#i basically walked away from that believing the American Dream to be increasingly unattainable and very dead

[brightsuzaku]

I've always been living pretty comfortably in life, to the point where I'm in a soul-sucking job, but still have a lifetime of financial stability to fall back onto.

I've grown up in one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the US, and was sung the praises of venture capitalism, micro-financing, and angel investment in high achool, because most of my peers came from money and could actively do those things. I've been taught all my life about Capitalism being an engine for great good!

Four years ago, I was still barely believing that, because I'm autistic as heck, and not only have a enough shreds of empathy to make a crazy quilt, but also was watching private equity and venture capitalist-funded startups wreck entire business or absolutely get wrecked themselves.

I don't mean to longpost, but I've grown to radically lean way more socialist, over the years. SO MUCH of today's problems, with stratification, the wealth divide, the scourge of environmental destruction, the brokenness of healthcare... In the US, that can be linked pretty much entirely back to the capitalistic need to profit, in whatever way possible.

And the profit isn't for the little guys at the firms, or working at the company that just got bought up, nor is it being made by "small business owners with big dreams but not enough capital for the banks"... It's bled into the pockets of investors and owners of these forms, and so it goes. You're sooner to be fired or go bankrupt and into debt than to get any real help. It's disgusting.

I don't know where I'm going with this anymore, but we need a universal basic income, we need universal healthcare for all, we need to freaking eat the rich.

The only "equity" I want in my vocabulary is "social equity"!

(via (111) Pinterest)