I got in an argument with a man who spoke 5 languages… had 2 PHDs about the nature of capitalism in America… He was a brilliant man when it came to his area of expertise… very educated. We spoke about the state of the economics in the nation… he said it’s the greatest it’s ever been… economically we are better than ever before because 5000 years ago this is unfathomable and that’s what “true economists” compare to. You can work for an hour and have a meal… that was what he said made our economy successful. This is mind set is immoral to me. Ignoring that to have a job, you need to have a phone, you need to have a home, you need to have transportation, you need to be well kept, you need water…
He said I should be thankful because I’m alive, and that I live in America… that I should be thankful because I won the lottery twice… Every time I brought a point he would say “let me finish.” Every time I would counter “let me finish.” I live in San Diego, he said how little folks make in Tijuana and that we have it so much better off because we make so much more per hour… I said but “I don’t pay bills in TJ, I pay bills here. Should I move out of this country to afford to live a good life? Is that your honest answer?”
He called AOC and Omar poisonous…. because they see capitalism for what it is… poison… he said Omar was a poison and that she was awful because she married her brother so he can get citizenship… Why should there even be citizenship is my question? What’s with this concept? You’re lucky you live here where they protect property… fuck property… I’d rather we protect people…. “We’re in a great nation because the capitalist way…” He thought Omar was poisonous… that she isn’t thankful for being here (apparently he never heard her talk)… I said “she had threats and wrote the judge a letter because she didn’t believe he should be punished, that he needed to be healed”… he immediately responded “well it must have been the one time.” I could list off tons…
So someone like Ilhan Omar who wants to save the planet, wants affordable housing, living wages, and affordable education is poisonous… but somehow capitalism that his killed more people and will kill millions more than any other economic system isn’t? Sure I guess I’m crazy. 9.1 million folks a year starve to death in the world… the major world wide economic system obviously isn’t working.
I had a rebuttal for everything he said, but “let me finish”.
I told him “I believe in a life of decency, if you work a full time job… you deserve to own a home.. have food on your table… and transportation to your job…” He brought up how many people have 60 inch tvs… “everywhere my paramedics go they see 60 inch tvs.” “Your generation has it way better than my generation.” He worked 2 jobs and graduated to become a physician… and had no student debt when he graduated… My sister and I went to school had 2 jobs and graduated with debt… I brought up how minimum wage was stuck at 7.25 for 13 years… and he said but you’re not listening you should be thankful we’re here. Wait I should be thankful that I should have to work 70 hours a week to buy a home? Or I should be thankful to be here and alive… That I should look to start a company and be a CEO. That’s always the response… what if I don’t have the money to do it? Like most Americans? What if I have to work 70 hours to survive?
Let me make this clear so the folks in the back can hear Capitalism is Immoral. When you’re argument is we’ve tried other things and they don’t work… and that is your argument for continuing to starve people, under pay them and force them into an unlivable situation… The fact that more folks are struggling than this man understands kills me… he saying “you’re believing in the political talk”… I’m telling you what I see… so wait you bring up a few anecdotal “60 inch tvs” and you have a point… but I bring up stats like 46% of America can’t afford a $400 emergency and you say well if it wasn’t for the tv… The entire problem is most folks DON’T have a 60 inch tv and you bringing up a few folks that fuck it up… who cares if a few folks are on food stamps that have a big tv… feed them. Feed everyone… because not feeding people is just wrong.
I asked him do you believe there should be “profiteering in the medical field?”
“Well uhh I think some people take advantage of the system.”
He preached for deregulation… If you love capitalism… you need to know who wrote the book on it… His name is Adam Smith, he wrote the famous work called “Wealth of Nations”. He believed in Collective bargaining, and he believed in regulation. It’s kinda crazy that this myth of deregulation helps even exists… when the reason we have regulations is because folks were doing twisted shit in the first place… you don’t simply create regulations for no reason… you make them because people were doing fucking up shit in the first place.
This is the thing… there should be no profit on necessities… not on energy, not on food, not on water, not on medical, not on housing, not on transportation, not on communication. It should be illegal to profit on anyone of those because they’re all necessities… they are needs and you shouldn’t see people making money on that.. it’s immoral and wrong that someone who works 2 full times jobs would need a spouse working another to buy a home where I live. Does that mean someone shouldn’t get a bigger home or a smaller home? No.
I brought up Private Tyranny and how it’s worse than public tyranny… and he said I like that… but failed to see that we live in an oligarchy… I said you don’t think we live in an oligarchy? He said no… I said then why do we have private prisons where a private company makes a 100 million a month for folks calling their loved ones from jail… he said I don’t know..
The thing is I didn’t used to know all this stuff… and when I brought up everything he had no answers… then said I am being poisoned… yes education is a poison… as is intellect to virtue… knowing the evil exists is definitely life changing… for both the good and the bad. Your life isn’t everyone else’s life.. and my generation doesn’t have the same future you did. Wages are lower, housing is higher, and need are more, education is more worthless.
You can say I’m being poisoned by the Marxist mentality… and you can bring up Russia and Venezuela to argue against it… or even China… Russia and China are totalitarian in nature… and I said I don’t believe in a planned economy. I said however neither Russia nor China were communist… that they still had private property… that means they weren’t communist. He didn’t have an argument.
When your argument that this is the best way because we have the “richest” economy while per capita we don’t… while freedom is lower… while medical is worse… while education is worse… I’m not sure what to tell you. Just because you are brilliant with 2 doctorates and speak 5 languages… doesn’t mean your moral in your beliefs… I am thankful I’m alive and that I have an amazing family and mother… that doesn’t mean I should be satisficed with how shitty this system is.
I brought up Walmart and asked how creating an employee that had around 40% of their employee rely on government assistance… I said “is this contributing to society?” I said “we should tax them heavily if they’re going to profit like this and punish them for it… “
he said but “Walmart offers value.”
I said “Never bought anything at walmart huh?”
He said “what’s their biggest commodity?”
I said “low prices. Do you know how much money they made last year? 119 billion, they can afford to pay their employees enough to get by.”
He said “then the stock owners wouldn’t get as much back.”
I said “Fuck the stock market, 70% of the nation (bottom 70) don’t have stocks, it’s not a means for quality of life. They can afford to pay a living wage.”
This mindset is poisonous… The stock market needs to make money over people being paid a living wage… what kind of insane thought process is this? And I’m the one confused. How is this even capitalism? You use the government to supplement the income of your employees.
Again one more time for the folks in the back CAPITALISM IS IMMORAL.
Wanting more equality… wanting more opportunity… wanting more affordable lives… and a living wage should be the standard of human decency… not an outlier in an economic system… we shouldn’t be satisfied because we have it “better.” We should do better and not be satisfied with a lack of progress.
If you believe in human decency… it means you should believe in a living wage… in a potential to retire… in a better world where medical is affordable… education is an assumption… and we all deserve the dignity that if we work a full time job (30 hours) we can afford life. It shouldn’t even be a question.
Without the worker there is no economy. Without the consumer we have no economy… so when you think it’s right to starve those who create the economy… you doomed to perpetual failure… what do you know we have a brutal recession every 10-15 years… Because capitalism rewards fake growth not true growth… capitalism creates combustible economy requiring rescue…. if capitalism was so successful we wouldn’t have to bail it out every 12 years like we are now.
Clear Shame 