Want to know what makes me angry? Reading this thread and seeing several pages worth of posts from people criticising the poor/young for small-scale theft while implicitly condoning the current socio-economic systems which encourage such actions through a steadily increasing disparity between rich and poor.
Here's a simple example: If I have £1000 to my name, I will probably have to work for almost my entire life, and will end up, maybe, owning my own home and having some money to retire on, if I'm lucky. On the other hand, if I start off with £10,000,000 (say, through inheritance or fraud) I never have to work another day in my life, still get to live in luxury, AND I end up with more money than I started with simply by putting some into stock-market funds managed by someone I hired.
Oh, how about another example: about 15% of people in the US were food insecure in 2009 [1]. This means they had no reliable source of food (or money for food). On the other hand, the richest 1% own about 34.6% of total assets and the richest 20% own over 85% [2]. Hey, look at that, more people who like to sit on their piles of cash and complain about all the poor people causing trouble.
Frankly, it's really fucking depressing when I look out there and see BILLIONS of people all screwing each other over just to try and claw their way to the top of the pile, while preaching about 'morals' and 'ethics'. WE HAVE WALKED ON THE MOON FOR FUCK'S SAKE! Seriously, we are the result of about ~4 billion years of evolution, yet we still can't manage to build a society where people aren't required to act unethically in order to live in comfort. Hell, we can't even build a society where people know how to screw each other over without being massive fucking hypocrites.
Want to know the bit that makes me angry rather than just impatient though? I can't think of a better system without resorting to Deus ex Machina (quite literally, since my best models require an as-yet hypothetical AI to run things). The problem lies in one simple fact: Humans fuck each other over no matter what. Even if you try as hard as possible to act ethically, your brain is hardwired to find justifications for actions which benefit you at the expense of others. Maybe 1/10 people could overcome this to a point where they could act as functional members of society, but this number is simply too small to make it work. The fact is that even if there are only a small number of 'greedy' individuals, they will still claw their way up into positions where they can cause maximum harm.
Actually, 1 last point, fuck anyone who complains about the ethics of others then suggests death as an appropriate penalty for them (or in fact any penalty what so ever). Guess what? When you wish that unethical individuals be harmed, you are acting unethically. I would advise enacting your beliefs, preferably after rectifying them so you don't have to commit suicide.
[1]
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/File:US_Unemployment_1890-2009.gif[2]
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.htmlPS: If anyone's wondering why I use £ for currency but talk about the US, it's because I know the value of £ better (I'm in the UK) but the US is the largest model of 'Western Capitalism' (as oppose to true capitalism).
Anyway, rant over, I'll try and calm down now. Also, I'll try to avoid looking at this thread for a while just in case this starts up the argument over piracy again. I've already concluded that the question is irrelevant given the wider perspective, but hypocrisy makes me RRRAAAAAGE none the less. Also, I REALLY want someone to try and defend the 'Corporate Dictatorship' which exists currently, please, go ahead, I think it would be funny. Screw it, I may check back here, I don't know, I just figured I'd let everyone have a nice taste of RAGE since this is the rage thread.
Author
Topic: Things that made you RRRRRRAAAAGGGGEEEE today: Trust-o-nomics Edition (Read 3785260 times)