The real cost of capitalism

I've been thinking about capitalism. I'm not an economist or an expert in politics. However I never let lack of knowledge about the subject stop me from forming an opinion, so I have come to the following conclusions:


1. Capitalism is driven by greed and selfishness. The "I need to have more shit than the other guy" mentality. This is so important that bankers earn gazillions (roughly) and nurses earn much less (ish).

2. We are a prosperous nation but wealth isn't shared. (See 1.) Everything is based on getting more money, having a strong economy. So we trade shit and pay investment bankers a fuckload of cash so that they make more money out of the money they already have. Sometimes this is quite good. Sometimes this is Well Bad. (See: Global Recession).

3. Because we made money before, this perpetuates the need to make even more. Then we make bad decisions and everyone gets freaked out and normal people stop spending money and no-one can pay back their outrageous debts (see Global Recession).

4. I'm not sure where I'm going with this.

5. Oh yeah. So because money is scarce and we've become dependent on making more of it, everything not of immediate value gets cut out so that we can all get on with Making More Money.

6. This includes the arts, classical music, sports, academia, space exploration and a Shit Load of other good stuff.

7. Creativity and exploration and talent start disappearing because they have no direct monetary value. (But they have huge non financial value.) For example if you want to get a book published these days you have to have a business plan and an agent and a target audience and a pitch and shit. When The Hobbit was published the publisher read it to his grandchildren to see if they liked it. They did so he went ahead and published one of the greatest books ever written.

8. Where am I going with this? Not sure.

9. Oh yeah. So all the wonderful things about being part of the human race get forgotten about under a pile of marketing and target audiences and investment banks and equity and Market value and sales pitches.

10. This is awfully sad and the true cost of capitalism is a generation of lost philosophers, writers, thinkers, artists, musicians and explorers.

To summarise: 1+2+3+4+5+6x(7+8+9)=10.

The end.

Footnote: I did little to no research for this, motherfuckers.