When we give our time and resources to those who want them, we have that much less to spare for those who need them. That is what separates Capitalists from leftists. And I think that the difference between a leftist today and a liberal/Democrat, is that a leftist refuses to believe that a “good” Capitalism is possible under any circumstances. Total restructuring is in order. To escape the next recession, we need to firebomb all the banks. Whenever I see someone describe themselves as an Anarcho-Capitalist, it reminds me of when Paul Joseph Watson tried to say Conservatism was the new punk. Words have meanings and denial has leanings.
Liberals east or west wanting better than the centrism that says not all guns should be taken from the streets, that we just need to regulate them out of inappropriate hands, never want to apply the same logic to money, to money’s inevitable corruption of power. Say that nobody deserves an instrument of death and you earn the digital high-fives, but challenge the groundless idea that Capitalism can still work if we had better regulations and good guys calling the shots, and you may as well be speaking in the vacuums of deepest space. The concept that guns would magically stop killing if only the “good” guys had them, is every bit as unfounded as the concept that money would magically stop enslaving if only the “good” guys had it. Arguments made by those wishing to retain private control over the guillotine.
When we learned that lead paint and asbestos were lethal, we didn’t petition to only remove them from certain people. We phased them the fuck out and found better alternatives.
I get that greed is the most predictable thing in all of civilization. I worry that too many persons would prefer to wield a whip themselves than see it abolished altogether. Power corrupts though, there’s no “but” to that axiom. If you do not want a world where the most selfish among us have supreme influence over crafting every blessed detail of your circumstances, then it means dropping the prospects of you ever getting rich and famous too. Because back-doors left open will get used. I’m generally a disagreeable person, but nothing has ever ostracized me more than an adherence throughout my adult years to my principles. I have walked on sooo many crooked employers, even when met with homelessness. It’s been enough to have made me feel like a rarity. And to be fair not many can claim to have avoided debt all their lives, done by just not living beyond my means. People like me are told repeatedly that we cannot manage our own lives because of the refusal to play the game. We won’t be handed the reins by anyone.
Imagine hearing someone complain that people with AIDS are abusing their condition for self-interest, taking advantage of those denied by fortune from contracting it, but that if everyone had AIDS it could only possibly be used for the greater good. No, it’s a quicker genocide. Or, if we could only regulate AIDS, guaranteeing that just the good guys have it, then no harm might possibly come of it ever again. That is no less crazy than any notion of a good Capitalism. Fire exists because it is uncontrollable, whether we find use in it or not.
A system of governance which exists primarily to profiteer from greed will never ever regulate greed. Wall Street is bulletproof and selling armaments is half the national revenue stream all by itself. An entirely new system is needed or life will never ever get better. Scream at the immigrants supposedly stealing jobs but never at domestic employers doing the hiring. Fight to raise minimum wage but don’t dare consider how capping maximum wage prompts verifiable trickle-down because someday we just know our genius will be handsomely rewarded. After the revolution when the Abolitionist Party has seized control of the government, all future Presidents will instead be called Abolishers and they’ll do nothing but abolish every pathway to anyone being used or abused by anybody and nobody will ever get laid again nevermind.
I get the allure of idealism, I do. But after the coup no matter bloody or bloodless there will still be the matter of millions of people unwilling to find fault in how that government had decimated their lives and livelihoods. When virtually all relations are reaction to and/or repetition of marketing and promotions, whether for products or ideologies, it will be intimidating and depressing to understand how limited we allowed ourselves to be in the brief bits of time we have.