I've been trying to describe capitalism to my young niece, and have mostly floundered. It's all a bit too abstract. In my efforts to do better, I picked up a copy of Communism for Kids, where I found a very useful description:
Capitalism is the economic system where things rule over people. In this system, people exist to produce and maintain things. Relationships between people exist only to facilitate the existence of things.
That's what my job always made me feel like: the best part of my day was wasted in service to churning out Thing, or documenting how to use Thing, or directing others to produce Thing. I only had relationships with all the people at work because Capital demanded it. If I fought with somebody at work, it was because one or the other of us was failing in our mission to produce Thing. My relationships with my actual friends and family suffered because of my dedication to Thing. Yet Thing never loved me, could do nothing for me, and was happy to dispense with me when better servants were available.
Everybody in the bottom of their heart knows these things. But they aren't willing to rethink their entire lives by questioning their relationship to Thing.
"I can only speak for myself, but I’ve never been happier and more content since I’ve deleted almost all of my social media profiles, canceled all my subscriptions, and sold my TV and most other electronic devices."
I've been trying to describe capitalism to my young niece, and have mostly floundered. It's all a bit too abstract. In my efforts to do better, I picked up a copy of Communism for Kids, where I found a very useful description:
Capitalism is the economic system where things rule over people. In this system, people exist to produce and maintain things. Relationships between people exist only to facilitate the existence of things.
That's what my job always made me feel like: the best part of my day was wasted in service to churning out Thing, or documenting how to use Thing, or directing others to produce Thing. I only had relationships with all the people at work because Capital demanded it. If I fought with somebody at work, it was because one or the other of us was failing in our mission to produce Thing. My relationships with my actual friends and family suffered because of my dedication to Thing. Yet Thing never loved me, could do nothing for me, and was happy to dispense with me when better servants were available.
Everybody in the bottom of their heart knows these things. But they aren't willing to rethink their entire lives by questioning their relationship to Thing.
Capitalism is pretty simple, do anything you can do to make money until you are sued.
Thanks for the laugh!
Well-said. As I like to say, the only difference between capitalism and cannibalism is the spelling.
This is very interesting piece. I enjoyed it !
Thank you!
Thank you Antonio🙏
"I can only speak for myself, but I’ve never been happier and more content since I’ve deleted almost all of my social media profiles, canceled all my subscriptions, and sold my TV and most other electronic devices."
https://www.theonion.com/area-man-constantly-mentioning-he-doesnt-own-a-televisi-1819565469
lol 😂
Paparazzi
Amen to that! Well-said overall.