You are happy with the options within your view, that is fine! I donāt think persons are knocking that comfort and feeling of control in an unsteady world.
Some others want for better and more available choices, really. Less filtering, less persuasion, more choice. Is that really a problem to anyone?
Sure sometimes i can go through decision paralysis without time to research fully, but thatās my own neurotype. I still prefer the occasional āfuck itā to going with the default options presented to me every single time.
What if you find that you suddenly canāt afford to pay your bills because prices have doubled, is that your responsibility?
Choices are influenced by so many things; circumstances, environment, influence, education, the list is long. Choices donāt exist in isolation and free will is a very complex idea.
I live on a cul de sac full of bungalows, mostly lived in by elderly people. We often get people calling round offering to āresealā our roof tiles or some other scam. They donāt make a lot of effort with me, because Iām not elderly and vulnerable and they know Iām not going to fall for it (not to mention Iām a big fucker and not afraid of telling them to fuck off). Are the vulnerable elderly people who do fall for their scams completely responsible for that decision?
I used to work in retail and the way supermarkets manipulate people into buying shit they donāt need is both shocking and fascinating.
Yes, we are all ultimately responsible for our choices and it is usually us that are left with the consequences of those choices, but itās not black and white.
Interesting context, i am right now rehearsing for a set of performances in Europe with travel paid for by a philanthropic fund, in the past such endeavors were paid for by government agencies to support cultural supremacy.
Iām still unsure of how i feel about support for music and theater in that regard, i am not representing my nation through the work directly, nor do any of the subjects covered represent the worst of it either, but it is something i think about constantly.
The broad relationship of big money to culture and your personal relationship to both should always be questioned.
Blockquote Yes, we are all ultimately responsible for our choices and it is usually us that are left with the consequences of those choices, but itās not black and white.
Great, you agree itās our responsibility. Touching on your example however. If you have no money, you obviously cannot choose to pay or not pay your bills. That decision is taken away from you. I cannot decide to buy or not to buy a mansion if I do not have the finances to do so, can I ?
I am referring to when you actually have a decision that you are able to choose one outcome or the other. In that context, you make the decision. Nothing else.
Unfortunately for those elderly people, regardless if they were influenced in making a poor decision, they still had to make a decision.
But what if the choice to not consume it is detrimental to the chooser?
If we look at the internet as physical land, Meta, Google and Spotify have created a world that looks a lot like what one might see in small town America: the only place to purchase your goods is to shop at Walmart. You canāt not buy food, however much you disagree with Walmart as a company.
Yes, there are other search engines and streaming platforms, but these companies have spent literally trillions creating an internet wherein people have never heard of another option (no one I talk to about alternatives has heard of Tidal or DuckDuckGo), or theyāve made it extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, for SMBs / artists to do business evading their platforms: if you are a small business, you really canāt not be on Amazon or Etsy; if you want exposure as a musician, you have to be on Spotify. This is not much of a choice.
I do agree with you that, ultimately, it is up to the consumer, and I do wish people took greater care to make more informed choices. However, the forces that aim to limit peopleās choice are real, and they are astonishingly effective.
People talking here like the music industry ever gave a damn about the artists they exploit. This is just the natural evolution and itās coming to an industry near you.
I stopped giving Netflix my money as their programming does not appeal to me. I donāt use Spotify for similar reasons. I could go on.
Vote with your wallet, move your demand to other suppliers (the actual definition of Capitalism).
All well and good, but as has been explained before there are companies that have grown beyond the choice that capitalism provides.
Good luck starting a search engine that competes with Google. Good luck starting a OS developer that competes with Apple/Windows etc. Extrapolate this to most any field. The dream of true capitalism is great but in practice it can eat itself until it becomes the thing it isnāt supposed to be.
Until governments start to limit companies to grow beyond a certain line (like the EU is trying to do) the dream of capitalism being fair (as in vote with your wallet) is just that, a dream. On the small scale it works but on the bigger scale it pretty much fails in that.
You are the target in the plan
āConsume till you die!ā
Is the pleasure of the fatman
and if your life aināt good enough
And if you donāt look good enough
the fatman can be your master
Your control is what heās after
