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 Originally Posted by OngBonga
I guess I'm slowly learning that my problem isn't capitalism, it's people.
Problems of human frailty are exacerbated by concentrating power. In capitalism, a selfish asshole does selfish things with his own property. In politics, the same selfish asshole does the same selfish things with everyone's property.
Renton talks about toothbrushes for 30c like that's a good thing. It's not. 30c toothbrushes mean someone isn't getting paid as much as they should, and it means that people consume more than they need to. I'm going on holiday, where's my toothbrush? Fuck it, I'll just buy a new one. Who cares if some Indian kid gets 5p an hour in a sweat shop.
How do you know that? Maybe its someone getting paid $20/hour throwing a lever to a massive toothbrush assembly machine that creates thousands of toothbrushes per hour. Even if it is due to cheap labor like you say, it's almost certainly the case that those laborers are better off than if Colgate corporation didn't exist. Poor countries are responding to globalization very positively, with decreased infant mortality, increased life expectancy, and booming population growth. People from subsistence farming communities who were previously living a miserable existence in food and health insecurity are now much more gainfully employed, better-fed, and more healthy. Do they enjoy their jobs? Relative to their previous job, which was living in a gutter, probably so. Would they like a better job? Of course. That's the case for about 99% of the world. All capitalism does is to give people the tools to incrementally improve their own lives.
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