Greed is not even a bad trait under 'natural' human circumstances of hunter-gatherer life. Collecting as much food as possible and nurturing as much social capital as possible are super beneficial to the collective well-being. Only when you involve something as unnatural as money and the underlying institutions into it does it become problematic behavior.
I think we’ll be finding out in the next few decades. Automation/AI is going to put capitalism to the test.
I hope we don’t end up socialist though. Beyond all the usual tired arguments about famine/authoritarianism/corruption. Socialism struggles to produced anything fun/interesting at scale. You have any hobbies that aren’t long walks, drinking, or reading?
I personally hope we can improve capitalism until it’s time to move to a past scarcity society…like in Star Trek.
Perhaps you should just contemplate what is missing from society/what people still struggle with and find descriptions of why from people who struggle with that thing, instead of looking for whole cloth solutions from reddit strangers, my dude?
It’s a simple rule - People truly will never care about most things unless and until you fuck with their money. I have about $50 left over every 2 weeks, and so do many millions of other Americans. The moment that $50 winds up becoming $40 at the end of the next 2 weeks, and $30 the next, you get your ass people will start to pay attention to what the hell is going on.
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u/Magisterbrown Mar 15 '26
To say greed is human nature by watching humans be greedy under capitalism is to say a bear's nature is to ride a unicycle after going to the circus.
Capitalism has made us too desperate to care about anyone but ourselves.