It's always about money isn't it?
this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
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Only way to make people change their ways, if it hurts the bottom line then action is usually taken.
This is why government regulation should be harsher, and fines should be proportional to company income.
If the fine is too low it just becomes the cost of doing business.
Only way to make ~~people~~ the rich change their ways
Most people will stop doing something if you show them how it hurts others. Not so the wealthy and powerful.
Being rich actually causes neurological changes, reducing your capacity for empathy and making your brain look more like someone born with psychopathy. 'Power Corrupts' is a biological fact. To be powerful is to be more capable of evil.
Does being rich cause neurological changes, or do those with those neurological traits by and large try to become wealthy?
Just curious the actual science there. I agree to be that rich shows a lack of empathy one way or another.
It's easier to believe that the evil want power and that is also true, but the science says that power makes you evil.
https://www.npr.org/2013/08/10/210686255/a-sense-of-power-can-do-a-number-on-your-brain
https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/how-power-erodes-empathy-and-steps-we-can-take-rebuild-it
https://hbr.org/2015/04/becoming-powerful-makes-you-less-empathetic
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-empathy/201909/power-blocks-empathy
https://www.livescience.com/1128-mere-thought-money-people-selfish.html
Libertarian Socialists have been saying this for a century now.
I don't get much into doctrinal differences, but I feel like this is pretty core to a lot of anarchist thought. I vaguely recall a quote from engels, something about anarchists believing you need to abolish heirarchy in order to abolish injustice, vs socialists believing vice versa. I think neuroscience shows that power differentials will always create human misery.
Thanks for taking the time to list links!
Of course!
I've though about this a lot. I suspect evolution tilts a little towards psycopathy when wealthy.
Hard to say if theres a mechanism for that encoded in DNA, but if there is, Im betting it would get naturally selected for.
If an individual is in a position of power, then being a self-entitled asshole rapist will reduce competition and increase the spread of genes... Especially if the individual is a male
Assuming this has a negative effect of society, cultural evolution would hopefully respond with counters to this... Which I think is what we see time and again all over the world.
Society gets living situations relatively reliable. Assholes rise making things worse, society either crumbles into weakness or rejects new situation and removes assholes, encodes new ethics into societal norms and works towards gettingliiving situations reliable, repeat.
When more people are fed abd housed, theres more resources to devote towards economic and war engines, so I think this makes asshole removal naturally selected for on a cultural level.
This loop seems to be getting more frequent and I'd love if we could skip the parts where folks are miserable and dying.
I think it's the whole capitalist system that enables and rewards people with sociopathic traits. Which is why they are more successful in this system.
Which is weird, because doing nothing is only going to cost more and more as time goes on.
Well yeah, but have you thought about how doing something might impact profits this quarter? Unacceptable!
New acronym just dropped.
NIMQE - Not in my quarterly earnings! Pronounced Nimquee
Example usage: The CEO, upon receiving word of a new bill that would drastically help reduce carbon emissions but also create a temporary negative pressure on their multinational's earnings per share, pulled a suitcase full of cash from their file cabinet and walked out the door, calling up the governor to arrage a round of golf where they would declare NIMQE.
Exactly. It's about short term profits only.
It might cost more overall but it will be different people paying that cost (taxpayers and poor, mostly) whereas if we took action now it would be the capitalists paying for it.
It all makes perfect sense Expressed in dollars and cents Pounds shillings and pence Can't you see It all makes perfect sense
- Roger Waters
A 3C temperature increase will cause “precipitous declines in output, capital and consumption that exceed 50% by 2100”
Remember this is a global average. There will be places with a 100% decline.
Cause no one will be left to consume anything.
And, most importantly, -200% decline
And oil companies are still bribing politicians to make things even worse so they can make more money. At what point do we take over the evil companies to stop them from destroying the planet we all live on?
How exactly do you propose doing that "take over" — oil companies literally sue shareholders who ask for improvement.
Oh geez, that's so far beyond vile, I have no words.
As I've always said, climate protection is economy protection. In the long run especially.
But those fucks in charge are too short-sighted and narrow-minded.
Short term profits are more important than long term financial survival. Or, in case of our climate, even survival at all.
Oh no not the gross domestic product!!
Ironically one of the ways to fight climate crisis would be degrowth, which involves not caring about such things as the GDP
Shhh if we tell them it hurts GDP, billionaires might start actually paying attention
Six times and 12% is a massive understatement of what's going to happen
Absolutely massive
So much winning! We're setting all kinds of records and world firsts!
Hear me out for a moment:
We can solve a big chunk of this. Politicians want to be elected, so they do what the people want. Under capitalism, every receipt is a ballot paper. Our shopping, toys and short vacations are only possible through exploitation and destruction. If we understand this, we can make different choices and simply let things be. We change our minds, we stop doing it! That's harder than moaning about politics, the economy and the system on the internet, because you really have to change something about yourself. Paying more money for products that are also available cheaply. But as long as we remain greedy, spoiled bargain hunters, nothing will change around us.
Bonus points if you talk about it and go protest.
- Join an initiative at your workplace, neighborhood or start one yourself
- Join a group that engages in activism
- Vote for the most ambitious climate candidates at all levels over the next 10 years
- Buy everything used, second hand
- Switch to green energy providers
- Insulate your home
- Eat less meat and more plant-based foods
- Shift your banking and investments to benefit the environment
- Switch to public transportation, bike or electric car
- Stop flying