And sometimes it feels better to give it away.
I hope you don’t mind a suggestion: got a community garden near by? They might love some seedlings.
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A 43 minute youtube video may be stretching “meme” somewhat, but bear with me here.
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Leftist commentary inevitably turning into a huge wall of text is already a meme, so I think you’re good.
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It’s almost as if Capitalism is unnatural…
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I don’t know… people have been making that prediction for years now… like, well over a century… Late stage capitalism is right around the corner, they say… I think it’ll only be clear in hindsight (I know, there goes my historical imagination again!)… Thanks for posting, gonna watch it later after I go out to run my errands.
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He makes the point that the concept of “Late Stage Capitalism” was invented in the 1920s.
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Indeed! Watching it now, and just got past that section…
He’s on the part about transitioning to a “rent-based economy”… which, I agree with that. I just wonder if that’s an “end” to capitalism as opposed to yet another iteration of it, from mass production of textiles, to heavy industry, to services, to rent-based “goods”… Isn’t that still a form of capitalism, since the core definition is private ownership and profit-seeking? I don’t know…
But LOOK AT THAT SYNTH BEHIND HIM, omg!!!
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I think the core argument is that the Capitalist system is private ownership, profit seeking, and a fair(-ish) marketplace. That is, there has to be competition, and capitalists typically hate competition.
If there is no marketplace, then you’re back to a nobility who owns everything and you can only do anything because they allow you to. No free market, no capitalism.
Also, that the free market isn’t free, because if the capitalists are left to their devices to accumulate all the wealth to themselves, then the market isn’t free, so the only way to ensure a free market is to strongly regulate the market. The Golden Age of American Capitalism was the same time there was a top tax bracket of 90%, and that’s not a coincidence.
Benn is a primarily a musician, so behind him are his tools of trade.
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That’s probably where I’d disagree. It’s a system built on inequality (albeit less than previous types of economies that existed in history).
I think that assumes that that is our only option, though, going back. I mean, that’s precisely what Musk, Thiel, et all want, right? To use their wealth and power to create a feudal society? But the question is can we do something else with the kind of production that developed under the rise of capitalism (one that focuses on mass production and abundance?). I think we can and more sustainably, too. That’s Marx’s argument, after all (and lots of other communist and anarchist thinkers).
Yeah, because it was spreading wealth downward, but that’s because people fought and died for that to happen… a threat of an alternative system that seemed to be working was also in the mix. That helped keep western, free-market economies embracing some forms of socialist economic principles, as well as democratic ones, too. But I’d argue that democratic practices are not a byproduct of capitalism, but are effective tools for keeping the worst impulses of capitalism at bay. What we’re seeing right now, is really the erosion of that bulwark against the worst impulses, and we’ve been seeing that since the end of the Cold War…
Yeah, he mentioned that he’s a musician at some point in the video! I’ll have to check his work out.
Thanks for sharing the video! It was well-done and thoughtful! Worth the time to watch!
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That’s a bad meme. Doctors aren’t saying any such thing. They are being told that THEY are lying by hospital administration when they prescribe care for the patient, and the hospital admin is being told to say that by for-profit health insurers.
I object because blaming doctors is giving a pass to the real villains in the scenario.
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Hmmm. . .
I see your point, and definitely Hashtag Not All Doctors etc., but I’m switching my GP because at my last physical, he tried to push 3 different meds on me that I definitely don’t need. He also rushed out the door (this appointment gets shorter every year) as I was trying to describe a chronic foot problem-- “Meh, those shoes aren’t a good brand. See you next time!”
Yes, a lot of docs are better than that, but it’s clear that corporate forces (again, not all) are pushing doctors to push meds and shorten increasingly expensive appointments. Yes, few doctors are acting badly on their own, but many do so to avoid losing their jobs. So I read the meme as angry commentary on the whole increasingly awful situation – awful for patients and doctors – not on doctors in isolation.
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That’s not at all what I get from the meme. What I get is that doctors are cynically unhelpful and money-grubbing. That’s not true and it’s not helpful.
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Yet, that meme encapsulates far too many of my visits to University of Michigan out-patient facilities.
If the patient were a female-presenting mini-fig, this meme would be perceived as more accurate, perhaps. Doctors aren’t literally saying this, but their refusal to listen to female patients and constant failure to refer female patients to appropriate specialists can easily be summed up as “you’re lying”.
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Now that, unfortunately, is pretty spot on. 
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Yep.
Pussycat was screaming in agony from, I am not a doctor but I’m going to guess - PAIN? They wouldn’t do anything at the local hospital ER - called me in to “talk her down” (after refusing to let me into the ER with her in the first place). “She won’t let us do anything” Did you try maybe giving her SOMETHING FOR THE PAIN?!?
After an hour of fighting with the hospital (with no treatment) I finally got her transferred to the hospital we wanted to go to in the first place (another ambulance fee and another ER fee of course) where they diagnosed the bursting appendix, gave her PAIN MEDS and rushed her into surgery.
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Wow. THAT is malpractice if I’ve every heard of it.
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