Capitalism neither prevents gulags nor famines.

And you can bet (pun intended) someone will create them on purpose if they can make profit from it

Doesn't the US already have an above average incarceration rate and private prisons? Maybe, just maybe, there's some relation?

	▲	abound 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		"Above average" is underselling it: the US has by far the the highest incarceration rates of the rich world [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...
	▲	miki123211 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The concept of private prisons basically proves why people who don't understand capitalism shouldn't engage in it. The entire advantage of capitalism over socialism is that customer choice forces you to make better products, and everything else stems from that. If you only have one grocery store, one school system, one health insurer, one employer in town, it doesn't matter how bad they get, you'll be their slave forever. This is particularly true if the person making the decisions at those institutions doesn't profit from them doing well. In a private prison system, there's no choice, you can't just switch prisons if you don't like the one you're in. This is the worst system of all, as there's still the profit incentive, without competition keeping it in check. I think you could do a private prison system well. Maybe let the prisoners choose their prison, with major disincentives for prison owners if prisoners escape. Maybe pay them for every day their newly-released inmates stay out of jail, encouraging rehab programs that actually work. Those would align what's good for the owner with what's good for society, which is all that capitalism is ultimately all about.

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azan_ 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It actually did prevent lots of famines.

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throwthrowuknow 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Except it does? Capitalist countries don’t seem to have any famines. You could argue that for profit prisons are similar to gulags in some ways but the important differences are so vast it’s hard to compare them honestly.

	▲	ModernMech 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Capitalist countries don't have famines at home. That's different from "capitalism prevents famines". Capitalism is happy to cause hunger, inflict death, or imprison people if it's profitable for capitalists, that's baked into the structure of the structure of the system. There's no systemic feature of capitalism that directs capital generating activity unless it violates natural and human rights.

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logicchains 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Please do share what capitalist country had a famine in the past century.

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ceejayoz 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Give it a bit!

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/26/g-s1-115240/iran-war-strait-h...

(I'm being snarky here, but COVID definitely exposed some supply chain vulnerabilities.)

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forinti 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Lots of African countries have market economies and also poverty and hunger.

	▲	throwthrowuknow 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Poverty and hunger are not famine

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ModernMech 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943

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iso1631 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Niger springs to mind, massively capitalist with a lot of oil and mining

	▲	pigpop 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Massively capitalist in what way? They have a long history of price controls and nationalization and their current military junta is trying to nationalize the uranium industry. How could you even imagine a free market operating in a country that has a revolving door government that alternates between military dictatorships and transitional officials?