this can be taken at least two ways, one for frivolous consumer goods, and the other for more necessary things. first, frivolity.

this category is less problematic to me because items are not necessary. though that does not mean that items falling within this class do not cause plenty of side-issues to arise.

the most basic idea i have with regards to these non-essentials is that people feel that they have to buy them because companies and their fellow capitalists tell them they should. i am not saying that i am entirely immune, only that i understand that i must take responsibility for purchasing questionable items.

issues within this unnecessary group start to cause problems, however, when it comes to the young, the poor, the uneducated, and the fact that mind-numbing advertisements have been forced into many millions of people's brains since before they had a choice whether to partake of them or not.

companies are allowed to say nearly whatever they want in order to sell their products, and a large portion of the time they are selling things that are either unhealthy or at least very unnecessary. people have no idea what they are eating and even when you tell them they do not care. something seems quite wrong with that.

children are hooked on fairly toxic diets as soon as they are weened. and the culture has become almost entirely disposable-based. clearly those things lead to health problems, medical issues, environmental issues, etc. further than that, though, capitalism does not care.


the second issue is that of necessaries. as soon as something can be commercialized, it is. increase profit margins by decreasing quality, done. case in point, bottled water. municipal water is fine and practically free. bottle it in plastic that is bad for the environment and the consumer, ship it (fuel), buy it (money), repeat. not to mention that it had to come from somewhere. somewhere that now has to make up for a permanent water loss.

more importantly something like health care or even transportation. (i say more important than water because even though water is necessary, not using bottled water does not eliminate sources of water.) health care is not the same thing. if you cannot afford good health care that does not necessarily mean you have a slightly less satisfying version to fall back on. what it means is that when you get sick, you stay sick until you either get better, decide to be more poor, or die. that's it.

i don't understand the people who support capitalism so blood-thirstily. what we have is not even true capitalism. it is a watered-down, corporation-friendly, backwards form of socialism. the government does provide a fair amount and it protects us in some ways. if we had true capitalism (see, russia in recent years), most of us (myself included many times over) would be living on the streets, lucky to eat. or we'd be subsistence farmers.

finally, i don't like the idea that just because something can be sold that there is then a right to buy or sell it.

my answer is not a knee-jerk i want a bigger government. i want a better government. sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes different altogether. and this time i want a different economy.

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