Hello everybody. I have a topic I wanted to discuss with you today that might be somewhat controversial….
My opinion is that capitalism and the rich are not the main problem of exploitation as one might think by reading this forum.
If you look at all the economic systems of the past and present (capitalism, socialism, communism, anarchism, etc) you will find examples of relationships between the leaders and the plebes that are pure exploitation. So what's the problem? I know it's hard to look in the mirror and call it for what it is and just blame it on “the rich”, but I would say that the problem is much wider. We, as humans are not wery kind to each other. Just look at all the wars, genocide, slavery, hunger, discrimination and other issues around the world. Don't tell me that if we as a society are ok with rolling into (insert country) and just achieve our goals on top of piles of civilian bodies, that doesn't somehow translate into domestic exploitation.
In fact, I would argue that a lot of people being exploited and also posting here would change on a dime if the roles would reverse. Take a small idiot and give him power and his idiocy would increase exponentially with power increase, may it be in a multinational corporation, your mom and pop's store or in a politburo. The asshole manager above you was most likely an intern once and with more power his asshole ego just got pumped up more and more.
Like the late and great George Carlin said… politicians are not another race, they don't enter Earth through a portal from another planet. We are politicians and politicians are us, they are the direct reflection of our society and all the poop they represent. I would argue that the same logic can be directly applied to “the rich”.
Change the system? You will only get a new set of “rich” that will exploit the not so rich. Remove the money? Well I'm sorry to tell you, but exploitation can be done even without the money and power can be had without money.
So what's the solution then? There's no quick fix in my opinion. Humans have a looong way to “figure it out” and go beyond the dog eat dog mentaliy, if we even want that? That is if we even get the time to evolve that long…if we don't blow ourselves up or make the planet permanently uninhabitable?
So what can you do until we just become better humans as things won't change overnight? Fight for your rights, don't say yes to everything, negotiate, improve the cards in your hands. Turn the ods in your favour so that you have more leverage and try to find eployers that respect you.
I wish you a happy day and discuss…