What many people hate about what is happening now is not even capitalism.
Capitalism is an economic system characterized by the private ownership of the means of production and the pursuit of profit.
Of course pure, laissez-faire capitalism has arguably never existed on a national scale. Modern economies are defined by their specific balance of market freedom and government oversight, but that is not what I mean.
Traditional capitalism was historically driven by equity. Owners investing their own capital or retained earnings into production to generate profits through goods and services. In contrast, the modern economy is increasingly driven by debt.
If capitalism implies a system driven by equity investment in production and disciplined by the risk of bankruptcy, the modern leverage-heavy economy deviates significantly. It functions as a hybrid system where financial extraction and state-backed credit have superseded productive investment and market discipline as the primary engines of economic activity.
Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world 2 months ago
No seriously, if you pull off enough masks all of societies problems are just money and xenophobia in varying degrees.
I just spent 7 weeks researching organ shortages in the US for a class. Turns out live donations go up dramatically if you reimburse people for the money they lose while doing the procedures and families are more willing to donate the organs of the dead if they are told they’re going to a similar demographic as them.
Homelessness? “Those people” don’t deserve human rights and they don’t have the money for housing. Xenophobia and money.
Opioid crisis? The pharma companies knew there were addictive and factored that into their push to get doctors to prescribe them like candy. This has been proven by internal documentation released in court. Money.
White supremacy? Don’t even have to explain it. Xenophobia.
Rise of Facism? Xenophobia exploited for money.
Pay gaps between men and women? Xenophobia because women aren’t taken seriously and money because it benefits the company to pay someone less.
Stagnant wages? Xenophobia because rich people don’t think poors deserve money and money because they get more if we get less.
Racism in America? Xenophobia and money. Most racists are just raised to hate by previous generations. If you go back far enough for those you find that the hate came from considering the other as property and by turning them into people you hurt the owner’s money. The seed was money and the fruit is xenophobia.
Christian nationalism? It looks like xenophobia but Surpise! It’s money. Religious capitalism is the idea that God rewards those w who are holy and what better reward than wealth? So if you’re poor, it’s because god doesn’t like you which means you’re evil.
It is literally money and hate all the way down.
5too@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Hell, the xenophobia goes away when populations are mixed.
Guess who controls who can buy into what neighborhoods!