Does this also apply to say, smartphones?
You think that there aren’t people who might need a Smartphone for work or medical emergencies? That is a non-zero number, so no. However should we have everyone’s base needs met before others get past a certain point before luxury goods? Yes. Should we be able to do that now AND have luxury goods? Also Yes. Is it alright for people to have a Billion Dollars before that? Definitely No.
Somehow, all these pleas on behalf of the downtrodden never include us actually making any sacrifices or change, just the rich.
Weird how it’s easy to agitate for change when it involves zero sacrifice on your part.
Ok… if i give up my phone, i feed a family for a week. If bezo gives up a yacht, he feeds 1,000 familes for life. See the problem here?
That’s bullshit. Same argument corporations try to push on us about climate change. Fish rots from the head down. Obviously there will be sacrifices we have to make. But to preach “what will YOU be giving up, huh??” when megacorps and gazillionaires hoard literal mountains of wealth to the detriment of the planet and all others while they purposely stand in the way of any progress or change that might affect their bottom line? Bootlicking at worst, misguided liberal soapbox bullshit at best.
Weird gotcha. What is this the early 2000s when smartphones were rich people toys?
Globally, they still are. Almost half the world doesn’t have one. And children still lose their limbs mining the cobalt etc.
I guess the question could be better phrased as “and what are you personally giving up to ensure that as many people as possible are fed?”
However also, for many many people smartphones are their only way to access the internet, and it’s the primary device for computing in poorer nations I believe
If there’s one “essential” electronic device these days, it’s the smartphone.
Yea I assumed that your main point was some kind of sacrifice, not the smartphones themselves. If it weren’t for the smartphones you’d be phrasing your gotcha around TVs, or washing machines, or fridges, or indoor plumbing. I’ve seen this very conservative argument before.
Progressivism and leftism aren’t some kind of ascetic christianity and nobody needs a morality preacher. Social progress is not about individual morality. And it’s not a zero sum game either.
There is enough food production and wealth in the world to eliminate hunger and extreme poverty already. I could be a selfish asshole not willing to part with my sneaker collection and that would still be the case.
Maybe there is a future where carrying around a smartphone isn’t necessary because we’ve rebuilt human connection in communities. The damn things are addictive misery machines under capitalism anyway. But that’s very different from going around wagging the finger at people that say “we could feed the hungry”.
This probably does apply to smart phones, TV, consumer computers. Its hard to look at socialism and answer the question of what would it look like but at a guess: planned obsolescence would be out the window. No one is upgrading to an ai powered refrigerator because their old one is broke. No one is buying the newest smart phone because they’re older model died(Hyperbole), Yet we live in a system of yearly releases of similar tech that we mindlessly consume. This consumption is a by product of the capitalist system. Purely manufactured to make money.
So in my imagined full communist world. We have phone. Phones that last longer, they are geared to be easily upgraded, dissembleable and actually future proofed unlike what we have now.
I’ve seen this episode, at first after the revolution there’s three full plates of food. The party is doing well in power, then they consolidate power, the food portions get smaller as party elites get richer and more powerful.
Eventually it’s just three plastic replicas of food, as they acknowledge everyone eats differently. Eventually it’s just a badge or picture of the plates of food. By that time class based Capitalism has been restarted by the new party oligarchs, they even have more control and oversight than the current Capitalists.
What I mean is, you can’t “should” us to a new and better system. You have to fully understand the current one, its weaknesses and strengths and the minds/views/motivations of every class and type in it before you can come up with something that is entirely and peacefully transition motivated, and has a better option to transition to… What’s more the whole journey has to appeal to human nature and satisfy some if not all those needs… Even if you don’t personally share all those needs… And you have to be realistic about such.
Rules for Rulers comes as close as I’ve seen on this:
Or, you know, we could spend slightly more on existing food programs and relax eligibility requirements…
We don’t have to put Stalin in charge to better fund SNAP or free school lunches
Cool, glad it got resolved so simply and neatly, good job everyone! 👍
P.S remember when the Black Panthers had to enforce the right to have a free breakfast program, by patrolling the streets with guns? They we’re Maoist by the way (Maoism dictates using the community to set up community services). Glad things are so much simpler now. Operating on kind comments, thoughts and prayers 🙏
I don’t understand why, when confronted with the idea that we should eliminate hunger, you equated that with communist revolution
So long as I can still choose to skip breakfast when I want.
One yacht? That’s amateur numbers!
https://luxurylaunches.com/transport/gabe-newell-luxury-yachts.php
Wow, I did not know that. He could definitely drop the percentage he takes from Indy developers. I always thought his 30%, was scummy. Now moreso.
From all developers honestly but just from indies would be great considering they already have it in their contract that the % goes down after X$ of sales (which benefits larger devs).
Valve makes enough money to pay their employees more than the competition while also having surplus to have tons of side projects that will lead to nothing and making the boss a billionaire… I don’t mind the first two, but that last bit means money coming out of our pockets and going towards buying yachts…
(Disclaimer: I hate all billionaires, this applies to all platforms, we overpay for games [and most other things] in general because there’s billionaires at the top of the creation/distribution chain)
I eat my breakfast from a bowl. Checkmate yachters!
