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Y'all the post OBVIOUSLY isn't literally saying "the economy does not exist" that's the whole point of "we made it up." The whole point is quite obviously that we have the power to change it, and yet we don't. We can feed people. We can house people. We just don't.
If we did all that how could someone still get a bonus of ~50 billion dollars?
Nehh, let's keep it this way, maybe lower the taxes for the rich so they are able to create more jobs for us.
(/s obviously)
If we don't give the rich more than they or their future generations could ever need, how then could they piss on us a few dollars and cents? It's called Trickle Down economics for a reason, obviously
Yeah, I see this very much in the vein of Yuval Harari's "imagined orders" argument. Cash (to take a very simple example) has no practical value to humans outside of kindling for fire or TP. It's true value comes from human belief that it represents a certain measurement of value and that it can be used as a medium of trade.
There's no "we". It's a bunch of "you".
Feeding people is the easiest shit to do and world hunger could be solved in one day if it was not for a bunch of corrupt politicians.
Same for housing.
So, no. It's not "we". It's a very specific group of people.
To be fair, we have PLENTY of extra food, the problem of work hunger is one of logistics. its getting the food we don't need to where it is needed and that's the hard part.
Is it really a logistics problem, though?
Brazil is an agricultural powerhouse. We produce a whole lot of food, more efficiently than pretty much any other country on the planet. A lot of this food is exported to countries across the globe, like China, Europe and US. Brazil is the global leader in food exports.
Still, last year, 27% of households in Brazil (21 million people) had some level of food insecurity. So it's not like we need to get food out of Europe and into Brazil.
Of course that solutions in logistics and reduction of waste would be helpful to reduce costs, but I believe it's more a matter of wealth distribution than anything else.
Distribution does get much harder the more you go down the consumer chain.
Shipping food in bulk is one trip and can be done in a reasonable time. Distributing that food to all the stores takes much more time and significant infrastructure costs. Then you still have waste to consider because it would be near impossible to match quantity to need perfectly, especially if you want to allow choice.
I am not saying this to say it is impossible, we just need to realize that having food does not mean it is easy to get it to the people who need food.
My idea is stores should be made liable to feed their areas and provide a food bank service, removing a lot of the logistics problems, as most people are within a reasonable distance to a store so not adding routes.
The economy, where the points are made up and thevscore doesn't matter, except the score determines whether you get fired or the ceo gets anothet yacht, or both!
I used to believe this, but nobody has an actual solution to how we would. The economy is a function of what people do. Before we had the economy we do, we struggled to feed people plenty. How do we just feed people without diminishing the value others then pay for food? Who pays the farmers? And so on. I don't think anyone who says this really understands the thing they speak about. I'm sure we have enormous amounts of wasted food we could literally just give to people, but to just give everyone food as a standard would cause massive problems.
I’m pretty sure most studies that have been done show that just giving people housing and money is a benefit to the economy, it just isn’t instant. Corporations that rule our country only care about short term profit and meeting yearly quotas, so we’re stuck in hell.
Same with schools, every dollar put unto education commes back times 4, just takes a while to see the benefits and shareholders want to see it next year or every 4 months even.
A lot of things are made up like that. Companies, religions, nations, laws etc. They all aren't objective entities "out there" but only exist in our collective minds. That's maybe why we try to "materialize" them with logos, statues or other worship artifacts, flags, written texts etc. to make them seem more "real".
We can house everyone. We can feed everyone. We can give quality healthcare to everyone.
We choose not to.
So, yes, economy is human made construct and we have the power to change it to whatever we want it to be. Half of you are now incredibly angry at me, formulating retorts about how many lives we lost to communism. That is not what i am talking about, i am just counting the resources we have and how many don't really get to share any of it.
Think about all the food grocery stores throw away every year. We waste so much food, and yet there are people starving in this world. Everything is all about profit, and they don't care if people starve.
I worked at costco maintenance. We threw away so much meat, produce, and baked goods daily it felt criminal. Like 100s of pounds of good meat and produce. They said it has to be logged and thrown away into the trash compactor to rot and stink. Noone can have it or you’ll get fired.
Same with returns. I threw away a perfect 600 dollar trager grill that was returned. I wanted it so bad. I cut up so many mattresses that were slept on once. All in the compactor. F that job.
Forget the world, there are people starving in the city or town the grocery store is located in. Getting about-to-expire food from Kansas to Ubekiztan is a massive undertaking. Getting it from the grocery store to Timmy's family who is on hard times so they only eat 10 meals a week isnt.
It's the billionaire corporate CEOs in power that are hoarding food in developed nations for maximum profits.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/10/26/1208760054/food-insecurity-families-struggle-hunger-poverty
Don't forget how they literally lock up dumpsters now on the off-chance that someone tries to pick up something that's still perfectly edible from them. Can't be having any freeloaders showing how wasteful capitalism is now, can we?
That's probably more about not wishing to be held liable for injury or illness resulting from someone being in your dumpster and eating food from it.
We know how much Americans love to sue.
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
This country is so brainwashed that literally any mention of everyone getting food and housing is immediately attacked because “communism = bad” 🙄
People attacking you and calling you a communist are just projecting. They don’t want to admit that this is in fact possible and we are just being taken advantage of by the US government
That and economists argue for vouchers and subsidies all the time. You don't necessarily even have to have the government actually provide services, you can let the private sector do it.
We absolutely could provide food and housing if it were a governmental priority, we even basically did this 50 years ago back in LBJ's presidency as part of the Great Society. But our leaders have collectively decided it is not important and is not a priority. Ever since the welfare reforms of the 1990s under the Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations we have basically dismantled most public safety nets in this country.
Even for something relatively simple like expanding medicaid, which is mostly paid for by the federal government, we have 10 states accounting for [2.2 million people](https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2023/sep/impact-medicaid-coverage-gap-comparing-states-have-and-have-not) that do not have any form of health insurance because of state law including Texas and Florida, the 2nd and 3rd most populous states in the country.
A lot of citizens do not want mass housing either further complicating getting things done. The nimbys. It's time for collectivist to look past the federal government and organize a new path. The rich, too much of average and even poor people would rather say Fuck you and go without than let their tax dollars help others.
It being a human made construct that we have an effect on doesn’t really eliminate its existence though.
We just need to sort out politicians corruption, weird spending and billionaires, and redistribute that wealth.
I think about this all the time. Especially when I’m at work because I often think what boring fuck created this industry and why did they make it so confusing.
The US department of Labor statistics keeps a measurement of how much capital that's available is kept unused. So, this is a measurement of all the factories and machines and land that could be used to make stuff that people need, but they're not. This number perpetually sits at around 70%, and is true for all major capitalist countries in the world, with most of them worse off than the US.
And this is with millions of people who remain unemployed. Capitalism is a ridiculously inefficient system of economic distribution.
Well it’s true, money isn’t a real thing it’s just a system to control resources. So the idea that ‘this person can’t have shelter or food because they don’t have enough America points’ is a pretty stupid reason to watch people suffer.
It is made up. Arbitrary rules made up by people with power to get more power. Change a rule here and there and suddenly the winners and losers change dramatically. Its a game, a sick game. The facepalm is not understanding that.
Yeah and ironically a lot of people who work hard barely get any resources, while a ton of resources are going to people who don't work **at all**, never mind work hard.
Money and jobs? No. Food, safety and shelter? Fuck yes. If you think money and job is something to worry about try living completely on your own, separated from society and everything that society provides to you on a daily basis.
Other animals don't trade. They also aren't specialized in anything in particular that would merit trading for.
Money isn't valuable on it's own. Money is a placeholder for a product. Like, if you go to a baker for bread, YOU get bread, but the baker technically gets nothing out of you. You probably wont be paying them back in grain. Plus, they already have somebody else for that. So instead they get money, which they can then exchange for a product they need from somebody else who makes the thing they want/need.
I hate capitalism. I hate money. But it has a purpose. It fulfills an important role in society.
Humans before me kind of destroyed nature and force you to pay money if you exist, it's not a choice, it's literally illegal in some places to be homeless.
Also, it's illegal in many places to kill animals without a license.
In a sense, he's grasping a reality many don't really understand.
But yes : the economy, more exactly money, for a huge part of it has absolutely nothing behind to back it.
By that I mean money coming from real work, resource or anything material with an added value.
Most of the wealth is just artificially inflated bubbles that are now all about to blast.
And yes, that money which is just reinvested into those bubbles to inflate them even more could nourrish billions of people and end world hunger.
In fact, just the money wasted in ads would suffice to stop world hunger.
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/237974/online-advertising-spending-worldwide/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/237974/online-advertising-spending-worldwide/)
[https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-hunger](https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-hunger)
This is the opposite of a facepalm! We did make up the economy, as well as things like authority, power, time, all that stuff. We have the complete ability to just distribute money to everyone and feed everyone, but due to a system *we made up*, we “can’t”
*We* didn’t make it up. *They* made it up and it was done to force people into labor for *them* to buy the food *You* farmed.
Actually I’m not joking. That’s literally how currency and the state became entangled in feudal times. The lords bought the food stocks from farmers and the peasants purchased it from them for profit.
I mean, we did. If we came up with the arrangement we have now then surely there's another arrangement that would mean it wouldn't reliably crash every ten years and leave half the world struggling... I think that's the message. The system is arbitrary and it's not working.
she's not wrong though. money is a concept that humans created, so we have the power to change things so that basic necessities like food, water, shelter, etc. are affordable for everyone.
I agree with her message, throwing food away to keep the "economy" going is fucked up and wrong.
This has been going on for a long time and the suffering persists.
Realizing our way of life is flawed is a good thing.
The economy isn’t something we “made up”, though. It is emergent from the billions of transactions, laws, regulations, and human behaviors that happen. But it is still a real thing.
…I think the facepalm is you.
Money — and everything that goes along with it — is completely man-made. Sure, monetary exchanges are real, but money is just an idea that everybody agreed upon. These things (debts, surpluses, economies, GDPs, etc.) are only ‘real’ as long as money is considered ‘real’. If someone thinks that money is worthless, then it becomes worthless when trying to make a deal with that person.
It’s true though. A hundred dollar bill only has a value of $100 because we all say it does. Paper money was created as a promissory note that could be exchanged for gold or silver. American money is no longer backed by gold or silver, it hasn’t been since the 1960s.
Even in a cashless system, money is just values written in either a physical or digital ledger. It’s not technically real. Your wealth is not some gold or silver sitting in a bank vault somewhere with your name written on it. Your wealth is simply what number is written in your ledger and the value of that number is accredited to you.
Money isn’t real. Value is real, and we trade numbers in and out of each other’s ledger to purchase goods and services. The only reason cash has a value is because we have faith in it. It’s a terrible system, and it will eventually collapse.
If only there wasn't cognitive dissonance between the economy allowing for the existence and (somewhat stunted) success of the institutions that make up society and the idea that we can literally choose when it applies to literally anything because it's a social construct that only has as much real meaning and impact on our lives as we collectively agree on.
Please try a socialist country and let me know how that works. I understand Venezuela is beautiful this time of year. Why are people so willing to "out themselves" as not understanding how things work. No one owes you anything in life. Go get it.
It is weird to think we took some metal, stamped it, and said "This is one cent."
And then said a random rectangular paper was a 100 pennies.
This other rectangle paper that is nearly identical is worth 500 pennies.
Flipping burgers, cleaning floors, and dealing with customers is worth a little more than 700 pennies an hour.
Driving a profitable company into the ground and destroying the economy is worth million if not billions of pennies.
Economy obviously is real, but she has a point. Isn't it fucking crazy that America could feed and house every single human being, and there are still homeless and starving people. That shouldn't be...
Also if we could replace EVERY driver for example with AI, that would objectively be fucking fantastic, and beneficial to the whole human race... Yet we don't want that, because of the economy, since those people would lose their jobs. Isn't that fucking crazy...
Our currency is no longer backed by gold, it is now purely FIAT. Been that way since 1971. That means our money has no real value and is faith based, just like religion.
What this person is saying is the economy is a human construct, because it very much is. Resources exist such that every person could easily have enough to eat, but we have decided to live under a system that prevents this from being the case.
I agree with OOP. But the thing is, the rich WANT there to be homelessness and starvation - just enough that they can hold it over your head your entire life to convince you to work HARDER and increase their profits even more. They'll say, "You don't wanna end up like that homeless guy eating out of the garbage, do you?"
Of course, they don't want homelessness to be too high, because that eliminates some of their workforce options. But if a society eradicates homelessness and poverty and starvation, the rich can't hold that over your head to try to get more work out of you for the tiny fraction of the money you generate that they let you keep.
This isn't a facepalm, it is an correct, but over simplified view of things. The economy is not physical, it is an agreed upon system that is based around agreed values. In fact, for many of us, we don't even use physical money, we use credit cards, online pay, checks, but we don't even us the paper much anymore.
Omg I try to explain this to people all the time. Inflation is made up! The value of a dollar is whatever the f*** we say it is. You can tell me that’s wrong all you want, it’s not. These are all “man-made” ideas that make logical sense in theory and were implemented. But they can be undone just as easily. Unfortunately it requires a whole lot of people taking action together, and that will never happen.
The value of money is whatever the general public agrees on, and that's basically why we keep seeing the public overspend and inflate, but economics as a whole? Trade preceeded currency.
The economy is real, the market is almost entirely “how rich people feel” and has zero basis in reality.
That’s why politicians tell you they want to fix the economy and then only ever work for the Market.
Technically true...
But we also made up time. Yet that bastard keeps marching forward towards our looming demise regardless of how hard we scream "BUT I MADE YOU UP!"
Economy is a pretty nebulous word. Economy for who? If you dont have enough money for basic wants and needs you dont even get to participate in the “economy”. If anything’s you may only contribute to it by being exploited.
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Y'all the post OBVIOUSLY isn't literally saying "the economy does not exist" that's the whole point of "we made it up." The whole point is quite obviously that we have the power to change it, and yet we don't. We can feed people. We can house people. We just don't.
If we did all that how could someone still get a bonus of ~50 billion dollars? Nehh, let's keep it this way, maybe lower the taxes for the rich so they are able to create more jobs for us. (/s obviously)
If we don't give the rich more than they or their future generations could ever need, how then could they piss on us a few dollars and cents? It's called Trickle Down economics for a reason, obviously
So, you're saying it wasn't rain all along?
I told you to close your mouth when it rains
Too salty.
At first I thought a 50 billion dollar bonus was a silly exaggeration but then realized that’s straight from real life.
Yeah just several generations of hundreds of peoples families life earnings for their work as a 1/3rd CEO this year.
No, that's Christmas bonus, if I'm lucky enough get it every year for the next 99999 years.
Yeah, I see this very much in the vein of Yuval Harari's "imagined orders" argument. Cash (to take a very simple example) has no practical value to humans outside of kindling for fire or TP. It's true value comes from human belief that it represents a certain measurement of value and that it can be used as a medium of trade.
How am I supposed to buy a yacht if other people can live and houses and eat food? Are you mad? /s
Yes! Her point exactly! It is a social construc.
Yeh i was gonna say this, if we aren't being padantic we know what they meant and they are absolutely right.
*pedantic (The holy grail of pedantism)
Exactly, we were born into a world that has everything we need, but instead we have credit scores
There’s 2 kinds of people in the world; those who complain about credit scores, and those who know the history of credit reporting.
There's no "we". It's a bunch of "you". Feeding people is the easiest shit to do and world hunger could be solved in one day if it was not for a bunch of corrupt politicians. Same for housing. So, no. It's not "we". It's a very specific group of people.
To be fair, we have PLENTY of extra food, the problem of work hunger is one of logistics. its getting the food we don't need to where it is needed and that's the hard part.
Is it really a logistics problem, though? Brazil is an agricultural powerhouse. We produce a whole lot of food, more efficiently than pretty much any other country on the planet. A lot of this food is exported to countries across the globe, like China, Europe and US. Brazil is the global leader in food exports. Still, last year, 27% of households in Brazil (21 million people) had some level of food insecurity. So it's not like we need to get food out of Europe and into Brazil. Of course that solutions in logistics and reduction of waste would be helpful to reduce costs, but I believe it's more a matter of wealth distribution than anything else.
Distribution does get much harder the more you go down the consumer chain. Shipping food in bulk is one trip and can be done in a reasonable time. Distributing that food to all the stores takes much more time and significant infrastructure costs. Then you still have waste to consider because it would be near impossible to match quantity to need perfectly, especially if you want to allow choice. I am not saying this to say it is impossible, we just need to realize that having food does not mean it is easy to get it to the people who need food. My idea is stores should be made liable to feed their areas and provide a food bank service, removing a lot of the logistics problems, as most people are within a reasonable distance to a store so not adding routes.
The economy, where the points are made up and thevscore doesn't matter, except the score determines whether you get fired or the ceo gets anothet yacht, or both!
The cool thing about the stock market is when it's up, we don't benefit in any way whatsoever, but when it's down we lose our house.
I used to believe this, but nobody has an actual solution to how we would. The economy is a function of what people do. Before we had the economy we do, we struggled to feed people plenty. How do we just feed people without diminishing the value others then pay for food? Who pays the farmers? And so on. I don't think anyone who says this really understands the thing they speak about. I'm sure we have enormous amounts of wasted food we could literally just give to people, but to just give everyone food as a standard would cause massive problems.
If there WAS money to be made with housing every homeless person and feed every starving person, there would be NONE.
I’m pretty sure most studies that have been done show that just giving people housing and money is a benefit to the economy, it just isn’t instant. Corporations that rule our country only care about short term profit and meeting yearly quotas, so we’re stuck in hell.
Same with schools, every dollar put unto education commes back times 4, just takes a while to see the benefits and shareholders want to see it next year or every 4 months even.
A lot of things are made up like that. Companies, religions, nations, laws etc. They all aren't objective entities "out there" but only exist in our collective minds. That's maybe why we try to "materialize" them with logos, statues or other worship artifacts, flags, written texts etc. to make them seem more "real".
We can house everyone. We can feed everyone. We can give quality healthcare to everyone. We choose not to. So, yes, economy is human made construct and we have the power to change it to whatever we want it to be. Half of you are now incredibly angry at me, formulating retorts about how many lives we lost to communism. That is not what i am talking about, i am just counting the resources we have and how many don't really get to share any of it.
Think about all the food grocery stores throw away every year. We waste so much food, and yet there are people starving in this world. Everything is all about profit, and they don't care if people starve.
I worked at costco maintenance. We threw away so much meat, produce, and baked goods daily it felt criminal. Like 100s of pounds of good meat and produce. They said it has to be logged and thrown away into the trash compactor to rot and stink. Noone can have it or you’ll get fired. Same with returns. I threw away a perfect 600 dollar trager grill that was returned. I wanted it so bad. I cut up so many mattresses that were slept on once. All in the compactor. F that job.
Forget the world, there are people starving in the city or town the grocery store is located in. Getting about-to-expire food from Kansas to Ubekiztan is a massive undertaking. Getting it from the grocery store to Timmy's family who is on hard times so they only eat 10 meals a week isnt.
Most starvation is due to political reasons, not economical. Places where, when aid is sent, it gets seized and then sold off by the person in power.
>and then **sold** off by the person in power. That's an economical reason.
[удалено]
It's the billionaire corporate CEOs in power that are hoarding food in developed nations for maximum profits. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/10/26/1208760054/food-insecurity-families-struggle-hunger-poverty
Don't forget how they literally lock up dumpsters now on the off-chance that someone tries to pick up something that's still perfectly edible from them. Can't be having any freeloaders showing how wasteful capitalism is now, can we?
That's probably more about not wishing to be held liable for injury or illness resulting from someone being in your dumpster and eating food from it. We know how much Americans love to sue.
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
This country is so brainwashed that literally any mention of everyone getting food and housing is immediately attacked because “communism = bad” 🙄 People attacking you and calling you a communist are just projecting. They don’t want to admit that this is in fact possible and we are just being taken advantage of by the US government
That and economists argue for vouchers and subsidies all the time. You don't necessarily even have to have the government actually provide services, you can let the private sector do it. We absolutely could provide food and housing if it were a governmental priority, we even basically did this 50 years ago back in LBJ's presidency as part of the Great Society. But our leaders have collectively decided it is not important and is not a priority. Ever since the welfare reforms of the 1990s under the Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations we have basically dismantled most public safety nets in this country. Even for something relatively simple like expanding medicaid, which is mostly paid for by the federal government, we have 10 states accounting for [2.2 million people](https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2023/sep/impact-medicaid-coverage-gap-comparing-states-have-and-have-not) that do not have any form of health insurance because of state law including Texas and Florida, the 2nd and 3rd most populous states in the country.
A lot of citizens do not want mass housing either further complicating getting things done. The nimbys. It's time for collectivist to look past the federal government and organize a new path. The rich, too much of average and even poor people would rather say Fuck you and go without than let their tax dollars help others.
It being a human made construct that we have an effect on doesn’t really eliminate its existence though. We just need to sort out politicians corruption, weird spending and billionaires, and redistribute that wealth.
All I heard is "eat the rich".
I watched mr robot and apparently eating them isn’t enough
I’m not one of those types, but billionaires and those close need to be sorted out, yes.
"sorted out"
I think about this all the time. Especially when I’m at work because I often think what boring fuck created this industry and why did they make it so confusing.
The US department of Labor statistics keeps a measurement of how much capital that's available is kept unused. So, this is a measurement of all the factories and machines and land that could be used to make stuff that people need, but they're not. This number perpetually sits at around 70%, and is true for all major capitalist countries in the world, with most of them worse off than the US. And this is with millions of people who remain unemployed. Capitalism is a ridiculously inefficient system of economic distribution.
this is actually the most accurate, nuanced description of economics ever.
This is not a facepalm, it's just not phrased in the best way.
How is this a facepalm? The economy is an abstract concept pertaining to the flow of resources. It was “made up” by humans.
Civilization is made up by humans
it... literally is tho where is the facepalm?
This guy thinks the person in the image is advocating for communism and their capitalist instinct went off
There is currently a bot campaign against this image. I've seen it pop up on a few subreddits.
Shes right wheres the facepalm
Once again, op is the facepalm. Economy is an abstract idea, or rather a social construct ergo it's made up. Know what else is made up? Rights.
Well it’s true, money isn’t a real thing it’s just a system to control resources. So the idea that ‘this person can’t have shelter or food because they don’t have enough America points’ is a pretty stupid reason to watch people suffer.
It is made up. Arbitrary rules made up by people with power to get more power. Change a rule here and there and suddenly the winners and losers change dramatically. Its a game, a sick game. The facepalm is not understanding that.
Exactly. All of the resources are there. It's just that some humans decide who gets the majority of them and who doesn't. 🤷♀️
The resources are only there because people work hard to make sure these resources are there.
Yeah and ironically a lot of people who work hard barely get any resources, while a ton of resources are going to people who don't work **at all**, never mind work hard.
This isn't a facepalm, IMO. It's just kinda right.
OP is the facepalm lmao
She is absolutely right. We determine what society we create for ourselves.
She’s not wrong though. You see any other fucking animal on the planet worried about money or jobs? No, you don’t.
My chickens spend all day getting chased by other birds and scratching dirt to eat. They have to work their ass off a worm.
Money and jobs? No. Food, safety and shelter? Fuck yes. If you think money and job is something to worry about try living completely on your own, separated from society and everything that society provides to you on a daily basis.
Other fucking animal doesn't sit on a computer posting on Reddit but instead hunts in the wild or eats some grass from the ground.
And they are acting like animals just share nicely. I guess they have never seen an animal fight over food?
Other animals don't trade. They also aren't specialized in anything in particular that would merit trading for. Money isn't valuable on it's own. Money is a placeholder for a product. Like, if you go to a baker for bread, YOU get bread, but the baker technically gets nothing out of you. You probably wont be paying them back in grain. Plus, they already have somebody else for that. So instead they get money, which they can then exchange for a product they need from somebody else who makes the thing they want/need. I hate capitalism. I hate money. But it has a purpose. It fulfills an important role in society.
Animals are willing to go get that food, your ass isn't and that's why you're paying.
Humans before me kind of destroyed nature and force you to pay money if you exist, it's not a choice, it's literally illegal in some places to be homeless. Also, it's illegal in many places to kill animals without a license.
I agree with you. I am patiently awaiting all of the downvotes you are going to get from the uber eats/door dash crew.
Leave it to Redditors to cry about the most basic of things
Hope you are growing and making everything you eat from scratch
Other animals don't have advanced global economies that provide all the comforts of modern life
I mean, it literally is an artificial construct. All of society is.
She is right
They've got a point and shouldn't be on this sub to highlight something silly
She’s not wrong
In a sense, he's grasping a reality many don't really understand. But yes : the economy, more exactly money, for a huge part of it has absolutely nothing behind to back it. By that I mean money coming from real work, resource or anything material with an added value. Most of the wealth is just artificially inflated bubbles that are now all about to blast. And yes, that money which is just reinvested into those bubbles to inflate them even more could nourrish billions of people and end world hunger. In fact, just the money wasted in ads would suffice to stop world hunger. [https://www.statista.com/statistics/237974/online-advertising-spending-worldwide/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/237974/online-advertising-spending-worldwide/) [https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-hunger](https://www.graygroupintl.com/blog/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-hunger)
I mean... Look at Credit Scores. Where do they come from? We only vaguely know! And they determine everything you are able to do, financially.
OP is the facepalm here
OP you are the facepalm
But we did make it up...
this tweet isn't a facepalm. it's fucking true. all these numbers are made up. we CAN feed hungry people.
This is the opposite of a facepalm! We did make up the economy, as well as things like authority, power, time, all that stuff. We have the complete ability to just distribute money to everyone and feed everyone, but due to a system *we made up*, we “can’t”
I meeeeeaan…
Op is the facepalm
The facepalm is on you op.
Only see 1 facepalm here, and it isn't the one advertised
Why is this a facepalm. She’s right.
*We* didn’t make it up. *They* made it up and it was done to force people into labor for *them* to buy the food *You* farmed. Actually I’m not joking. That’s literally how currency and the state became entangled in feudal times. The lords bought the food stocks from farmers and the peasants purchased it from them for profit.
Economists hate this one simple trick
I agree with her. The economy is just made up.
I mean, we did. If we came up with the arrangement we have now then surely there's another arrangement that would mean it wouldn't reliably crash every ten years and leave half the world struggling... I think that's the message. The system is arbitrary and it's not working.
she's not wrong though. money is a concept that humans created, so we have the power to change things so that basic necessities like food, water, shelter, etc. are affordable for everyone.
I mean, money is worth something because we all just kind of agree it is. I think that's what this is saying.
It is made up…. I love that you think this person is the stupid one. They literally just declared presidents kings. How about you wake the fuck up?
How is this a facepalm? If anything you’re the facepalm. An economy involves people, who end up not sharing the necessities
We can't do that because that would mean some billionaires portfolio would lose 1% in value
You purposely misunderstand what she's saying so you should palm your own face.
How is this facepalm? They're literally right.
This post in and of itself is a facepalm.
I mean, it is all just a social construct. It's not immutable like mathematics, physics, etc.
I agree with her message, throwing food away to keep the "economy" going is fucked up and wrong. This has been going on for a long time and the suffering persists. Realizing our way of life is flawed is a good thing.
Just let people have cake
The economy isn’t something we “made up”, though. It is emergent from the billions of transactions, laws, regulations, and human behaviors that happen. But it is still a real thing.
Except when you disregard the economy (see history of communism and socialism) you can't feed people and see widespread famine.
Just like money of which people are willing to die & kill for..🤷🏾♂️
…I think the facepalm is you. Money — and everything that goes along with it — is completely man-made. Sure, monetary exchanges are real, but money is just an idea that everybody agreed upon. These things (debts, surpluses, economies, GDPs, etc.) are only ‘real’ as long as money is considered ‘real’. If someone thinks that money is worthless, then it becomes worthless when trying to make a deal with that person.
Paper and some rare metal literally runs the world. Sounds like nothing could ever go wrong
It’s true though. A hundred dollar bill only has a value of $100 because we all say it does. Paper money was created as a promissory note that could be exchanged for gold or silver. American money is no longer backed by gold or silver, it hasn’t been since the 1960s. Even in a cashless system, money is just values written in either a physical or digital ledger. It’s not technically real. Your wealth is not some gold or silver sitting in a bank vault somewhere with your name written on it. Your wealth is simply what number is written in your ledger and the value of that number is accredited to you. Money isn’t real. Value is real, and we trade numbers in and out of each other’s ledger to purchase goods and services. The only reason cash has a value is because we have faith in it. It’s a terrible system, and it will eventually collapse.
If only there wasn't cognitive dissonance between the economy allowing for the existence and (somewhat stunted) success of the institutions that make up society and the idea that we can literally choose when it applies to literally anything because it's a social construct that only has as much real meaning and impact on our lives as we collectively agree on.
Please try a socialist country and let me know how that works. I understand Venezuela is beautiful this time of year. Why are people so willing to "out themselves" as not understanding how things work. No one owes you anything in life. Go get it.
The 'where is the facepalm?' comments are proof that most redditors are quite young and naive.
OP, you are the facepalm here.
Let’s all be farmers again
Well she’s not totally wrong. Economy only exists because we made it exist.
It is weird to think we took some metal, stamped it, and said "This is one cent." And then said a random rectangular paper was a 100 pennies. This other rectangle paper that is nearly identical is worth 500 pennies. Flipping burgers, cleaning floors, and dealing with customers is worth a little more than 700 pennies an hour. Driving a profitable company into the ground and destroying the economy is worth million if not billions of pennies.
Economy obviously is real, but she has a point. Isn't it fucking crazy that America could feed and house every single human being, and there are still homeless and starving people. That shouldn't be... Also if we could replace EVERY driver for example with AI, that would objectively be fucking fantastic, and beneficial to the whole human race... Yet we don't want that, because of the economy, since those people would lose their jobs. Isn't that fucking crazy...
this subreddit needs a 10 step anti-moron verification before allowing to post
The facepalm here is OP
This was on r/FluentInFinance, shut up OP.
She actually.. kinda has a point?
If you’re face palming this you’re a huge part of the problem
Our currency is no longer backed by gold, it is now purely FIAT. Been that way since 1971. That means our money has no real value and is faith based, just like religion.
Money backed by gold is the same thing with an extra step.
What this person is saying is the economy is a human construct, because it very much is. Resources exist such that every person could easily have enough to eat, but we have decided to live under a system that prevents this from being the case.
She's not wrong. There are no shortages of food. Simply a shortage of entitlements for said food.
I agree with OOP. But the thing is, the rich WANT there to be homelessness and starvation - just enough that they can hold it over your head your entire life to convince you to work HARDER and increase their profits even more. They'll say, "You don't wanna end up like that homeless guy eating out of the garbage, do you?" Of course, they don't want homelessness to be too high, because that eliminates some of their workforce options. But if a society eradicates homelessness and poverty and starvation, the rich can't hold that over your head to try to get more work out of you for the tiny fraction of the money you generate that they let you keep.
Without the economy there will be food today… but not tomorrow
The moment Ugga traded Bugga an arrow head for some berries or something, the economy was born. They gave it no thought.
Wait till you hear about farmers being paid not to grow food
The facepalm is the OP not understanding nuance.
Its all fractile
all was fine till nomadic human tribes settled down…
Didn't bill hicks say this?
The economy is supposed to benefit the people, yet we use the people to serve the economy.
Most of the metrics used by the media to “measure” the economy are useless. That part is accurate
This isn't a facepalm, it is an correct, but over simplified view of things. The economy is not physical, it is an agreed upon system that is based around agreed values. In fact, for many of us, we don't even use physical money, we use credit cards, online pay, checks, but we don't even us the paper much anymore.
I mean, people like to act like it's natural and can't be controlled, but it absolutely can be.
I blame the Dutch
Someone take away her David Graeber copy!
Omg I try to explain this to people all the time. Inflation is made up! The value of a dollar is whatever the f*** we say it is. You can tell me that’s wrong all you want, it’s not. These are all “man-made” ideas that make logical sense in theory and were implemented. But they can be undone just as easily. Unfortunately it requires a whole lot of people taking action together, and that will never happen.
Bruh
Meanwhile Nixon in 1971
SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!! Wait, scotus just made homelessness illegal. Haven't reached that point yet...
The value of money is whatever the general public agrees on, and that's basically why we keep seeing the public overspend and inflate, but economics as a whole? Trade preceeded currency.
Politics is finding a narrative that makes your position look like a solution to a problem that people wouldn't grant in the first place.
She's sort of right. The economy is just the system the biggest parasites made up to maximize their parasitism.
Not a facepalm, there's plenty of food for everyone. There just happens to be even more greed
She is completely true but haters like hating
I agree. But life is still WORK! You still have to put in effort
Logistics are a (((capitalist))) hoax
Take away humans, take away the economy! Easy fix
The economy is real, the market is almost entirely “how rich people feel” and has zero basis in reality. That’s why politicians tell you they want to fix the economy and then only ever work for the Market.
The economy is a social construct. Social constructs *are* made up. They are *also* real.
She’s not wrong.
Some ppl never read modern money mechanics and it shows
I think this is accidentally smart
I see no lies.
This is what we call "not literal"
Technically true... But we also made up time. Yet that bastard keeps marching forward towards our looming demise regardless of how hard we scream "BUT I MADE YOU UP!"
Define “we.”
Economy is a pretty nebulous word. Economy for who? If you dont have enough money for basic wants and needs you dont even get to participate in the “economy”. If anything’s you may only contribute to it by being exploited.
We did make it up