It seems, as I grow older, I drift further and further left in my politics.

So, let’s intro this subject – which I’ve been compiling a looooong list of rants about – with a little style if not much grace.

I’ve had many a conversation with people I consider learned and thoughtful, and whenever I bring up the failings of Capitalism, invariably they will say something akin to: “There are bad actors in everything. Blame the people that abuse the system, don’t blame the system.”

That sounds reasonable…

…Okay, no it fucking doesn’t. Not if you think it through.

Capitalism incentivizes people to be inhumane to each other.

That guy who bought up all the hand sanitizer at the beginning of this COVID-19 crisis?

He was being a good capitalist.

Those scum-fucks on television, telling us we should all risk our lives to open the economy back up, so their fucking stock portfolios can recover?

Those assholes are being good capitalists.

That circus peanut we call a president, using the office to shovel money into his own businesses?

A. Good. Capitalist.

Capitalism has led those with plenty, with magnitudes more than they need, to keep others – those without even the barest – to live in degradation, squalor, violence, exploitation, and despair.

Capitalism tells companies who get tax breaks or receive bailouts that it is in their better interest to buy back their stocks – thereby raising the price of said stocks and making the company look more profitable than it is – instead of investing in business infrastructure or living wages and healthcare for their workers.

Capitalism tells its practitioners to press the advantage and to take all they can without regard to who or what it damages.

Oh, and one more thing capitalism has done for us:

It has led people and their governments to ignore the existential issue of our age:

Climate Change.

Will future generations have a habitable planet to live on?

Capitalism instructs us not to care about such things if they endanger the ability to make a profit.

(For those of you that would like to argue about the good things capitalism has done, I’ll be happy to refute that idea by showing you that what you’re referring to isn’t capitalism per se, but a severely regulated version of it. Ok, so I’ll do that. But not today. Today is for screaming until you pass out and hoping the dreams you have while unconscious are better than the unlubricated merry-go-round world we are living in at present. Good luck with that.)

Until next time…