Pictured Above: Now that I've got your attention...
Saying something is coming for certain in the future, without being able to really tell, is what's called 'faith'. At least Socialism has common sense on it's side. Capitalism is a religion, and not only a religion, a corrupt one. The Socialists sermon from the pulpit at least takes everyone into account. The Capitalists sermon is all about YOU(Though you probably paid to get in).
If you're below the age of 30, and you're reading this, then you're a victim of the self esteem movement. The self esteem movement told you you could do anything you put your mind to. Anything. Then they told you you were special. At least as special as 300 million other Americans. In the free market, you can totally make it then, right? You can probably get rich with those odds. And there's no such thing as networking, discipline, and luck.
Oh wait, there is a such thing as luck! Let yourself play. Let yourself give a dollar for the hope to be a millionaire. It's called 'Mega millions' but a more accurate description would be 'Daydream pimping'. People who play the lottery are broke, in debt, and typically middle aged. The existence of a lottery is the strongest evidence that Capitalism is a religion- Poor people giving a hard earned dollar for the chance, the chance, to get rich. Every dollar is another pledge of faith to the religion of Capitalism; no different than the collection plate at a religious church.
So maybe you don't think you'll get rich. Maybe you don't even desire to be rich. I don't blame you; money doesn't make you happy, it just makes you less anxious. You just want to live a comfortable life, right? And if you work hard and do your best, with the help of 'trickle down economics' and 'philanthropy' and all those altruistic capitalists, you'll make it. Won't you? If 'making it,' means 'at least not being thrown in debt prison,' then NO.
You can tell Capitalism is a religion by how tenaciously believers cling to it and ignore evidence. Even a senior citizen who has worked many full time jobs his life, and is working a part time job just to make ends meet while in his 70's, will tell you that rich people are rich because they worked harder for it. And he will tell you this till the day he buys the farm. If he can afford it.
1 You'd be surprised by the extent to which, over the past two years, I have moved from being libertarian-free-market to left libertarian.
ReplyDelete2 I'm surprised by the difference between how nonsensical dialectical materialism is and how sensible, say, Sweden's economic system is.
You should always answer 'should there be a safety net?' with 'yes.' It's putting humanitarianism ahead of principles(or making it the main one). I've grown less concerned with what it's called(left libertarian, progressive, socialist, liberal, etc.) and more concerned with pragmatism. We're not all geniuses or lucky, and we shouldn't be treated like shit because of that.
ReplyDelete