“As children, we count each birthday, eager to become adults so we can do what we want and make our own decisions. Once arrived, we discover that adult freedom is an illusion. Our childhood dreams of an exciting life are replaced with never-ending work and little to show for it. We feel like failures. What did we do wrong? The answer is — nothing. We did nothing wrong. This is how capitalism functions. Like a giant casino, capitalism promises much and delivers little. A few strike it rich, re-enforcing the myth that you can do the same. But the game is rigged by the capitalist class. The harder we work, the richer they get, and the sicker we become. As in every con, capitalism must resign the losers to their losses so they do not organize to end the con. Promoting the fiction of personal choice misdirects us to blame ourselves.”
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12 comments
February 23, 2017 at 7:35 am
john zande
…Promoting the fiction of personal choice misdirects us to blame ourselves.”
Very nice.
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February 23, 2017 at 9:43 am
lovetruthcourage
People can and do go from rags to riches, but the path is almost never college –> job –> riches. Most of the rich folks I know who are self-made (to the extent that anyone really is) own their own businesses or made successful investments. Most people chase the illusion of wealth (big houses, fancy cars) over actual $$$. Most of the rich folks I know — and I know many — live rather modestly. All of this said, I think that a college education has intrinsic value, above and beyond acquiring money. Getting one leads to an ave middle class life for most, which is not so horrible. Yes, there are some college grads who can’t get good jobs, usually because of their geography, or major, or saturation of the job market in their field, or lack of soft skills and understanding the social codes, etc… Most Canadians and Americans don’t have it that bad, even if the system is unfair in many ways — and it is.
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February 25, 2017 at 1:01 am
Vesuvius R. Kaine
“What did we do wrong? The answer is — nothing. We did nothing wrong.
Haha – says the loser wanting to play the victim. Of course they did something wrong, and probably most things wrong if they’re whining like that. And yes, if they’re not happy they SHOULD blame themselves. For one they ignored the laws of scarcity, for another they reject the concept of supply and demand, and third they likely hated the idea of personal leadership.
Fourth is likely that they hoped they could be lazy compared to anyone self-made, and yet still live the dream of an “exciting life” – even though they refused to do the work and/or take the risks that those who are self-made have.
It isn’t just hope to these “too scared to be self-made”‘s, however. It was entitlement. They feel entitled to that exciting life (Something Wrong #5) and why? Because according to them, they work hard and they are nice people. According to them, that’s all it should take.
Nope. Never. Working hard has never and will never entitle someone to an exciting life or riches. Pretty sure the grocery clerk working two or three jobs works just as hard as the CEO, if not harder, and may even be nicer than that CEO, too. They deserve what because of this hard work – lavish vacations? A sports car? A huge house?
Or take the orderly vs. the doctor, or the public inner-city school teacher vs. the university professor, or the bookkeeper vs. the chartered accountant. Chances are the person lower on the totem pole works harder. So what? If it’s not enough to even get them a promotion, then it’s not enough to reach any sort of dreams.
Enter capitalism – simply a vehicle where those who are smarter, faster, and more brave can achieve that “exciting life” in a reasonable and livable amount of time. The smarter, faster, and more brave are rewarded in nature, too, but there’s a reason why capitalism is even better: only through capitalism can someone who was once someone’s prey with very few choices move up the food chain to where they can now be a predator (if they so choose) and have a whole ton of choices. If someone wants to simply sit there and be prey, then they’ll get eaten up and spit out, guaranteed.
I agree with what lovetruthcourage has to say on the matter. I agree that the system is unfair (so what? So is nature), and I’ll add that the path to riches and/or that “exciting life” is never, ever going to be the so-called “safe” path that millions of lemmings take.
A stock I bought two months ago for $1.88/sh just hit $3.60/sh. I am not a professional stock picker and this wasn’t a dartboard pick at all. Common sense took this one all the way with the stock likely hitting $6 this year for the same common-sense reasons.
Rosenthal thinks capitalism is a “casino”. Only the ignorant and the scared, I say. :)
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February 25, 2017 at 9:24 am
Meg
So basically, capitalism is to blame for everything.
When a man chooses to rape a woman, he’s not responsible for that choice. Capitalism did it.
When a man chooses to accept a promotion at the expense of a more qualified woman at his job, he’s not responsible for that. Capitalism did it.
When a man chooses to go on the Internet and threaten women and feminists for not kissing his ass, he’s not responsible for that. Capitalism did it.
Anti-capitalism: just another men’s rights movement where women bear the brunt of the consequences. Revolution 2.0, or let’s play the game of who gets to clean up the fallout from inter-male hierarchical wars.
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February 26, 2017 at 12:12 am
bleatmop
Arb – Curious to what you think about Ms. Rosenthal’s views on prostitution. It may make a good post.
http://www.susanrosenthal.com/articles/prostitution-is-work
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February 26, 2017 at 1:39 pm
lovetruthcourage
Prostitution is sexual slavery and unacceptable. We need better opportunities, and fewer obstacles to economic empowerment for women and girls. The current economic system was built by men, who assume there is a wife at home to pick up the loose ends. It disadvantages women who can’t or won’t work FT. We need PT professional jobs that aren’t dead-end, “mommy tracks.” We need to make it affordable to learn a skill. We need to pay women equally to men, for equivalent jobs, and promote them proportionally. We need a social safety net. We do NOT need prostitution. We should help those women exit, and criminalize Johns and pimps and traffickers. People say that prostitution has been around since the beginning of time, so it can’t be made illegal; however, murder-for-hire has been around just as long, and guess what?
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February 26, 2017 at 1:50 pm
bleatmop
@lovetruthcourage Thanks for the reply! I guess I was asking for comment with the intent in my head and expected everyone reading to be able to read my mind. It’s funny how nobody ever seems to be able to do that! lol.
I think the analysis I was specifically asking for was that Ms. Rosenthal specifically condemned the Nordic model for dealing with prostitution in that getting rid of demand for prostitution will not be effective and does not address the issues causing prostitution at all. She takes more of a class analysis and attributes poverty as the main driver of prostitution by creating those who will turn to sex work in order to feed themselves and their family. She postulates that if poverty were to be eliminated (as well as capitalism) that there would be a severe shortage of willing prostitutes.
I know that your comment has touched on what I’m asking and I thank you for it. I’m curious as to how people interpret her views that the Nordic model does nothing to address the root causes of prostitution.
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February 26, 2017 at 2:48 pm
The Arbourist
@bleatmop
She makes some good points. A guaranteed income and support for families would do much to alleviate the demand for prostitutes, but commodification isn’t a goal we should aspire to. Men need to targeted in the struggle against prostitution because it is their demand for female bodies that is a major driver in keeping the prostitution going.
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February 26, 2017 at 2:53 pm
bleatmop
@sardeth I believe her point is that demand for prostitutes is irrelevant. Her point was that if you eliminate poverty then you won’t have any prostitutes because the quote unquote workforce will dry up. Her idea was that concentrating on demand was to concentrate on something that will have zero impact on eliminating prostitution.
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February 26, 2017 at 3:09 pm
The Arbourist
@bleatmop
Eliminating poverty, or surplus labour, in a capitalist economy seems like a… challenging endeavour.
Addressing the other main tributary – men – while focusing on getting as many women out of the system as possible seem like reasonable stop gap until capitalism is brought down.
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March 1, 2017 at 10:24 am
The Arbourist
@Meg
I think most recognize that the overall problem we are dealing with is white supremacist capitalist hetero patriarchy (ala bell hooks) but that is a rather broad theme.
Taking on one of the pillars is challenging enough, no?
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March 2, 2017 at 6:21 pm
lovetruthcourage
I think you have a good take on it, Arbourist.
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