BrainWorms

Yes but that is different. Because water DOES trickle down, you see?

Also applies to cheese

In <50 years we’ll have an ecological collapse that will render all wealth meaningless.

Does that help?

Also here for the free hope.

Union power is on an upswing! The power of capitalism seems unescapable but so to did the divine right of kings! Things were this bad back in the 1920s too but the world didn't stay broken. Climate change is solvable even if it takes us another 40 years to tackle it in earnest humanity together can do so much more to tackle it than just using high efficiency light bulbs, ya know?

Things are gonna be OK. A greedy ruling class, fascism, it is all stuff that has been dealt with before and will be dealt with again. It might not be great, or even good, but it will be OK.

Even saying that these aren't new, unique problems might feel like doom and gloom but through cycles of oppression we have still gained ground in terms of health, violence, and social acceptance. It isn't always 2 steps forward and one step back, not all things move at the same rate (growing support for gay people doesn't help protect the environment and the back to the office push is actively against it) and there have been a lot of steps sideways (no lead in paint, gas, and pipes is great but forever chemicals and microplastics are a new threat) but really there has been more good than bad and more forward than backwards. No one is trying to drive buffaloes to extinction to genocide the native Americans any more, gay rights!, we saved the ozone layer, women can vote and own property, we forced racists to back off from overt suppression of minorities into less effective suppression that they can plausibly deny, and forced the ruling class to stop running things directly as kings and to work harder to sway things through payoffs and puppets.

We are winning. It isn't easy, it isn't all wins, but we win more than we lose and we are going to keep winning more and more. They still haven't recovered from the magna Carta, let alone the French revolution or the civil rights act and every major victory comes closer after the last with the powers that be recovering less and less between them.

I hope my shitty little phone post helps cheer you up and remind you how far we've come. You might want to take a look at the solar punk mental health and positivity discord server though https://discord.gg/7RmYF5Kh

You're already doing them a favor by treating neoliberalism like a genuine, measurable economic philosophy.

Maybe once upon a time, way back when it was first suggested, some people might have actually believed that's how things worked. But nobody these days is thinking "5000th time's a charm".

Instead, neoliberalism has become a collection of ready-made excuses for insatiable greed. They're soundbites that seem plausible enough to for use in political speeches and press conferences -- and when everyone is in on it, it's even easier to convince people they're true.

But openly or in secret, neoliberals love neoliberalism failing. That's how they get rich.

Does the "free market" destroy companies who behave unethically? Nope! The most hated companies in the world keep posting record profits, because consumers don't have the luxury of holding them accountable.

Does a "small government" with few regulations create increased competition? Nope! But it means they can dump their toxic by-products in the local river and pay out the savings as executive bonuses.

Does wealth "trickle down" to the poor? Nope! It ends up in off-shore bank accounts, but people are desperate enough for a little more cash that they keep voting to give the rich another tax break.

"Privatisation breeds efficiency" is bullshit that hands people monopolies and makes the public pay for its failure. "Welfare just causes inflation" is bullshit that frees up more public money for subsidies and no-bid tenders.

If neoliberalism actually worked, rich people would hate it.

Why only the middle class? The lower class needs social welfare too, even more.