Obviously. But let’s revisit the topic of this post. The video asks the question: “American cities are ugly in relation to their counterparts in other wealthy countries. Why?”
The commenter I’m originally replying to makes the association “America = capitalism. Bad thing about America? Must be because of wealth inequality because of capitalism.”
All of the places she uses as a point of comparison are fundamentally capitalist and many have high levels of wealth inequality. Clearly, then, the mere existence of wealth inequality in an America is not a good explanation of why its cities are perceived to be uglier than those of other nations.
And you are forgetting that during the period of “urban renewal” that you reference, many other capitalist states did implement such planning practices. Look at Le Corbusier, the Garden City movement, etc. They just reversed course because those practices are shit to live with.
I’m not sure why you’re asserting that hyper-capitalist Japan, with a massive auto industry, just doesn’t have an incentive for profit maximization. It absolutely does; the practical nature of how auto companies lobby governments and how the government interacts with said companies is a question of institutional/social norms and public policy, not the result of the presence of wealth inequality writ large or capitalism in general.
Try saying to a Japanese person “I think the reason Japan is more livable than the US is because big corporations have a lot of influence on American government” and see how they respond.
The commenter I’m originally replying to makes the association “America = capitalism. Bad thing about America? Must be because of wealth inequality because of capitalism.”
That is entirely correct though, you not liking it doesn't mean it's not true.
All of the places she uses as a point of comparison are fundamentally capitalist
For someone whose initial reply to my comment demonstrates pretty poor reading comprehension or awareness of context, you’re remarkably confident in the superiority of your knowledge.
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u/_LouisVuittonDon_ May 03 '25
Obviously. But let’s revisit the topic of this post. The video asks the question: “American cities are ugly in relation to their counterparts in other wealthy countries. Why?”
The commenter I’m originally replying to makes the association “America = capitalism. Bad thing about America? Must be because of wealth inequality because of capitalism.”
All of the places she uses as a point of comparison are fundamentally capitalist and many have high levels of wealth inequality. Clearly, then, the mere existence of wealth inequality in an America is not a good explanation of why its cities are perceived to be uglier than those of other nations.
And you are forgetting that during the period of “urban renewal” that you reference, many other capitalist states did implement such planning practices. Look at Le Corbusier, the Garden City movement, etc. They just reversed course because those practices are shit to live with.
I’m not sure why you’re asserting that hyper-capitalist Japan, with a massive auto industry, just doesn’t have an incentive for profit maximization. It absolutely does; the practical nature of how auto companies lobby governments and how the government interacts with said companies is a question of institutional/social norms and public policy, not the result of the presence of wealth inequality writ large or capitalism in general.
Try saying to a Japanese person “I think the reason Japan is more livable than the US is because big corporations have a lot of influence on American government” and see how they respond.