that was allegedly being done by the signature gathers. As The Business Man has said, "you have no proof of that happening, no proof-it did not happen." Even thou the Mountain View Tenants Coalition went to the table's of some of these signature gathers trying to intimate people in not stopping by to talk or to sign the initiative.

Measure V was a lie to the people of Mtn. View. That side has repeatedly said that it says that landlords are still "guaranteed a fair rate of return?". The recent landlord who went thru the cities petition process was denied a rent increase because the hearing officer said the landlord is still making $35,000 profit a year, but Measure V does not allow the mortgage interest to be used as a business expense. Figure that interest to be $70,000 annually minus the $35,000 of said profit and you see that landlord is losing roughly $35,000 a year on that property.

Where is this "guaranteed a fair rate of return"?

@Marcin What country did you escape? In any event, most of us view rent control as a form of property regulation (like zoning) and a stop-gap measure addressing a disfunctional, uncompetitive market.

I agree that capitalism, as it exists in the US today, is damaged, but I don't think "a constitutional amendment that affirms corporations are not people and legitimizes limiting campaign contributions" is necessarily the best way to fix it. That solution appears to me to be a way to fix our political system.

Repairing capitalism is done via regulations and laws that control capitalism to prevent such bad aspects as trashing our environment. Capitalism's focus on cost reduction means that throwing away unwanted, harmful stuff like lead, mercury, and carbon dioxide is better because it's cheaper than storing it safely or making it harmless. Unfortunately, the Republican Party has bought capitalists' shortsighted claims that regulations are bad.

Without restraints imposed by laws and regulations, capitalism will ruin itself.

Capitalism is hard - it means constantly trying to be better than your competitor, or losing customers and going out of business. So, companies try to avoid competing fairly, by lobbying regulators for an environment which makes it hard for upstarts. They get the industry they monopolize regulated, then it's smooth sailing, guaranteed profits without having to innovate too much. It's gross.

I've never seen grosser polluters than the communist governments of eastern europe and the soviet union. When "everyone" allegedly owns everything, then you have the tragedy of the commons (google that term) on a national scale. Every factory bureaucrat will destroy the environment to make his five year plan numbers, since there is no recourse.

In my opinion, if you want to protect the environment, keep capitalism from eating itself, people need recourse against abusers - strong court systems, and incredibly strong property rights. Polluting your land should be an offense for which you can sue, and society overall will then drive those out of business. Anyhow, anti-capitalist screeds make me twitch, since people who haven't experienced the alternative have no idea what they'd be giving up

No one more zealous than a convert, eh, Marcin? How well has capitalism protected us from climate change? We're going to hit 4 degrees of temperature rise under capitalism's watch: how many people globally will die and be displaced due to that? On that alone, capitalism will kill more people than all the dictators could have dreamed of.

@LOL

Capitalism means that private individuals control capital. It has no goal, it's an organization of the market which leads to pretty good allocation of resources. It means that suppliers provide what we, consumers, want. If consumers want to drive SUV's, live in big houses, and run their air conditioners, companies will provide those things. If we, as a society, were ecologically minded and demanded efficiency and changed our lifestyles to drive less, fly less, and use less energy, then we could reduce our carbon output, but it's pretty clear that society overall isn't willing to do that.

So, given that, you now have to discuss how you force people to behave differently. I'm not one for force, it's wrong when you or I do it, and it's wrong at larger scale as well. I don't blame capitalism for this, as it reflects the wants of society, I simply blame society.

You gave capitalism credit for "lifting people out of poverty" and blamed the alternatives for murdering people. Now that it's been pointed out that capitalism will kill far more than that and lead to massive amounts of unrest, you're retreating to "I simply blame society"? Sounds like you have a religion rather than a set of rational beliefs.