I think I understand this position, such that you don’t want people focusing on removing the oligarchs without also dismantling the machine that makes them.
But the machine doesn’t have to crush orphans. It gives you a pat on the head and hands you a cookie each time you do crush an orphan but it has other settings. They aren’t getting punished for not exploiting the system, they just don’t get as much of a reward as they could. No one gets to say “I had no choice but to crush that 99th orphan, so I could get that 99th cookie.” You could’ve stopped at 90, or 50, or 1.
They are exploiting a broken machine for their own benefit, which is nothing but greed.
MinFapper@lemmy.world 3 days ago
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.
jaaake@lemmy.world 3 days ago
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.
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 3 days ago
that’s what life is. That’s what all living things do. Adapt, or die.
jaaake@lemmy.world 3 days ago
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.
TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Bingo.
This is what ideologues get wrong. Greed is rooted in our biology.
TronBronson@lemmy.world 3 days ago
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.
MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world 3 days ago
Right. The question is: are Americans genetically pre-disposed to be more greedy, or is it their system that makes them that way?
TronBronson@lemmy.world 3 days ago
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
TronBronson@lemmy.world 3 days ago
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.