Just a friendly (depressing) reminder that poverty is a social construct. As a society we say, 'cool' everyday.
Just a friendly (depressing) reminder that poverty is a social construct. As a society we say, 'cool' everyday.
We have the ablility to house, feed, educate, clothe, and medically assist everyone. But the money!!
the latest biden border fascism bill included sixty billion dollars for weapons for ukraine, which is (no bullshit) enough money to give every homeless person in america a hundred grand
Hear me out: what if instead of helping people get houses, we instead spend a hundred grand a pop on making brand new skeletons in eastern Europe?
I remember at the very beginning of the Ukraine war as aid packages began to be delivered people talking about how the things we were giving them, despite the billion dollar price tags, were all expired or outdated equipment that the US was ordinarily only paying to warehouse or paying more to dispose of and so giving these billions of dollars worth of equipment to Ukraine was actually saving us money.
I have no idea if that had any bearing on reality but it surely is no longer true, now we're just pouring starving American children's food into the gun barrels of another made up war?
It wasn’t long ago I would talk to people about how that world of Star Trek is actually possible under socialism, at least in the future. Especially with replicators, imagine living in a post-scarcity world where our basic needs are met.
But then I realized, we could basically have all that now, globally. We don’t even need replicators. We are at post-scarcity already, it’s just we as a species refuse to do things rationally and fairly.
I have no doubt that in 2024, current productive forces would allow for everyone on earth to have what they need and to thrive. And under global socialism, it would probably just take a few years to get everything to be ecologically sustainable, too. But in short order we have the resources to give everyone on earth good food and water, a comfortable home, clothing, education, healthcare, plus all the stuff that makes life fun. And do it all in a sustainable way. Our current productive capabilities really are almost hard to comprehend.
Every person suffering from their material conditions is there because capital wants them to be in that position.
Back in 2003 when I was waiting tables during university studies, my Physics II professor gave us the equation to determine wattage from solar irradiance based on photovoltaic conversion rates. At the time, it was something like 30% efficiency. I did some napkin math, and figured out that it would take around $1.2 trillion to buy enough PV cells from a retail supplier to build a 90 mile by 90 mile square PV farm deployed somewhere like New Mexico which could generate enough electricity to power every economic sector in the US -- residential, commercial, industrial. Then, in 2008 during the mortgage and credit default swap financial crisis, Obama gave $800 billion of taxpayer funds directly to the banks to make them solvent, and directed the Fed to begin the disastrous QE policy, dumping $24+ trillion into the economy over the next decade and a half.
When Obama did that, that is when I realized that this country (America) and maybe even human beings at large are simply too stupid, too short-sighted, too selfish and primitive to do what is necessary to make our civilization a sustainable one.
Everybody afraid of being mooched off of.
We Americans are trained from birth to hate a mooch, and to be especially hyper vigilant against getting taken advantage of by those "lower" than us.
But we will let those we see as our "betters" take advantage of us all day long. Subservience to power and sycophants to the wealthy.
The American dream is to be a parasite and exploit your fellow man. Everyone yearns to be a landlord or invest a bunch into real estate.
Right?? Like, mooches are bad!
But if you buy into or inherit moochdom, that's somehow socially accepted!
But we will let those we see as our "betters" take advantage of us all day long.
I think it's more that effectively resisting the wealthy taking advantage of you requires a broad, organized political coalition the state is specifically designed to destroy, while "effectively resisting" a homeless guy "taking advantage of your generosity" requires you to just keep walking. People know they are getting screwed by capital and hate it; there's just a much larger barrier to avoiding it.