Interesting piece, but there seems to me to be contradiction in its thesis: If people have become so devoted to monetary success alone, how can all these indust

Interesting piece, but there seems to me to be contradiction in its thesis: If people have become so devoted to monetary success alone, how can all these industries that rely on vice exist? Indulging a vice is inherently wasteful. It costs time that could be spent working, and money that could be better spent on self-improvement, or invested or saved. And while we may have accepted greed to the point that there is nothing distasteful about saying one desires a better car or house, or a better paid job, in practice most people do not work day and night, spurning all other opportunities, to make it happen. In practice, most people make decisions every day that place other desires, both traditionally "good" and "bad", above the simple pursuit of more money. So to say that people have internalised capitalism to the exclusion of all else seems incorrect. I have a different take: The development of capitalism and commodification had a mutually reinforcing relationship with the fluidity of labor and the fungibility of goods. Many "traditional" bonds between individuals and communities were really a consequence of local monopolies: There was only one local doctor, shopkeeper, school, etc., and a small pool of potential employers. As such, relationships were inevitably more personal. As technology, law and institutions allowed civilisation to become more mobile, it allowed the possibility of markets in many areas of life where it was previously impossible. This is unavoidable. Even if you personally choose to stand still, the people around you move, meaning your relationships and interactions are nonetheless more transitory and impersonal. In such a world, commodification emerges not as the consequence of internalised capitalist ideology, but because it is the only way to manage constant interactions with strangers. So it is commodification itself that has become internalised, not capitalism. Indeed, most modern society isn't arranged around acquiring capital and leveraging it or maximising its value, it's about the consumption of things and experiences—driven by materialist, emotional and spiritual instincts—using money as a points system used to ration them out. Most people approach their work in a simple way: they want to earn enough points to meet their basic needs, and indulge their desires to a point of equilibrium between effort and general satisfaction, after which they don't work any harder or longer.