one thing that I think that causes capitalists to misunderstand discussions of anti-capitalism is firmly rooted in the fact that many of them mistake their own cultural values for human nature. one of the most popular arguments I hear against socialism is that it will always fail because human nature dictates that you must have personal incentive to work, and without that, most people won’t work if they don’t need to.
however, one of the very first things you learn in the field of cultural anthropology and related studies is that the things we often take as basic human nature are often wildly different or completely lacking in other cultures because the cultural values are entirely different. it’s one of the major reasons for inter-cultural conflict and fuels xenophobia. “those people are different from me in a way that I do not understand. they do not play by rules of basic human decency, and, therefore, they must be Bad.”
if you as a society value work that benefits the whole community, people will work to benefit the whole community. if you as a society value people over money, people will put people over money.
capitalists always pretend that nobody will want to be a doctor without monetary incentive, and personally I think it’s really telling about them as a person that they think “saving lives” couldn’t possibly be incentive enough for someone to become a doctor without a shit ton of money pouring in as well.
It’s also important to note that poor folk under capitalism are obviously going to see money as a priority. When money is the cure for hunger, homelessness, and illness, of course they’re going to leap toward monetary incentives.
Survival under capitalism means giving up happiness and morality to put food on your table and a roof over your head, and the system was *designed that way*. They always seem to think that human nature is how people act under the rules the capitalists themselves, wrote.
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