I am shocked to see how many anti-capitalist’s there are these days. Capitalism is quite frankly the great western experiment that has historically been proven to promote technological and social progress through the understanding that hard work and freedom to communicate ideas brings success. The opposite would be forced ideology and mandated work schedules - this has historically brought famine, genocide and mass technological decline.
Let’s keep it clean and post a single question per post so it can be more easily digested.
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Don’t understand this quote at all. You are not entitled to high pay no matter how many degrees you have. You must provide a valuable service to society. If you get your PhD in aerospace engineering and you fail to do anything with it, you deserve zero dollars. If you think this way you will be resentful. There is simply no way to get you this amount dollars you think you deserve if there is no mechanism to get it to you. You might need to move to a place that has this particular industry for example. If you however work diligently on the next fuel efficient power plant for passenger and freight airplanes, then you will be rewarded. Careful use of the reward will bring you out of your perceived “oppressed” identity if you want to see the world like this. I don’t find it very helpful or healthy though. I think its a better and healthier way to look at the differences in wealth as a difference in (value contribution to society + Time contribution) vs a patriarchy that is set in stone. As you get older, you will get wiser and contribute more and earn more. How you use these earnings are key in building wealth. There is no right or wrong way to use the earnings you should simply be happy with your choices. If you want to spend them all as they roll in - then that is your choice. Who am I to say that is wrong? What if you drop dead at 40? That would suck. What if you don’t? The choices you make are yours, just be happy with them and change your waypoint if you dont like where you are heading.
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This is not a healthy view of the world. The employer might be a person just like you that has gone through great hurdles to get there. The smaller the employer the more difficult it is for him to be in business and the more he will value your work. To label employers as evil and repressive is a huge mistake. They need you to make the company profitable and keep the cash flow coming in and flowing into everyone’s pockets. The key in life is to pick employment that is compatible with your personality. 60% of small business in the United States is small business - it is not unlikely that you can become one of these employers. It is also true that not everyone has the will to do so - but that does not make them oppressed.
The most healthy view of the world puts responsibility on your own person not the perceived oppressive group. Change your sentence to “I have the power to decide if I live or Die” and see how that works out for you. You need to think of yourself as part of the operation that keeps people living and healthy. This is actually the case also in a capitalist society. I guarantee you will be much happier and positive things will start to happen quickly.
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Lets take a look at this thought. How does this work? As an employer you got there by knowing more about the business than the average person. If you hire someone then why should they have the same power as you? Employees are like apprentices - they learn with time on the job as long as they dedicate a good amount of energy to it. After a certain time you generally learn more of that industry and end up with different levels of competency. When you have learned enough to climb the corporate hierarchy, then you do so or you leave and start your own business and the cycle repeats. You train people to do something valuable to society.
Hierarchies in business are a natural barrier to prevent incompetence from destroying the business.
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Too many chiefs and too few Indians plague large corporations for sure. We cannot take the extreme crap of a concept and demonize it. There must be a hierarchy to corporations, there is just no way to get things done without wasting time with incompetence.
Take a look at Linux - this perfectly flat. Too many ideas going all sorts of places. Yeah its awesome and my main OS, but energy is wasted going in directions that make no sense and fail. Compare that to how Apple handled it’s operating system. There are countless ways to package apps in Linux. What a mess. In OSX - one. And it makes life easy. Not saying Linux should not exist as it does - it has sparked thousands of ideas and companies, just compare it to a mega profitable company that started using virtually the same technology (BSD vs GNU)
To make progress you must lean towards a corporate hierarchy vs a flat organization. Of course going too far is a big problem too - blackberry.
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Don’t think you will every be happy if you don’t take the responsibility of your own life in your own hands.
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The core concept that the government knows what is best for you and is the only power that can make you happy. I argue the reverse. Sure there are roadblocks, but they are there for a reason. Get over them and you will be happy. The government is in my opinion like a TV repairman - you only call it when you need it. Are there cases where there is injustice - sure.
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So define mutual aide? I find capitalism self regulating in this area too. You help society by providing a valuable service or product then society helps you.
Thought Experiment: Say you are a manufacturing worker for a company that makes the hydraulic jaws of life rescue device used to help people. You get paid your part to make that device. The more you contribute to making that device the more you get paid. The people that need the device buy the device and help you.
You work at Starbucks and help people get their morning cup of joe. These people pay you. You help each other. Let me tell you how grateful I was every time I paid for a cup of coffee in the morning when I was on the go!
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The United States system is as good as it gets in my opinion. The perception of a ruling class is just that. Sure those at the top get to influence everyone else more but there is no written rule that says you cannot move up the ladder. Once you dispose of the idea that you are stuck where you are, you at the very least have the possibility to start moving up the hierarchy of wealth. Just remember that Marxism has failed countless times. Its best not to repeat that experiment.
Because humans just don’t work that way. Passion drives innovation. The government holding a gun to your head does not. It just has not happened ever. If it has please enlighten me.
I talked about the MRI machine in another thread. This is a perfect example of the core technology that came from a passionate astrophysics in the 1940s. In the 70s a passionate doctor came up with the idea to use it to scan human tissue. How in the world would the government even think that this is possible? The government is staffed by rather normal to incompetent people. How in the world would they even think to think of a concept like nuclear magnetic resonance? This requires innovation that comes from people with passion.
It just does not happen without passion. Look at every single innovation that propels the economy.
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