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@zedvictor4
A prisoner can be content. Contentment is just another word for what is the least I will accept.
Are You Really Free Under Capitalism?
Posts
Total:
94
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@sadolite
Yep. I agree.
Contentment is internal.
Though a truly content person ceases to consider that which is not necessarily achievable.
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@zedvictor4
Though a truly content person ceases to consider that which is not necessarily achievable.
..."The purpose of Buddhism is to enable each person to attain Buddhahood.
In Mahayana Buddhism, the first step in practice aimed at developing
this state of life is making a vow or pledge as a bodhisattva.
Bodhisattva is the term for one who strives for enlightenment through
altruistic practice.
There are “four universal vows” made by a bodhisattva upon first aspiring for enlightenment. They are called universal because they set forth the essential spirit of practice for all Buddhists.
There are “four universal vows” made by a bodhisattva upon first aspiring for enlightenment. They are called universal because they set forth the essential spirit of practice for all Buddhists.
..They are the
vows to: 1) save innumerable living beings;
2) eradicate countless
earthly desires;
3) master immeasurable Buddhist teachings; and
4)
attain supreme enlightenment.
..."Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them.
Desires are inexhaustible; I vow to put an end to them.
The Dharmas are boundless; I vow to master them.
The Buddha Way is unattainable; I vow to attain it."...
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@ebuc
Yes.
I dallied with Buddhism in my twenties.
But Buddhism like any other devotion, seemed to want to strive to achieve what it set out to achieve by striving to achieve.
And as with any other devotional ideology, this involved a whole lot of social and community ritualism and expectancy.
Truly content people do not have an ideology as such
They just have a perfunctory existence.
Which I suppose all comes down to formative data conditioning.
Attempting to re-programme by deciding to become a Buddhist for example.
Is like jumping out of one rut, only to slip into another.
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@zedvictor4
Is like jumping out of one rut, only to slip into another.
Spiritual practice is a "rut", only if the practice does not serve to help the individual, humanity and the ecology that sustains them, as it is intended to do.
Everyone has a spiritual practice ---that may change over time---, it is just some are more formal than others, tho many share common themes.
For some the spiritual practice is to make the most money or be the largest { Jeff Bezos }.
Attempting to enslave everyone into a myopic way of thinking is no different than relegating everyone to the worst possible existence. A utopia if you will. When there is no rule of law, society crumbles, that is where we are now.
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@Trent0405
Hey, they are not doing the Macarena dance in the above video, ergo this is obvious fake and misleading news.
Here is the 2013 reality. https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4488096/user-clip-al-gore-macarena
Al Gore trying to prove he was not a Frankenstein stiff, contrary to his Halloween costume.
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@Trent0405
Lenin Spreading The Communism
It was funny.
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@Greyparrot
@Trent0405
@fauxlaw
I would define capitalism as the economic freedom of an individual. That means, that you yourself own the right to decide what you want to do, what job to take, which wages you will accept, etc. The alternatives are slavery, feudalism (basically slavery), communism and other systems in which other people make those choices. Capitalism, as I see it, is the baseline for any free society. If you cannot freely trade your labour or your products with the shake of a hand, then how can you call yourself free? You simply can't. Some argue that capitalism is not freedom, because there are certain limitations, such as you must labour or die. However, that is like arguing that freedom of movement isn't true freedom because you can't jump of a cliff. Even if technically true that capitalism is not complete freedom, it still is the most freedom one could ever ask for.
The only real critique of capitalism is that it creates an economic "survival of the fittest", and that the turbulences it creates might harm workers when firms go broke or "capitalists" try to exploit people through bad wages. But these problems are connected to the specific way in which we structure our economic system, they don't stem from the core idea of capitalism. China has a different way of implementing capitalism than the US, but it still works. Social security, tax rates, worker unions, workers rights, company regulations --- these concepts are crucial to the economic system, and it is these factors being wrongly tuned that can cause such grave problems as those the US face today.
If you can freely apply for a job, or set up a shop, for the prize you agree on, then you have cappitalism, and the opposite is some form or another of slavery.
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@Benjamin
The only real critique of capitalism is that it creates an economic "survival of the fittest", and that the turbulences it creates might harm workers when firms go broke or "capitalists" try to exploit people through bad wages. But these problems are connected to the specific way in which we structure our economic system,....
The rich have been getting richer for many years at the expensive of;
1} poor and middle class,
2} the ecological environment that sustains humanity on Earth.
Structural mechanisms is the core of any operational systems of providing humanities needs. The current and past structural systems ignore 90% of the ecological distress facing humanity. Some native american indians knew and addressed these issues in their more spiritual based lives, long before the white people arrived in Europe and N. America.
End date for humanity on Earth is around 2232.
Are You Really Free Under Capitalism?
I’m surprised no one has brought up how capitalism is anti-democratic. Both domestically and abroad. Inside the workplace and outside.
If you only look at it from a consumption/consumer perspective, there might be an argument to have.
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@Reece101
Did you get to choose what electronic device to own to type that claim or were you forced to create your own device?
I find it ironic and silly that anti-capitalists use high technology that they personally own to explain why the means of owning said high technology is bad.
Many of the anti-capitalistic arguments seem similar to the philosophy of a Luddite, wishing for a time where nearly all of the purchasing choices and the responsibilities that accompanied those choices were extremely limited.
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@ebuc
The rich have been getting richer for many years at the expensive of;1} poor and middle class,2} the ecological environment that sustains humanity on Earth.
The Highest GINI inequality scores among all the states in America measuring the gap between the rich and the poor are split between California and New York.
This is because the rich in those states own Politicians as capital to a high degree. California in particular has some of the worst air quality as a direct result of poor forest management under the control of those purchased politicians.
Purchasing politicians isn't a core function of Capitalism. The Rich can purchase politicians under any system if they can get away with it.
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@ebuc
"at the expense off the poor" is the most basic and BS argument ever created against capitalism. If a poor man buys an iphone, thus contributing to the rich mans wealth, he is getting something in return --- an iphone, which since he is willing to pay for it, is more valueable to him than the money he just spent. There is no victim in free trade; except if one uses cheats or illegal ways to exploit workers and people into INVOLUNTARY trades (such as monopolies rising the prize of certain items to heights beyond what is even reasonable)
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@Benjamin
I am in virtual agreement with you. I divert on one point: that capitalism can be inherently harmful to some. I disagree. I think the harm is in some capitalists' view that they can take advantage of people less fortunate. They have no need to do so; it is a matter of greed. I don't believe greed is an inherent concept of capitalism. The proper comport of a capitalist ought to be a belief in sharing wealth, most beneficially by educating others in the process. This should not be a greed factor because I believe the money supply, for which there is so much competition, is competed for because of the belief that the supply has a limit. I believe the money supply has no ceiling; that money can be had for all in whatever quantity they seek. I believe educating others in capitalism, to practice it for themselves, has the ability to increase the money supply accordingly. It even works for those handicapped to the degree that they cannot fend, cannot compete for themselves. I believe it is the burden of those who can to provide for our unfortunate handicapped. I do not believe laziness is a handicap; rather, it is a chosen way of life that does not deserve the help of others. These should work for their keep, or be derelict by choice.
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@Greyparrot
Did you get to choose what electronic device to own to type that claim or were you forced to create your own device?I find it ironic and silly that anti-capitalists use high technology that they personally own to explain why the means of owning said high technology is bad.
Believe it or not, nuance and constructive criticism exists. What if I flip the script and say you aren’t patriotic if you dissuade people from criticising the system they’re born into.
Many of the anti-capitalistic arguments seem similar to the philosophy of a Luddite, wishing for a time where nearly all of the purchasing choices and the responsibilities that accompanied those choices were extremely limited.
Umm okay.
I'm not sure why everyone's getting so mad, capitalism isn't going anywhere. What else is there? It was the natural course of things, before anyone could have ever dreamed of something like central planning. We bartered, then we made money, and then all this convolution followed, organic as anything, and it became "capitalism." And most of it is pure scammery, of course it is, anything to move money from the other guy's pocket into yours, but what else is there? And will we dismantle what we have for it? No need to argue, really. McDonald's would be closed down a day and we'd want back.
It's not freedom though, it's strata. Nobody works in a sweatshop without feeling trapped. The rich are grossly rich and the poor are miserably poor, and that's the way it's got to be, really, otherwise your 40 hours a week won't buy you much. There are people living on nothing making all this shit for you, in case you forgot. Your shoes, your clothes, your electronics. How many of someone else's hours are you getting for your 40? It's strange to think about it. And apparently Chinese clothing manufacturing wages are set to be about on a par with Eastern European wages by 2030. What does that mean, then? You'll get less of their hours for your 40, that's what. Well, you'll be a little more naked, won't you? Sure, you're sitting pretty now, but for how long? This is capitalism. All this time there's been a bunch of poor people making our shit. What happens when they're not so poor anymore? Interesting question, I think.
I think there's interesting times ahead, honestly. I think automation has a spanner thrown in the works already. No 40 hours for you, how does that work out, eh? We'll be dancers and whores all, I guess. What claim will we have to anything when the whole thing's made by robots, after all? And all natural enough, profit and margins and whatever else, eventually we won't be paid at all and expected to buy things. Or the whole thing falls down. Can someone figure that out for me? Robots and the Chinese. They're coming lol.
I put in a somewhat busy 40 hours a week. I don't think it affords me what I've got.
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@badger
I don't think it affords me what I've got.
You probably don't need over a tenth of the stuff you have to be happy.
Is it scammery that I took all my unemployment money and shorted against the stock market? Maybe, but nobody forced the taxpayer to pay me for sitting on my ass unemployed. Right?
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@Greyparrot
You probably don't need over a tenth of the stuff you have to be happy.
I don't.
Is it scammery that I took all my unemployment money and shorted against the stock market? Maybe, but nobody forced the taxpayer to pay me for sitting on my ass unemployed. Right?
I make way too much money for what I do and I wouldn't do it for a penny less lol.
Some people work for as little as 3 US cent per hour, often more than 100 hours per week in conditions of poor air quality and extreme heat.
Your American minimum wage of 7.25 dollars is buying you 241 man-hours. Enjoy it while it lasts.
This is the backbone of capitalism.
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@Reece101
Believe it or not, nuance and constructive criticism exists. What if I flip the script and say you aren’t patriotic if you dissuade people from criticising the system they’re born into.
I'm just pointing out the irony of using the products of capitalism to criticize capitalism.
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@Greyparrot
I'm just pointing out the irony of using the products of capitalism to criticize capitalism.
Yeah, that isn’t a new one. Zero substance.
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@Greyparrot
Heh, that's the clip I was expecting, based on your comment.
I was not disappointed.
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@Lemming
Thanks!
freedom is separate from any economic system that may be in place
Don't get me wrong now. Capitalism is a vehicle for wealth creation and technological advancement like no other. But it is because of this grand game on how we differently value our time. That's mobilisation of the masses in the most insanely massive sort of way. Imagine that you're getting 241 man-hours for your minimum waged hour of work. Imagine what a billionaire or corporation gets. And we the moderately wealthy police it and preach its virtue, it's got the backing of nations and armies even, and it won't last. Your hour of work isn't worth 241 of someone else's.
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@badger
Capitalism also rewards people who invest in themselves to make their labor more valuable. It might take you 241 hours to fix your computer, but someone who spent 6 months previously studying how to do it could do it in one hour, capitalizing on the investment they made in themselves to be better than you are at fixing computers in general. What this creates and encourages is a diverse workforce of specialists who have invested in themselves to produce just a few things efficiently, but collectively they all produce efficiently.
People who refuse to invest in themselves typically desire a communist society so that their shitty labor output will be the same value as one who took time to invest in a specialization.
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@Greyparrot
That was an American minimum wage buying power. If you're on 100 dollars an hour, it jumps up to 3000 man-hours. Things are gonna equalise someday and capitalism is gonna look very different. No 4 years of college affords you 3000 man-hours for your 1 hour.