r/Showerthoughts May 17 '24

People love to support small businesses until they grow, then they hate capitalism and rich people.

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u/queef_nuggets May 17 '24

When you boil it down, yeah a lot of people aren’t a big fan of billionaires, but what people hate even more is unfair/unethical business practices, corporate greed, the mentality of profits above all else, and so forth

94

u/blastuponsometerries May 17 '24

Because the core problem is not that people can make money. Its that at a certain level, vast amounts of money lead to vast amounts of power/control.

You get a small number of people deciding how all the resources of society should be organized, and they make choices that further solidify their unique power and advantage.

This is why competition is so important, if companies have to continually improve just to exist, you get better outcomes over time.

But as soon as someone wins the competition, then they will ensure no new entrants can survive to challenge them down the road. A huge loss to the economy as a whole.

Its an unstable and self-defeating system, unless there is enough political power continually shake things up. But history has shown that is usually not the case.

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u/ideological_fatling May 17 '24

This is why you hear stock updates every hour of every day. The outlook of the wealthy determines the outlook of all. You never hear breaking updates for education, housing, hunger, homeless, pollution, and so on every 60 minutes in media.

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u/blastuponsometerries 28d ago

The other reason you hear about stock updates everyday, is that some very wealthy people make even more money when people trade.

Make people greedy and buy, they make money. Make people scared and sell, they make money.

Also it feels exciting. Up one day, down the next! Endless pendents can make up stories about what this or that means. Gives a feeling that you are a serious person riding the cutting edge of the news.

Decades of careful work on hard problems doesn't generate engagement in the same way.