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[–] 123 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

Capitalism is the only system that lets you chase your dreams, if those dreams are stomping on the dreams of others through a position of privilege.

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Yeah “acquire passive income through exploitation and then pursue your dreams”

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  • Especially if by "pursuing your dreams" you mean exploiting workers, protecting capitalists, making opportunities for money laundering (for capitalists), or oppressing and killing minorities domestic and foreign (to help the capitalists).

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    [–] 61 points 2 years ago (17 children)

    Sometimes I think about how much art was never created because of capitalism. It either never got funded, or a potential artist never got the chance to make it, because just to scrape by, they had to spend too much time toiling to make some business owners money. It's depressing.

    And, just to cut off one potential counterargument: I don't give half of a shit how "good" that art would be. I'm confident there are spectacular works of art that never came to be, but even putting it aside, it's all subjective. Some folks would have loved it, and the artists would have found value in making it. That's more than enough, and a hell of a lot more meaningful than breaking your back working for a living so that other people can own stuff for a living.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    40 hour workweek is excessive. This is based around units containing at least two adults, maybe multigenerational homes with grandparents doing childcare. Now that we expect dual incomes the workweek should be 20 hours at most before overtime kicks in.

    What I am getting at is that just giving people time back to exist could happen with changes to the current system. Unfortunately that means smaller yachts for the people on top, so we cannot have it.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    20 hours at most before overtime kicks in.

    As a perpetually single guy I'm actually behind this. Most of the time I'm completely forgotten about and the conversation goes as if being married is the default position for everyone.

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    [–] 32 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    I've seen so many youtube videos from conservatives where they literally just listen to someone saying what their minor/emphasis was and saying "wow, it's so stupid that's even offered, that's completely useless". The comments tend to be more unhinged, I frequently see "these universities should lose their accreditation", "it should be illegal to offer these", etc. Usually it's something extremely basic, like the impact of colonialism on X, or something to do with intersectionality. Like, these aren't even their majors, they're just a component of their degrees that they can freely choose. I feel like many conservatives are just against any new ideas regardless of their validity.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    many conservatives are just against any new ideas regardless of their validity.

    You got it right there. That's exactly what conservatives are.

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    [+] 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)
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    [–] 29 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Reminds me of George Lucas talking about how Soviet filmmakers had more creative freedom than American ones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWqvaMEFIdI

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago*

    While there is absolutely truth to what he's saying there, I do think it is sort of a "grass is always greener" thing.

    For example, Tarkovsky famously butted heads constantly with Soviet censors/authorities about the content of his films (though to be fair, he was making some out there shit). I believe it's ultimately why he left the USSR.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Thus political economy – despite its worldly and voluptuous appearance – is a true moral science, the most moral of all the sciences. Self-renunciation, the renunciation of life and of all human needs, is its principal thesis. The less you eat, drink and buy books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorise, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save – the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor rust will devour – your capital. The less you are, the less you express your own life, the more you have, i.e., the greater is your alienated life, the greater is the store of your estranged being. Everything which the political economist takes from you in life and in humanity, he replaces for you in money and in wealth; and all the things which you cannot do, your money can do. It can eat and, drink, go to the dance hall and the theatre; it can travel, it can appropriate art, learning, the treasures of the past, political power – all this it can appropriate for you – it can buy all this: it is true endowment. Yet being all this, it wants to do nothing but create itself, buy itself; for everything else is after all its servant, and when I have the master I have the servant and do not need his servant. All passions and all activity must therefore be submerged in avarice.

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    [–] 18 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    Neo cons unironically love all of those degrees, at least in the US. Don't forget that student loans are a big business.

    Non-occupational degrees give a steady supply of young workers with massive debt and qualifications that won't enable them to get a job with a high enough wage to pay back the principle of that debt.

    This is how the gig economy flourishes.

    This is how Amazon stays in business.

    This is how the hospitality industry thrives on a deliberately broken business model.

    This is how landlords profit.

    This is how the post-boomer generations are oppressed.

    We are cannon fodder.

    Rise up.

    Become ungovernable.

    FTP

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I was with you, but I don't think becoming "ungovernable" would help anything. Cool slogan and all but seems pretty counterproductive.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    It's really just a call to change by not playing by their rules, eg get a degree and then move to a jurisdiction where the loan people can't get to you, or get a degree from another country where it's less expensive.

    I'm not really advocating for riots or anything.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Communists: communism is the only system that creates equality.

    Also Communists: Fuck art degrees, ...work the factory cogs comrade & think of the collective!

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    The problem is it doesn't let you catch them.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    Capitalism is the only system that lets you chase your dreams as long as you can sell them

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    Dude, capitalism has been taking advantages of those degree, or rather, the whole education system!

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    It assumes one only dreams of making money.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    It's true. ...As long as your dream is to make money or owe someone money, capitalism can make it happen!

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    I keep saying this to conservatives: what do they think will happen if there is oversaturation of "useful" jobs? They do not want an educated population, they want a dumbed down and compliant one who are unquestionably obedient.

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