Money spent buying things is good for an economy & even stands a chance of increasing egalitarianism. Money invested is far more chaotic— When people run out of things to buy they must invest. When invested in you must shape your actions to serve the imagined bottom line. Perhaps enacting cruelty that you’d never bother with for your own money.
The corporation opens its eyes, becomes a sentient creature of abstractly defined desires. The first AI running on a computer of thousands of people.
I’m not so naive to suggest no joint ventures or limited liability. It’s true sometimes people have a good idea, but no money— a goal of great expense, raising capital to make it happen then is only right.
I wish simply there was more care for the creatures we choose to embody— a need not just to raise money but also to earn trust of a quorum ready to take responsibility for the monster. No more illusions of magic boxes where one would place a sum of money at night & find it increased by dawn.
What I’m saying here is basically that #investors are often not invested at all. Many would be horrified by the ‘work’ their money has enabled. Or disgusted with the frivolous and intrinsically fraudulent character of some of the corporate projects they have enabled; this system so designed as to make exploitative extraction, liquidation mines and pure con jobs not just easy, but inevitable.
I often think about how people offload responsibility for their actions.
Consumers will blame the companies that make products, for the unethical practices of products they buy.
Workers will say they have no choice to do what they do because they needed a job and had no other options.
Bosses and politicians will say they had no choice for budget reasons, or say that "this is what consumers/voters want".
And investors, also, will just say that it is common sense to invest their money - that due to inflation their money will decrease in value, in terms of how much can be bought from it.
I think most people think of themselves as trapped, with no other choice but to do the evil bidding of capitalism.
It sucks, and until more people are willing to imagine an alternative to capitalism, we'll all be stuck feeling like this.
On top of this, something I notice a lot is that no matter how wealthy anyone is, a lot of people will still think they they need to buy more in order to keep up with other people in their economic bracket.
Regardless of how much someone's income is, compared to others, many people will still think they need to save every penny they have.
A purchase that can be as just a normal average every expenditure to one person can be seen as a luxury to others, and yet that first person can end up stuck trying to compete with someone wealthier than themselves.
I remember being very self conscious about brands and styles as a teen. But, I always thought that was part of the general identity crisis of adolescence.
I have friends that span a wide range of poverty and wealth. I'm not ashamed to be much poorer than some, nor proud to be a bit richer than others. And I think they are the same.
Moreover any conspicuous consumption I might try would just be rude to those with less (if I can't share) and totally unimpressive to the better off ones.
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I too cared about brand and style as a child. Interestingly though, at least for me, it was something fairly well isolated to my childhood as well. As an adult most of my friends are poor or close to it and I have never cared much other than how it may effect their happiness.
