This is one of the sad truths of capitalism: there just aren’t enough resources in the world right now for everybody to have those same benefits you have.

No, the sad truth of capitalism is that it does a very good job at providing people with options, and products, and services, **after** you have managed to make sure everyone has clean water, safe food, some place to sleep, a decent education, and are actually capable of deciding if they would rather clean rooms for a living, or sit in an office and boss a thousand other people around. What capitalism absolutely fucking sucks at is ***providing*** all those things that you need, *before* it starts providing all the stuff people would like to have.

This is where the problem comes up, and lies at the absolute heart of the culture war we have been fighting since clear back when children where used to run machines is factories. One side, which sadly, to some degree, means dang near anyone who is a CEO, or a business owner, regardless of how philanthropic they try to be, is fundamentally unwilling to trade money that they don’t need, and can’t ever hope to spend themselves, in a thousand life times, to make sure that everyone, not just most, or some, or those who we think are not cheating, or we bother to acknowledge are below poverty levels, or otherwise even attempt to help. The other side… is everyone that had to drop out of school, couldn’t get a student loan, lost a home, lost a job, or had one of a million other things go wrong, not the least of which being having a government filled with idiots that actually try to argue that minimum wage laws are a bad thing, and “too high”, just to list one idiocy they parrot, which makes it a near certainty that **most** of us will never, ever, have to worry about “burdensome taxes, which might make me wait an extra year to buy my new yacht, or prevent me from funneling the million dollar I wanted to into a foreign bank account this month!!”

In fact, most of us will be lucky, thanks to this fundamental incapacity of pure capitalism to provide the “minimum” required for everyone to have the choice, whether or not they decide to take it, to actually buy any of the stuff capitalism provides, to ever even see most of those choices.

And, of course, when things go wrong, it makes way more sense to bail out a few dozen banks, and let thousands of people lose their homes, for example, than to use that same money to hand, as my father kind of commented, every single living person over 18, in the country, nearly 10,000 dollars cash – which most of them could have saved their homes with. This is the stupid anti-logic of the system – always think of the idiots screwing up everything first, because, without them, supposedly, you don’t have an economy, while with them… you merely have one where everyone else is robbed blind, then called lazy and stupid, for having had their wallet stolen.

And, so the war goes on, with one side arguing, rightly, “If everyone had a level playing field to start with, everyone would be doing better, including your precious businesses.”, while the other side babbles, wrongly, “But, but… giving my worst employees just a mere 5 cents more, never mind nearly $10 more per hour would mean I couldn’t rake in a $10 million dollar salary, while those damn lazy people are making a whopping $15k a year, maybe, if I don’t cut their hours. That’s more than enough, right?!?”

At what point do the delusions of these people start qualifying as a mental disorder, or.. at the very least, incompetence, exactly?

I took issue with this line. This is one of the sad truths of capitalism: there just aren’t enough resources in the world right now for everybody to have those same benefits you have.

If you’re looking for a way not to feel shitty about benefiting from capitalism, I would recommend looking into Giving What We Can: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/ (or other effective altruism charities). I don’t know you and don’t know if you already do this, but the number I keep hearing is 10% of one’s income to say you’ve “done your part” and can stop feeling that guilt.

this. i agree.

but you wouldn’t take that dollar because it’s perpetuating the evils of capitalism.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a dude maintain he’s not responsible for perpetuating the status quo (further perpetuating it while doing so, of course!)…

I hope you are not including me in that group. I was in no way offended. To the contrary, I thought what Nell had to say was excellent.

haha ‘rich’. ‘dude’. ‘centre-left’. I’m totally cool with how the author makes her living and how the awful awful rich man spends his money. It’s the sjw-capitalism-is-oppressive crowd that seems to have their jimmies rustled.