The problem is that our brains were designed for eating berries in a cave, not driving industrialized processes at global scale.
Our range of empathy extends roughly to our line of sight. When people in our social circle are suffering in front of us, most of us will try to do something for them. But people that are far away that get affected by our actions exist only in the logical part of our brains and don’t evoke an emotional response.
Living under capitalism forces you to adapt or perish. I hate money. I hate having to spend time thinking about investments and retirement and savings and down payments and credit scores. Cost of living in my city is insane and I’m terrified that if my income doesn’t increase every year, I won’t be able to keep up with escalating rent and bills. In order to keep my life as it is, I am forced to think like a capitalist.
When everything around me is becoming more expensive, I must also increase my personal profits.
that’s what life is. That’s what all living things do. Adapt, or die.
Nobody is forcing you to invest in anything. You are more than welcome to pull all your assets out and go buy a boat and live on it. Stop blaming your personal choices on ‘society’. You can live somewhere else. You can get a different job.
Lots of people live their lives without your level of privileged and do just fine. Your anxiety is your obsession with keeping up with the Jonses around you. God forbid your standard of living be slightly reduced and you have to make a cutback in your vacations.
Yes, this is a valid choice. Live amongst your family and friends and everything you cherish, or become a survivalist and abandon all human connection.
You edited to add a lot of projection to your post. I am literally complaining about rent and bills in the city I grew up in and have been living in for 35 years. I have very few extravagances and am typing to you on a 5 year old phone with a small crack along the edge of the screen. You make it sound like I should sell one of my yachts and shut the fuck up. In truth I’m about to lose my contract job at the end of next month and am unsure how quickly I can find another.
And if you made 3million a year you’d make the same complaint. Are you angry you have to eat food and sleep too?
The issue is your personal offense that life requires money. You’re welcome to go become Amish if you want. But I don’t think you’ll make that choice.
Just like it was your choice to do contract work rather than find full time employment. I was in that situation myself once, I choose full time employment with an ‘undesirable’ company and it turned into a great career. People give me shit all the time about my job not being ‘real’ but I’ll take the fat benefits and the good pay over a ‘brand name’ job with shitty contracting gigs. The fact you even have investments means you are in the top of the economy strata.
Only person rescuing from your situation is yourself. The revolution isn’t coming to rescue from capitalism.
This is what ideologues get wrong. Greed is rooted in our biology. Capitalism is something we created, not something from on high that we submitted to like a God. And what they don’t get is that communism/anarchism isn’t going to change anything unles you create a totalitarian state where you beat the shit out of anyone who wants more for themselves and enforce strict behavior codes.
Idk traveling around the world made me more empathetic and understanding of people. Some people travel the world and decide to conquer it… ya know? It’s just people.
Like was citizens united a failure of our economic system or government? One would argue Americans could have pressured their government to legislate that out but were too stupid to see that a cause of the problem: is that capitalism or a lack of education and active citizenship
No you’re on point we value greed more in 2025 than we did in 1925-1950. I don’t think capitalism or the system its self is problematic. There’s lots of room for social programs, regulations, taxation etc in capitalism to balance the scales. I think having an uneducated overworked population, and decades of political corruption are probably more of the cause than just saying “capitalism bad”. Personally I think having large top heavy institutions always leads to corruption and strong men so add any political system you want. With enough centralized power comes corruption and exploitation.
Eh, remember humans invented capitalism.
The problem is that our brains were designed for eating berries in a cave, not driving industrialized processes at global scale.
Our range of empathy extends roughly to our line of sight. When people in our social circle are suffering in front of us, most of us will try to do something for them. But people that are far away that get affected by our actions exist only in the logical part of our brains and don’t evoke an emotional response.
Living under capitalism forces you to adapt or perish. I hate money. I hate having to spend time thinking about investments and retirement and savings and down payments and credit scores. Cost of living in my city is insane and I’m terrified that if my income doesn’t increase every year, I won’t be able to keep up with escalating rent and bills. In order to keep my life as it is, I am forced to think like a capitalist.
When everything around me is becoming more expensive, I must also increase my personal profits.
that’s what life is. That’s what all living things do. Adapt, or die.
Nobody is forcing you to invest in anything. You are more than welcome to pull all your assets out and go buy a boat and live on it. Stop blaming your personal choices on ‘society’. You can live somewhere else. You can get a different job.
Lots of people live their lives without your level of privileged and do just fine. Your anxiety is your obsession with keeping up with the Jonses around you. God forbid your standard of living be slightly reduced and you have to make a cutback in your vacations.
Yes, this is a valid choice. Live amongst your family and friends and everything you cherish, or become a survivalist and abandon all human connection.
You edited to add a lot of projection to your post. I am literally complaining about rent and bills in the city I grew up in and have been living in for 35 years. I have very few extravagances and am typing to you on a 5 year old phone with a small crack along the edge of the screen. You make it sound like I should sell one of my yachts and shut the fuck up. In truth I’m about to lose my contract job at the end of next month and am unsure how quickly I can find another.
And if you made 3million a year you’d make the same complaint. Are you angry you have to eat food and sleep too?
The issue is your personal offense that life requires money. You’re welcome to go become Amish if you want. But I don’t think you’ll make that choice.
Just like it was your choice to do contract work rather than find full time employment. I was in that situation myself once, I choose full time employment with an ‘undesirable’ company and it turned into a great career. People give me shit all the time about my job not being ‘real’ but I’ll take the fat benefits and the good pay over a ‘brand name’ job with shitty contracting gigs. The fact you even have investments means you are in the top of the economy strata.
Only person rescuing from your situation is yourself. The revolution isn’t coming to rescue from capitalism.
Bingo.
This is what ideologues get wrong. Greed is rooted in our biology. Capitalism is something we created, not something from on high that we submitted to like a God. And what they don’t get is that communism/anarchism isn’t going to change anything unles you create a totalitarian state where you beat the shit out of anyone who wants more for themselves and enforce strict behavior codes.
Idk traveling around the world made me more empathetic and understanding of people. Some people travel the world and decide to conquer it… ya know? It’s just people.
Right. The question is: are Americans genetically pre-disposed to be more greedy, or is it their system that makes them that way?
Like was citizens united a failure of our economic system or government? One would argue Americans could have pressured their government to legislate that out but were too stupid to see that a cause of the problem: is that capitalism or a lack of education and active citizenship
No you’re on point we value greed more in 2025 than we did in 1925-1950. I don’t think capitalism or the system its self is problematic. There’s lots of room for social programs, regulations, taxation etc in capitalism to balance the scales. I think having an uneducated overworked population, and decades of political corruption are probably more of the cause than just saying “capitalism bad”. Personally I think having large top heavy institutions always leads to corruption and strong men so add any political system you want. With enough centralized power comes corruption and exploitation.