Posts by Benjamin Rodriguez2

everyone on this planet just wants to prove themselves, you know? they want respect, they want people to go absolutely wild for them.

Look, I get it, we’re all driven by ego to some degree, whether it's a little bit or a whole lot; we all want to be *someone*, so yeah, we can agree there. But my point is that most people aren't actually trying to build themselves up through, I don't know, actual constructive work or anything useful. I hope that makes more sense now. It’s pretty gutsy—maybe even straight-up delusional—to base an entire economy on the desperate need for people to show off, especially when most of that "showing off" just involves smoking certain brands of cigarettes, driving a specific luxury car, owning a beach house in Malibu, or being a member at some exclusive country club...

they'll have to turn to science, art, building the perfect home—masons, making the best damn pizza.

Man, I wish it were that simple. But you're forgetting that even today, people still have plenty of free time on their hands, and most of them just blow it watching the news, binging Netflix, grabbing beers, or gossiping about neighbors. Plus, just because someone decides to bake a pizza for existential reasons doesn't mean they won't also happen to make the best pizza in town, right?

Please weigh in on this: SOCIALISM
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People were handed apartments for free, cheap food, low utilities, jobs without any pressure, and what did we get? We got a big fat nothing, not exactly the explosion of creativity you're dreaming about.
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Regarding Dragičević, you can find his entire body of work right here on this site



Do you really think he was sitting around rewriting Political Economy every couple of years?

Look, I’ll tell you why, because they want respect from others, right? They want to prove they’re better than the rest of the crowd. Motivation, competition... it’s all just different flavors of the same thing, dear blank rei, and it all boils down to that basic human drive to prove oneself.

Just take a look around you and try to count how many people actually have those things driving their lives. I honestly don't think you'll find more than 20% of them. 😁

As for the folks in hair styling or the garment industry, it's not like they're just gonna slack off and live for free, you know? I don't know what the official plan is, but there's no way it works like that—there has to be actual skill, a trade, actual WORK involved. And I don't mean work in the sense that if you don't show up tomorrow, your wife and kids start crying because there's no food on the table.

Give me a concrete suggestion then—how do you "force" someone who refuses to work to actually get moving without using survival as the motivator? Besides, the level of support you're talking about—where it's not quite "NO FOOD ON THE TABLE"—has already been reached here in the States: we've got welfare, child benefits, charities providing clothes, soup kitchens... Sure, you won't be driving a car, surfing the web, or scrolling on your phone with that kind of help, but those aren't exactly survival necessities, are they? 😁 (Or maybe they are?

Anyway, I found this book; Adolf Dragičević, specifically regarding Political Economy (from a law school in a big city), so it's not just some random rambling, and the guy is an academic, so he's really just relaying established expert views.

Well, why didn't you just say where you're getting your inspiration from right away? 😁 😁 People like Adolf were the ones who designed the old socialist systems that, well, eventually fell apart. And they failed precisely because of their attitude toward labor. People were handed apartments for nothing, cheap food, dirt-cheap utilities, and jobs with ZERO PRESSURE (just ask any mom what the work atmosphere was like back in the socialist era). And what did that get us? It got us a massive NOTHING, not the explosion of creativity you're dreaming about. It turns out most people will put in the bare minimum if there's no pressure. If you don't believe me, just ask anyone over 45. Or go walk into a government office or a state-run agency and see what it looks like.

And check the publication date on that Dragičević book. I'd bet anything it was 1989 or earlier. 🙂

So, just imagine—hypothetically speaking—if out of six billion people, five billion are basically rotting away and that one billion is actually out there researching, searching, and discovering stuff... then by the laws of pure math, wouldn't the number of breakthroughs be immeasurable, making the benefits for the human race massive? Wouldn't it?!

Man, you must be part of some club for wide-eyed, overachieving young scientists or something. Wake up, man; most people on this planet couldn't care less about science, discoveries, space, or any of that other crap. Ever heard of that? You obviously went to a prep school (or are still stuck in one), right? Try walking through a vocational school or a local trade district once in a while just to see what actual life philosophies look like 😁. Even most high school kids aren't that far off from reality.

And what kind of **benefits for the human race** are we even talking about if all our basic existential needs are already met?? All those innovations, once the initial satisfaction of basic survival kicks in, would just become pure *l'art pour l'art*—or whatever the phrase is—basically just a desperate attempt to stave off total, crushing boredom.

Look, imagine Santa Claus brings you this miraculous machine with a big, bright red button. All you have to do is imagine whatever you want, hit the button, and voila, it appears. I guarantee you that after three months of fulfilling every single possible and impossible whim, you'd grab a huge sledgehammer, smash that magic machine into a million pieces, and go right back to your normal life.

So, just enjoy what you've got right now (you don't have much of a choice) 🙂

Fifty years ago, the big struggle was just having a roof over your head and enough food to eat, and a century before that, it was just surviving the day without starving.

True enough. We aren't starving—at least not us folks in the Northern Hemisphere—but honestly, God help us with the junk we actually consume. Here in the States, things are decent enough if you don't look too closely, but go outside and really check it out, and you'll see most food barely has any color, shape, taste, or smell left in it. I mean, seriously, in America, a liter of Coca-Cola is cheaper than a liter of water???

We’re all crammed into these massive, crowded, stinking cities now, even if our apartments feel like luxury compared to the past. It used to be the exact opposite, right? People lived out in the country with clean air and nature, but life was just brutal and penniless.

We gained some stuff and lost some other stuff along the way. All things considered, I guess we’ve got it better than our ancestors did, don't you think?

are we actually moving toward a society where poverty won't exist?

No, we are definitely not making progress there. Just look at the numbers; even in the West, society is fracturing more than ever, with the rich getting obscenely wealthier while the poor just sink deeper. The net worth of the average American is basically $0.

Like you pointed out, the whole definition of being "poor" is pretty subjective. One survey says 80% of Americans feel poor, yet at least 50% of Americans own a smartphone. Clearly, even the ones struggling have one of those lying around. 😁

So maybe the real question we should be asking is: where the hell is the middle class going? They're supposed to be the backbone of any democratic society, but here, they've almost vanished, kept alive by nothing but a facade of credit and debt. Things are moving in a similar direction in the West, just at a slightly slower pace. It's harder to find a job, harder to keep one, and real estate is ridiculously expensive... all in all, the "music" is playing a much higher price than it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago.