Exactly. There is a rich tradition of Christian socialism and Christian communism. Even the communist group that Marx and Engels joined up with practiced christian communism and utopian socialism before moving away to a more secular and materialist version. The Communist Manifesto marks this turning point well.
Of course, M&E argue that Christianity is a tool used to blunt the edge of revolutionary socialism and keep it back in line where it can't do any harm. Like the other forms of socialism (including that dreaded one) that are explicitly designed to recuperate the more radical ideas to a place where they can be more comfortably controlled by the ruling class.
No, this is showing a counterexample, which would render the original theory moot. If we find a planet tomorrow that pushes you away rather than attracting you, then Newton's theory of gravitation is (probably) no longer a valid model of the real world, or would have to be revised. That is just how science works.
Thanks for the detailed explanation, and sorry for the late response. Mine was just a simple counterexample to show that the tendency doesn't always apply. You're right that the c2 I used is wrong, and it should be s1+v1+c1, although that would still not change the result. My example was in the case where one producer wants to compete with another with a lower price, so chooses to trade a lower s for a bigger market share, so I wasn't really getting into improved productivity, I was just addressing your initial statement of "competition forces prices down".
In a real economy this chain would be much more complicated with way more steps and even backpropagation of some of the values. If we have a rate of decline of profit for company 1 called R1 and a rate R2, the overall R would only decline if R2 > R1, otherwise it would increase. So to prove a general declining rate of profit you would have to prove that the decline propagates fast enough through the entire chain.
Also, I fail to see how c/v (organic composition of capital) necessarily increases. If prices lower (due to competition, or productivity as you have said), then c will also decrease for the companies using those products (as I have shown in my example) as the cost of machines and input lowers (a computer in 2025 costs way less than the same one in 2000). To prove that c/v increases you would have to prove that dc > dv (derivatives), which is not at all clear since, while they both decrease, they can decrease at varying rates which are not predictable.
You didn't address any of my concerns, nor was I talking about productivity. Let's try again for the the first one with a simple example:
Company 1 makes a product (let's say timber) at 50 surplus value. That 50 is a cost for company 2 that uses the product as an input material (it makes wooden chairs). We can calculate the total rate of profit of both companies. Now company 1 is forced to lower the price to 40 because of competition. We calculate the total rate of profit again and the total rate of profit has actually increased.
Thus, it does not follow that lowering prices/profits leads to a decrease in the overall rate of profit
Competition forces prices down, and rates of profit with it
This is not true in the general case. If prices for input materials are down, profits rise for the company using them. One company's profit loss is another's gain. That is even with the shaky assumption that competition can exist long term in a free market. Imperialism, as defined by Lenin, results in concentration of capital and the removal of competition.
this process can be struggled against by expanding markets or finding new industries
There are counteracting forces for it, but expanding is not one of them. Expanding does not change the rate of profit (profit/capital invested); at most, it changes the total profit.
There is no tendency of the rate of profit to fall. The theory is inconclusive, as is empirical research. If TRPF were true, then growing a company would, in fact, accelerate the process.
Oh boy, another batch of centrists coming in from the Reddit shitstorm... This one oblivious to the fact that far right parties are gaining traction all over Europe.
So after investing millions in this, this is incredible insight that the VP has gained:
Talk to Real Customers Before Writing Code
I really recommend reading his LinkedIn post, just to understand how these people think, and how fucking incompetent people at the top raking in millions are. It's surprisingly honest for a LI post (although that bar is very low), probably because the guy is now retired and doesn't give a shit anymore.
I honestly never even processed that Prime Gaming was a thing and that it was trying to compete with Steam. I just knew they purchased Twitch and thought they'd probably abandon it into a shitty, old and slow site like they did with IMDB and Goodreads.
You would expect the candidate to spend 60€ to try out a niche product? If I were in the position I would definitely expect them to research the product and understand how it works (I did), but not to spend that kind of money to use it.
I mean if it was after I started the job that would make sense. You have to know the product you're working on.
But it seems like a power asymmetry that they have dedicated 1 hour of their time to the interview and I am expected to spend money and more research time, in addition to all the usual interview preparation.
and no ones saying to not have a discord. Just use it for what its meant to be used as. Social interaction. And stop using it for what it very obviously isnt, which is a information repository.
Exactly. The problem is admins encourage it to be used for technical discussion as there are channels dedicated to that. And Discord has picked up on the need for structured discourse and have reinvented forums, just shittier and more closed.
The way to prevent all this information going into a black hole is for admins to stop encouraging Discord for this kind of usage, in addition to users moving to more open alternatives. Godot for example is moving in the right direction. It has recently opened a shiny new Discourse instance, now the only thing that's left is to burn the Discord forum with fire.
Yeah, I never understood the point of these nofap movements if you just substitute it with some other addiction like binge watching or doomscrolling social media. It seems like treating a symptom instead of a disease. If you fill your life with fulfilling interactions with people, hobbies and passions, you won't even have the time for harmful addictions.
But if you call them fucking fascist pigs, you're the one inciting violence.