EXACTLY WHY EVERYTHING SUCKS, COSTS MORE, AND STEALS YOUR ATTENTION (INSANELY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THESE CONCEPTS I BROKE THIS DOWN AND ACTUALLY USED EFFORT IN THIS POST WHICH I HAVE NOT DONE IN MONTHS)
Capitalism doesn’t make any of this happen so lets get that room temp IQ conclusion out of your mind forever
What people are actually describing is fiat currency and the downstream effects of inflation
There are a lot of second and third order consequences that come from that
One of the biggest is a shift in time preference
Capitalism itself does not have rules or guaranteed outcomes
It is not deterministic
It is just a label for a free market
At its core it means choice
We do not even live under real capitalism
So blaming capitalism for anything happening today already falls apart
In a truly free market some of these behaviors would still exist
Because they come from biology and human nature
But they would not be anywhere near this exaggerated
Materialism would not dominate the hierarchy to this degree
Status games exist in every species
They always form hierarchies around something
What changed is what signals status
Consumerism did not naturally emerge on its own
It was pushed
Companies are not the root cause of that
They respond to incentives
The real driver is government and the single metric it worships
GDP
GDP must go up
Our two party system and short term political cycles make this worse
If GDP goes down during an administration’s term they lose power
The public has been trained to believe GDP going down means the economy collapsed because of whoever was in charge
What people do not understand is that around 70 percent of GDP is consumption
Not quality of life
Not ownership
Not well being
Future debt obligations are not accounted for at all
That matters when almost everything is done on leverage
Buying something with a loan still pushes GDP higher
Even though the person does not own it
If most consumption and investment is debt based then GDP is no longer measuring prosperity
It is measuring throughput
More spending equals better optics even if people are poorer and more stressed
Low cost organic fun does not help GDP
Dive bars
House parties
Surfing
Live music without a paywall
Highly monetized status environments do
Bottle service
Guest lists
Promoter hierarchies
Pay to participate social scenes
So that is what survives
This did not happen because of capitalism
It happened because incentives were warped
GDP went up
Culture got worse
And people blamed the wrong thing
GDP only measures activity
It only cares that money changed hands
Because governments are judged on GDP
They design policy to maximize transactions
Anything that increases the number of times money moves is rewarded
Disposable consumption is perfect for GDP
If something breaks quickly it must be replaced
That is another transaction
GDP goes up
If something is rented instead of owned
That is a recurring transaction
GDP goes up every month
If an experience is gated behind constant spending
That is better than a one time purchase
So markets slowly shift toward
Subscriptions
Fees
Access instead of ownership
Planned obsolescence
Not because companies are evil
But because those models are favored by policy and finance
Credit accelerates this
Easy credit lets people spend money they do not have yet
That pulls future consumption into the present
GDP records the spending now
The debt shows up later
From the GDP perspective this looks like growth
From the individual perspective it is compression
Time preference shifts lower
People spend sooner
Save less
Replace instead of maintain
Advertising fills the gap
If demand is pulled forward with credit
It has to be constantly recreated
So marketing shifts from informing to stimulating
From usefulness to identity
From need to status
Consumption becomes part of the social hierarchy
Experiences that used to be social and informal
Become branded
Curated
Monetized
(1)
capitalism killed "boozing" culture. use have some drinks hit sick concert, dive bar, filled w/ broads, drink go surf, etc.
turned into $5k tables standing around, guest lists, soy "promoter" status nonsense. Not fun, I get it
now scrolling, gambling, fapping, addict, choads