Honestly we need to explain this shit more often. As soon as people understand exactly how much a billion dollars is they get visibly angry.
this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2026
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Late Stage Capitalism
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"You know what the difference is between a million dollars and a billion dollars? About a billion dollars."
We are all operating under the system of capitalism. Call it commerce, whatever, its commerce in a capitalist system.
Dont get me wrong, Im not going to work everyday to be a capitalist but there is no doubt in my mind Im doing capitalism.
That's the exact mindset OP is trying to expose. You are a participant in capitalism, but you are most likely not a capitalist. And that is true for 99.9% of people probably
The are two definitions of capitalist, one is a person that supports capitalism regardless of their class. It's possible for a person to recognize that they're a worker and consumer, and unlikely to ever have any capitol outside of their house and retirement accounts, and maybe not even that, and still think capitalism is the best system for workers to live under. Dumb, but possible, and seemingly widespread.
And I agree with them.
I agree. I get the point she's making but I think she's wrong about the details. Your skills and experience are your capital, and you sell the products of them to employers. Everybody who has a job is also running a business. I don't think most people give themselves credit for that.
Why "false class solidarity". I think it's honest, if misplaced, solidarity. Temporarily embarrassed millionaire and all that.
Lukacs actually has a term for that - false consciousness and it is a massive problem
Basically we're all serfs.
And increasingly ill-treated ones.
I hate the "it has existed since caveman times." Trading is an action and a concept, something we had always, meanwhile capitalism is just a system developed by the spooky scary muslims.
Lots of people back then worked in a version of gift economy. Trade was with outsiders and was more like a mob meeting with backup standing behind the ones doing the bartering. There was no central authority to make trade clean and board toom style.
Omg, I have to say this way too often. The amount of people who think capitalism is commerce is too darn high.
Well yeah, the Powell memo set the conservative strategies for convincing working class individuals that they're investors and it was in their best interest to support pro-corporate legislation back in the 70s
Tell me how working by the hour at a grocery store varies from working for a repo center by the hour or being a by the hour debt collector?
The billionaires who have abused the capitalistic society we live in aren't the true capitalists no one is a true capitalist.
People own shit, people have stuff, people don't have anywhere nice to put their stuff because of a priced out housing market.
If you live in the US you're living within the capitalistic guidelines that the powers that be set for us. If you live in China you're living within the semi-communistic way of life they've set.......
Yeah, well, I’m no communist! There shouldn’t even be a minimum wage, let the free market decide!
— Temporarily inconvenienced billionaires at my workplace.
The free market assumes abundant choice and perfect information. And that's why we have monopolies and massive marketing to counter that.
Just say the billionaires are communists
You, I like.
There shouldn’t even be a minimum wage, let the free market decide!
And it did, sadly. 2/3 of the US states still use the federal minimum wage as a guide, even though it doesn't even purchase a cup of coffee these days.
There shouldn't be a minimum wage! The free market should decide!
If everyone had a baseline standard of living, capitalists could pay whatever they wanted. And if their proposed wage wasn't worth doing, then no one would do it.
No one would do it
Unskilled labor does not have the luxury to just “not do it”. The capitalists know this, which is why they depress wages as far as they can to keep an entire class of workers under water.
If I were to lose my job, which can happen at any time working in a non-union shop in an at-will state, I would not be able to go anywhere and receive comparable wages in my area. I am studying to get certifications in a different industry that would give me some amount of freedom. For now, I work at the mercy of my employer.
The free market is a scam. It will take massive changes, paradigm shifts, to create an environment where the workers are free to go work where they choose, and be given actually competitive compensation.
But you're only obligated to work under the threat of illegal homelessness. That's not a free market, that's coercion.
If your basic needs were guaranteed, then unskilled labour especially would dictate the value of work in a truly free market. And if you truly can't find a job that will satisfy your desired lifestyle, you won't die or be imprisoned or suffer from illness.
How would my basic needs be guaranteed? If the government is going to provide the social safety nets they owe to us, then why not have them regulate labor, providing basic labor needs being guaranteed? Unions would be great, but there will be plenty of businesses that will not have them. Why not provide a safety net to the workers who will inevitably fall between the cracks?
The government shouldn't be providing safety nets, it should be maintaining the floor to ensure all citizens' basic needs are met. There should be no "what ifs".
The labour needs are already met, and would continue to be met in a free market where labour was optional for the labourer because people have wants. If you believe the government would need to ensure that labour needs are met, you're believing the capitalist lie that foundational labour must be bought under threat of violence.
Unskilled labor is a myth created by the ownership class.
Unskilled labor as in, I do not have any degrees or certifications that I can simply take to a new employer to leverage anything above starting at the bottom. This will almost always mean making less money. At-will employment mixed with unequal application of company rules and policy means that any day at work could be my last. Unemployment checks are a joke, and would not even cover my rent.
What would you call that?
Labor
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Technically small companies also are just employees. Risks outsourced and it can be easily killed away when the bigger company doesn't need them anymore. That's so fucked up and governments all around protect this behavior.
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these are important distinctions that are often glossed over and obscured: capitalist vs supporter of capitalism; Republican vs Republican-aligned voter. terms that make one seem like part of the in-group when they're not; terms that are nouns rather than verbs, that make an idea seem like an identity, so that changing your mind seems like uprooting your whole personality
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