Meritocracy

[vulcanlogician]

There is a reason why capitalism appears to exacerbate greed.  Greed has always existed and had always been a dominating motivational force since the development of money.   There is little doubt money is essential for the sort of economic and social development that pushed us into urban Iron Age culture and beyond.  But capitalism is the the first system which has been able to channel greed into greatly enriching the society.   So where as previously greed can be said to benefit some at the expense of other with relatively little gained by the society overall. Under capitalism greed definitively made it possible for the society overall to gain a lot.  Hence the society overall now has reasons beyond fulfilling the self-interests of the greedy to reward greed.

Under capitalism, greed of the most greedy may not promote fairness, but it does tend to enrich even those who were not in themselves that greedy, if only to a small degree compared to the greedy.

Contrary to popular belief, Marx was actually impressed by the industrial revolution. He thought "Wow. Look at how much is being produced. We can feed everybody in the world now." But the the problem with the industrial revolution (to Marx) was that human labor was turned into a commodity. Look at the influx of migrant workers. The problem that Trumpsters have is that there are people who compete in the job market and lower the price of labor. We could discuss how migrant workers are minimally impactful on the overall economy-- if your neighbor has a child, he will also be competing with your child in the job market, but Trumptsters aren't opposing new births. You can't "build a wall" around every vagina, even though one new birth has the same impact on the economy as one new migrant worker.

Marx's problem was that the more producers you have (and the more they produce) the LESS they are worth. Throughout history, famine and starvation happened because of food shortages. After the industrial revolution, "famine" happened when there was too much food, or too much production. To Marx, that seemed like stupidity.

He liked that capitalism created so much, but he hated that abundance led to poverty. He also wondered WHY overproduction led to poverty. In his mind such a thing was absurd. Capitalism made abundance into poverty.

Marx's solution was that the workers own the means of production. This has never happened: not in the USSR, Cuba, or many other states, though they claimed to be Marxist. It happened in Spain for a brief instant... (I'd love for any Spaniards on AF to enlighten us about this). But otherwise it hasn't happened.

We can feed, clothe, and educate the citizens of the world many times over. But capitalism exploits people rather than endowing them with power. Capitalism is such a stupid system. We all work eight hours a day and (most of us, myself included) produce the most useless and menial things. But the argument goes: at least people have the ability to buy the stupid trinkets you make.

Marx said (and Henry David Thoreau proved) that one or two hours of labor four days a week is sufficient to sustain yourself. But why don't we work two hour work days? We MUST produce useless trinkets in case somebody wants one. Otherwise the boss loses profits. The consumer (on his off time) can have more options concerning useless trinkets. So work, work, work, we do and we call ourselves free because when we aren't working there are so many useless trinkets we can buy.

That isn't freedom. That's slavery. And once capitalism is done enslaving the third world, our labor is going to be just as valueless. Americans will have to work in sweatshops. Did you know that there are sweatshops already in America? It's mostly foreigners who work in them. I knew a woman who lost three fingers working in one, but still, she was made to work 16 hour days. I hate this shit. It is total disregard for human life. But there is one reason systems like this exist. It is profitable for owners.

Capitalism promises class mobility. But class mobility is rare. And in my opinion, fuck class mobility. I don't want to be rich. I want my friend to have her fingers back. I want a system where workers have so many rights, they aren't worth hiring. I want a system where human creativity and industriousness provides for all and the exploiters are the ones who find the value of their work doesn't amount to shit.