Two party politics
Privatization of government institutions and programs.
Insurance
Dental care being treated as separate from health care.
You can die from teeth issues
Capitalism
Show me a working alternative that’s actually been implemented in the real and I’ll happily shift.
Until then I’ll happily stick with a well-regulated, Nordic-style market economy.
Zapatista territories and Rojava (until recently dissolved by force), and a bunch of smaller examples worldwide (including many tribes that live more traditionally/non-capitalist).
They are definitely proof that alternatives exist. Whether they can scale to governing a state of disperate cultures and peoples is a different question.
But you did answer with some real alternatives, which I’ll look into more. Thank you.
Shrinkflation.
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I don’t know, I’ve heard some fairly smart people say some very positive stuff about how reduction of package sizes saves on calories, for one.
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Private Equity
Credit Score
Derivitives
Interest on Loans
Money
Loan interests and money I disagree with. Unless we get to a point where everything is in abundance and commerce isn’t needed anymore I feel like a common item we can agree the value of for goods and services is a pretty neat idea.
Similarly I don’t think interest is inherently evil. If i lend you money to buy something large that will take years to pay off, I wouldn’t want to lose a bunch of money with inflation. But predatory rates that bet on you defaulting can burn in hell. It’s disgusting that the whole fintech industry exists purely to maximise interest and debt at the cost of those who depends on those services the most.
Loan interest is one of the main reasons we operate in a “line-must-go-up” society right now. If you loan out money and require that that much money plus a percentage be paid back, you are requiring that money spent returns back a surplus somehow. Making even is considered a failure in this system.
For loans interest I think it should be bog simple to give and receive a loan as in “you’re borrowing $200. Please give me $210 by X date” and its done. No number that increases infinitely, the common person can easily understand it and it can be easily taught in schools.
Working harder instead of prioritizing.
Some places are worse for this than others. London, for example, chews up 20-somethings in shitty accommodation, underpaid jobs and plenty of places to spend the few pennies you’ve got left. Eventually, 95% leave the city to actually build a life after they’ve realised that London will never deliver a suitable lifestyle for them.
Societal expectations to move out of your parents’ house when you turn 18. It’s a scam to get you to become more profitable to corporate America. You’re an adult now. You need to buy a car you can’t afford, get a mortgage you don’t want, insure it all to protect the bank, all to go to a job you don’t want, but now need so that you can afford these “nice things.”
But if you stay with your parents, even if you actually enjoy it, you’re a failure.
Child here that moved out at 18 and now a parent to 3.
I hear you, and I know the status quo is changing but fuck me I want my kids out at 18. I lived in shitty roach infested places in horrible neighbourhoods. I’ve wondered how I would have money for food let alone rent. That’s life. That’s growing. I want them to experience that because without the bad times you don’t learn to appreciate the good ones.
I know I’m alone in this sentiment I don’t care. I will always be there for my kids in true times of need and I know the world now isn’t the world of 30 years ago but fuck it. Survive or Thrive.
Democracy.
This world is what people voted for? Yeah?
Fake elections, fake democracy. The president of USA is a puppet controlled by secret societies, and thats why nothing ever changes.
People cant even choose candidates. Everyone has to be rich to be president. Because money is what controls people. If you dont have that greed, you cant be controlled by the system. Thats why everyone powerful is rich.
You mean democracy in the US, not all over the world.
If you have a functioning example of democracy I have a bridge to sell you.
There’s a lot of worse options out there but western democracy on the whole doesn’t really represent the “demos” in any real sense - that’s both good and bad of course, but it’s also not democracy.
Greek democracy was chosen at random through a lottery. It was extremely successful.
How often did slaves win the lottery?
I dont understand your point. Slavery can be bad while a lottery based democracy can be good. There not related other than having the ability to exist at the same time? Slavery also existed in many voting based representative democracies like the Roman empire and American deomocratic republic.
Banks.
Using YOUR money to make a lot of money from investing in horrible companies.Not just investing. Every time banks loan money to someone they steal from everyone.
Fractional reserve banking means that banks only need to have a fraction of the money their customers have in accounts actually in reserve, based on the idea that not everyone will withdraw all their money from the bank at the same time. For example, if people have deposited €1000 at a bank, the bank may be allowed to have €1500 is customers’ accounts, because only a fraction needs to be covered by actual money. The rest is just entries in a database.
Because of the difference between what was deposited and what they are allowed to have as ‘virtual’ money in accounts, they can loan out the difference. So when someone asks for a €500 loan, they approve it and put €500 in the customers account without actually having more money in reserve. They basically create that €500 out of thin air. (Which the customer eventually has to pay back with real money).
Because the total amount of money actually represents the total amount of value created (e.g. by labour and manufacturing), and they just created more money without actually creating more value, the bank just caused a little bit of inflation by issuing that loan. Meaning every time they issue a loan everyone else’s money becomes worth a little less, and this difference eventually ends up in the bank’s pockets.
They only cause inflation by lending if nothing of value is created by the money they lend out, though.
Lending just shifts the value creation to after the money is created, with some risk in that some value isn’t created after the money has been created to represent the outcome. If we didn’t expand the money supply, we would have severe deflation.
Car finance. It’s so prevalent, I think I’m literally the only one on our road that doesn’t drive a 1 year old, brand new, financed car. Literally everyone is like “but it’s only $499/month and I can just hand it back when I want a new one”. Well shit, yes, but try tallying up what you’ve paid for running all these new cars every three years.
Save up instead and continue saving after you bought the car. Then you can afford a different car later.
Save up instead and continue saving after you bought the car. Then you can afford a different car later.
Yes I get the point but I guess it depends on you considering a car a luxury or a requirement. Where I live, it’s definitely a luxury - we’ve got great public transport.
Tipping (for the US and so), Tax and Rents
I like tipping (in the US). I feel like servers would be a lot less friendly if they weren’t so directly incentivized to be nice. Plus I’ve been treated somewhat gruffly by servers in countries that do not have tips. Maybe that is just dislike of U.S. citizens.
So you say you have to pay people to be nice? Thats fucked up…
