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Look, in a capitalist society, which the US is a prime example of, money flows towards those whose skills are contemporaneously scarce and in high demand by bus
by maxaf 7y ago
Look, in a capitalist society, which the US is a prime example of, money flows towards those whose skills are contemporaneously scarce and in high demand by businesses. There is no right or wrong here; this is just the physics, if you will, of a society that idealizes capitalism. Complaining about this is just like yelling at gravity for making skin hang down.
Someone who isn't interested in any field that clearly pays high salaries is going to be stuck doing work that does not pay a high salary. If this isn't basic logic, I don't know what is. The fundamental mistake that such people make is going to college to begin with: their chances of securing gainful employment aren't great, but the chance of landing in significant debt is almost 100%. I don't see how anyone can consider this a good deal.
Is this "right", in a purely ethical sense? Probably not. I'm happy to spend all day talking about alternative societal forms where all skills and occupations afford practitioners a good standard of living, but such conversations are moot for as long as we as a society are clinging to capitalism.
P.S.: It's ironic how many of the most vociferous critics of our current economic model are also the prime beneficiaries of its spoils.
- piva00 7y agoWhy is capitalism a goal in such a way to be detrimental to society? Why is it ok to idolise capitalism, to the point where it is the most important drive of a whole society? Where does it state that because of capitalism you need to have a complete free market where market forces drive every single aspect of life? It's exactly because I'm on the spot of being a prime beneficiary of such system that I believe I can criticise it, I don't deserve the amount of money I earn while other people go hungry, I don't deserve the luxuries I have because I know how to type some stuff on a keyboard and make a machine virtually do some other stuff. And that is the point, the more you have benefitted from this system while trying to understand your own ethics that you realise how fucked up it is... I could definitely shut my eyes and blindly follow that capitalism is the rule and it's amoral and because of that any criticism should be deflected to "but capitalism is like that". Yeah, I would prefer to live in a society where capitalism has passed this ugly phase and has been tamed to be as beneficial as possible to most people, not enable a system that left unattended or unbounded will eat everything in its way.
- EliRivers 7y agoP.S.: It's ironic how many of the most vociferous critics of our current economic model are also the prime beneficiaries of its spoils. And indeed, how some of the people being systematically screwed over by it are so supportive of it. Relatedly, I recall reading in Michael Lewis' "Fifth Risk" that some rural beneficiaries of USDA loans and grants downplay (or outright hide) the source of the funding that's making significant differences in people's lives (sometimes such basic things as access to water or electricity), because the very people being helped disagree with being helped by the federal government.
- Mirioron 7y agoOn the other hand, if no other farmers are helped with grants, then the price of food would increase and they might not need help from the government. It might not be as illogical for them to not like help from the government while at the same time being helped.
- EliRivers 7y ago"On the other hand, if no other farmers are helped with grants" No other farmers? What are you talking about? I'm not talking about farmers. Who's talking about farmers? The USDA does an awful lot more than giving grants to farmers. An awful lot more. In some cases, rural communities would be without water and electricity without USDA grants. They subsidise school meals for poor children. They help people pay their rent. They are the source of food stamps under SNAP. They help people in rural areas get a mortgage to buy a house. They are so much more than grants to farmers, and they keep it quiet. They are effectively a rolling system of government assistance to some of the poorest and most cut-off communities in the US.