People hate socialism because they are propagandized to full stop. Most people will never own actual capital so why would they be afraid of not being able to privately control it. This conflates the idea of private ownership and ownership of capital. This in itself is also propaganda.

Thatcher's actual policies hurt working class and benefited corporations. Strange people would bring her up in a conversation meant to portray socialism negatively.

On to your points. Rent seeking existed long before the term ever existed just like fascism. It has always been bad, think of company towns back in 1800's being the very definition of extreme rent seeking behavior. I had thought we were done with that concept but the unbelievable concentration of wealth has brought it back.

There is no one to reign it in because the systems are completely captured by the wealthy through their proxy corporations. Fascism spread like wildfire across the globe and the dominate social structure is now corporations, not governments.

There is no answer to this because all the answers threaten this dominance. We have (non wealthy people) been checkmated before I was ever born.

But hey, life is not so bad. You can always take advantage of your fellow man to get a leg up and it is highly encouraged by a legal system that is designed to protect the wealthy and not punish white collar crime.

[–] bss03@infosec.pub 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Rent seeking existed long before the term ever existed just like fascism. It has always been bad

IIRC, Adam Smith (from "Wealth Of Nations") decried rent-seeking behavior and implicitly defined a "free market" as one without (free of) rent-seeking, as a form on monopoly, among other things.

So, yes, it was a recognizable problem in Capitalism before it was ever given name, and I wasn't trying to deny that, just to note that the whole time I've been alive it's consistently gotten worse.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

As it has gotten worse my whole life. Adam Smith could have never have conceptualized mega corporations. In fact, corporate law at that time would have never allowed for them to exist.