Capitalism is killing us

posted July 8th, 2020 at 11:38 AM

It confounds me that during a global pandemic, during the greatest civil rights movement in history, life is still driven by the great capitalistic machine. We need a revolution people! For those of us who lost our jobs during the pandemic, life has become a stressful CERB hustle (if you are lucky enough to get CERB) to somehow survive on just under $2,000 per month (less if someone is on disability assistance or income assistance) in cities like Vancouver where you would be lucky if $2k can cover your expenses AND still get to eat, let alone incur all of the costs associated with the pandemic (cleaning supplies, masks, added time to run errands and be cautious). If you are lucky enough to still have a job, you have to carry on as though nothing is happening - still produce, produce, produce. The reopening efforts are not because we miss social connection - we have all found creative ways to try to connect socially throughout the pandemic (though it has been hard) but all of the reopening restrictions relate to businesses, and only slight changes have been made to the limits on our social interaction (or our "bubbles"). The driving factors for reopening are economic - so we are literally juggling life and death to ensure our precious economy is saved, yet now would be the perfect time to implement a guaranteed annual income supplement, cap housing prices, make post-secondary free so individuals who have been laid off can upskill! The more I think about it, the more I realize our entire population is risking life and death to protect the wealth of a handful of capitalists who own basically everything. We need a revolution! We were working at breakneck speeds before, but now it is almost Orwellian to have to carry on as a cog in the machine while people are dying around us and systems are broken, yet we must putter along as though it is the new normal.

4 Comments

Lol. Sure

Jul 8, 2020 at 6:19pm

CERB is just an entry level example of what socialism is going to be for you. Sorry if it's not as practical as your multinational corporate funded liberal arts professor propagandized you to.

Money printer go brrrr...

Jul 8, 2020 at 8:06pm

US billionaires got $434 billion richer during the pandemic while Trump rolls back environmental policies. The U.S. economy has distorted the world's economies with its money printing and stock buybacks.

Are you familiar with the Cantillon Effect? The Cantillon Effect refers to the change in relative prices resulting from a change in money supply. The change in relative prices occurs because the change in money supply has a specific injection point and therefore a specific flow path through the economy. So the elite get money cheap or even with negative interest loans, and disperse it to the rest of us on their terms.
They get richer, and richer. Look into it. It's an oligarchy.

Old normal

Jul 8, 2020 at 9:29pm

It's not materially new. Just adds a little bit of pandemic complexity, and the randomized additional risk of a quick death. Or maybe not quick enough.
Before the plague, you were dying slowly because of all the crap things about modern life. Starting with bad air in buildings. Especially residential ones - turns out cooking produces dangerous particulates, ditto cleaning (plus various chemicals), and furniture often contains carcinogens or hormonally active chemicals. And the forced-air HVAC systems popular in North America (especially in strata) turned out to be a clear and present danger...
Let's not forget all the crap food, mental illness and sedentary lifestyles. Humans did not evolve to sit for hours on end. Staring at what used to be called an "idiot box", except those are now portable and backed by practically limitless libraries of content. Mindless drivel, most of it.
This is just a biohazard cherry in top of the life you already had. Took you this long to realize the brokenness of it.
A young calf is sometimes confined to a box just barely bigger than himself, for life. And then one day, he's food. Not too much different for most people. Except that at the end, they're worm food.

Alright then

Jul 9, 2020 at 9:08am

A bit dramatic with the dying all around us/risking our lives perception, but yes the system sucks and is rigged to enrich the few.
Justin's dad gave our sovereignty away to the central banksters long ago and now China owns all of our politicians. Luckily the majority of us buy into the Left v Right ideological war that divides us and keeps it easy for the A holes to manipulate entire nations in any way they desire. It's clearly Top v Bottom and they've made their move for checkmate in 2020