‘Anti Capitalist’: 30 Times People Realized That Modern Capitalism Is Starting To Look Ridiculous
Income and wealth inequality continues to deepen, prices are soaring, inflation looms its shadowy fangs, and the aftershocks from the so-called Great Resignation are still echoing across the economy. It’s no wonder that a lot of people are scared for their future, are dissatisfied and critical of the way the economy is structured. Some believe that capitalism has become too radical and devolved into corporatism and unchecked soulless consumerism. For them, capitalism has become Public Enemy Number One.
One Instagram page that captures this sentiment is the ‘Anti Capitalist’ project that has amassed just over 173k followers. The founder of the page, who wittily describes themselves as having “no basic understanding of economics or politics,” explains that they’re fighting capitalism, racism, and fascism with the content that they post.
Scroll down for the most on-point anti-capitalist memes and don’t forget to upvote the ones that resonated the most with you, dear Pandas. Got any interesting insights about current financial happenings and economic developments? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
This post may include affiliate links.
I liked this so much that I went to the source to upvote it there too.
Financial expert Rick Orford explained to Bored Panda a while back that extreme capitalism and excessive greed are the consequences of a large enough part of the population that’s willing to take risks. The core problem, therefore, is greed. Or rather, too much of it.
“Greed is widely accepted to be the reason for the two largest financial crises in the last century; namely 1929 and 2008. It also creates the income inequality that’s largely seen in the United States. Indeed, while everyone, in theory, has an equal opportunity to flourish, the scales seem to tip to those with the most money," he said.
THIS!!! As an American, I am saddened by the fact that we have an extremely high rate of homelessness. We evict and destroy tent site where the homeless live and do nothing to replace or help them. There are many many empty homes and old factories that could be used to house them and improve their lives yet they still set empty. Its disgusting. I do what I can to help in my community but we need to be helping at a national level. These people are humans and citizens of our country yet are cast aside and left to die in the elements. It just sad on so many levels.
My friend once told me, "You can't budget your way out of your income bracket." It was some of the best advice I'd ever gotten.
“[Capitalism] allows folks like you and me to succeed by creating or investing in businesses. Indeed, one looking to borrow money from the banks today won’t have to pay much for the loan. As such, it encourages growth. However, extreme capitalism creates a scenario where greed overtakes reason, and it risks the financial system," financial expert Rick told Bored Panda.
According to the expert, social democracy, also known as socialism, lies at the other end of the scale from capitalism. Social democracies tax their citizens more than capitalistic countries, however, in return, the people have easy and free (or very cheap) access to vital services.
I can already hear a comment of a healthcareless, ideologically blinded billionaire supporter: “Oooooh, a socialist!”
"Citizens are given services such as free and (easily) accessible healthcare, child care, social welfare, etc. Conversely, highly capitalistic societies charge for these services, making it incredibly challenging for the poor," he said.
Rick pointed out that capitalism gives anyone the tools to flourish and grow. What’s more, nobody should be under the illusion that the wealthy are always making a profit. Businesspeople take large risks and can suffer very heavy financial losses if things don’t pan out the way they expect them to. Problems arise, however, when major companies and social media conglomerates start influencing how people think.
people today still believe in the 'being poor is an attitude' misconception it's hilariously unfortunate
“Today, the news is largely distributed by some of the largest American corporations: Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Think Brexit or the 2016 American Presidential election,” the expert warned.
Though, theoretically, capitalism helps ordinary people sell their products and open up their own businesses, the reality is tougher: they have to compete with established industry giants.
I was talking with a family member about war reparations the other day, and ended up googling if the US had ever paid reparations for any of the wars they've been in. Turns out, the only reparations the US has ever paid, was to surviving members of the Japanese internment camps (in the 80s, I think), and to some people who were sterilised against their will in Florida. The US is extremely bad at taking responsibility for it's past bad acts
“Those [products] with the best quality, price, customer service, or combination (of at least two) often do well. Increasingly, however, those who are willing to spend more at the beginning are seeing both extreme gains and losses. Famously, Amazon and Tesla, for example, have spent hundreds of millions of investors’ dollars before ever making a cent," he said.
Certain parts of social media are very anti-capitalist and Instagram is no different. Very recently, Bored Panda wrote about the ‘Humans of Capitalism’ project that makes memes about economic dystopia.
Angel, the founder of that particular IG project, told Bored Panda that they’re not optimistic about the future. They believe that people are constantly bombarded by information, non-stop, to get them to consume more and more products, which helps capitalism survive as a system.
In the UK our entire lifeboat/rescue from water system is run and peopled by volunteers and they are world class.
"We often see many small businesses collapsing because they are not able to fight with the current trend or to combat with the giant competitors. So they have two options, close the business or sell it," they said.
They believe that the future is likely to bring more automation, with machines producing, delivering, and taking care of the food supply, clothing, and the healthcare system. However, this would mean that some people would lose their jobs while the question of who owns the distribution system would be on many an individual’s minds.
bodyslam cop. eat the corrupt. kill the rich. take their leftovers. seize control of the government. do it.
I may be naïve, but isn't it a good thing that a company has opened a warehouse in a poor area that would offer jobs to those in much need?
"The idea of getting free food, water, health, clothing, is nice and, in reality, if we take a closer look at the current system we can see that more people are let off and replaced by machines. For example, we can see that McDonald's workers are fired and they have been replaced with machines that work on touch or by sound and they take orders, forward orders to the employees, etc,” they mused.
"I believe that 50 years from now machines will provide food, clothing, healthcare services, and much more, by themselves, with little to no employees monitoring them. But there is an issue with that. You will leave millions of people jobless and cause huge riots as the famous quote from Jean-Jacques Rousseau goes: 'When the people shall have no more to eat, they will eat the rich.'"
Looks more like an armchair homeless advocate. As one who has worked in the homeless field, it is more complicated than people want to accept. However, things can change to make it better, less complicated, and quicker to respond to peoples needs.
To defend???!! Hahahah what a load of bullshit!! Americans fight wars abroad to maintain what you have, to steal resourses! And if you dont know that by now, you are most likely an ignorant u.s citizen
This is how I was raised and how I lived my life. Now, my body is worn out and I can't afford to fix it.... What about the deal we had..... I work hard for you all my life, I never see my kids school activities because I'm away at sea on an oilrig, killing myself for my company and my family. Now, you just wiped your hands of me, I can only suffer from my damaged body and hope for a quick death. It's all a lie, America is a lie. Look at me, did everything you are supposed to do, but America turned its back on me as an old wounded warrior. Damn America to hell!
this is precisely what happened to peasants after the black death in europe when nobles realised they had to pay peasants better or lose them (also the black death killed a lot of peasants)
Yep. We also tell new parents that they're superheroes without offering any support, build more homeless shelters when most unhoused people fear the trauma that happens in large shelters, focus on correcting the narrative of Thanksgiving without backing any tribal nation's current struggles with treaties, and redesign Mrs. Butterworth instead of passing voting rights legislation. The common theme in all of these is that when people who are not directly impacted by a policy decide to make the policy, nine times out of ten, they miss the mark. The key to fixing this is to support people at the heart of an issue in deciding what they need, then throw your time, energy, and resources behind their leadership.
“It means it was weather and not a bunch of lunatics smearing their poos on the wall of a government building.”
Stop sneering at people for imperfectly navigating a system that is rigged against them.
Kiss a lot of ass or be born into a rich family. They're the only routes to success.
True. I don't know a single person who had something stolen and the police either found the items, or caught the person who did it. NOT ONE. As far as I'm concerned the only reason you ring the police after a burglary is to get an "incident reference number" from them so your insurance company will pay out.
I get what you mean, but getting people back to work prevents them from becoming homeless. You may see this as dystopia, but it's also real life. People need money to provide for themselves and their loved ones.
In the communist hellhole of New Zealand, Comrade Jacinda gives a wage subsidy for those who have to stay home.
Load More Replies...It's a shitty situation for sure. People need to work to live, but they deserve to be safe while doing so. So... vaccine mandates? Nooo, because the anti-vaxxers won't have it. Mask mandates? Nooo, because the anti-maskers won't have it. It would be great if people could put aside political division and fear to come together and help protect each other and lift each other up. We all benefit from that. Sadly, it's not happening, and I don't see it ever happening.
Here in Germany this is openly admitted and the politiciany will officially decide to shorten quarantine time so that people could return to work more quickly.
Take the vaccine, and you won't need quarantine time.
Load More Replies...It's a constant amazement to me that we regularly justify risking long, quick or lingering death in order to pay rent or a mortgage payment. I know that's how it is, but truly wish there could be options.
Yeah just f**k science. Hey well the bright side is the more ppl die, the less hosts the virus will have, and hopefully that will end the pandemic :)
I am 16. Currently, I work a part time job and make $14.00/hr. When I was in first grade, my mom worked a full time job at $12.00/hr, at night, driving for 1.5 hours over icy roads on very little sleep. This is capitalism. I think it's time for a change
It's a privilege not to be political. It means that everything is working for you well enough in your life that you don't feel the need to devote yourself to policy changes. It also means you're either very very sheltered and ignorant or that you're lacking empathy to not support people who have it worse than you in their political struggles either.
im 13 and scared to grow up for this reason. i want to be a psychologist, but college costs a lot of money...
Again, as a Brit can someone explain this? If you're ill and can't work you phone in sick, and then it's the manager's job to cover your work, right? Is it standard practice in the US the the person that's ill has to find cover for their shift? What happens otherwise?
This is wrong. Of course you are entitled to your paid holidays, but we can not all take time off at the same time. In my company we all request our 25 to 30 days off at the beginning of the year and the bosses then check if it all works out or if some need to move some time off around. If that is the case, then we employees discuss this amongst ourselves and make sure that it is not always the same people who have to step down. That you can take all your time off is granted by law in my country, but not always when you want it, but it mostly works out in my company. This is why it is 'requesting' and not 'notifying' and a basic principle of teamwork.
Comparing things USA does to NK: https://www.instagram.com/p/CW1sS_6LYTD/
Simple concept: "We all do better when we all do better" but few seem to grasp it.
Superb commentary on capitalism. When we think and act as a collective taking into account the basic health, financial and shelter needs of all of us, we have a society worth being part of. Capitalism isn't based on fairness. Let's give everyone and ourselves a fair go.
I would say it's focused on the USA, some of the stuff doesn't happen in europe. We have law protected unions, universal healthcare, support for people out of work and we question where the tax money goes. (The current EU president isn't very popular here in Germany - for spending more money on advisors than getting our army essential equipment during her time as secretary of defense with it)
Here's an anti capitalist tip for amazon customers. When they ask you if you want to donate to charity through that smile gimmick just say no. They use that money as a tax write off for charitible donations so they dont have to pay tax on the same amount of profit. You are paying the donation but they are claiming the tax credit from it. If you want to donate, do it direct to the charity and dont let these companies use your charity as a tax write off
Living under capitalism is not perfect. But I have lived under communism, and that was truly horrible. The perfect and flawless system would be one where human beings cannot influence. It does not exist. If you manage to tear down our current system, you might find that you get to spend less time surfing the internet and more time picking turnips and hoping the bread line is not too long today, or that the nosy lady in your apartment block does not denounce you to the police for playing unsocialist music.
As an anarchist I agree with the criticism against capitalism here. What concerns me however, is the jump-the-gun attitude and optimism of violent revolution as a means of solution. "Kill the rich", "not spared in the revolution" etc. only remind me of Leninist sentiments that quickly became about shifting power instead of fighting it. Old Tsar officers became Red officers. I do not consider communism like that of Soviet a viable alternative to capitalism. It is trading being steamrolled for being shot. It is understandable to be furious about capitalism and wanting to do something about it, but revenge served cold will only lead to suffering and solves nothing. Let's think about it. Let's come up with a plethora of alternatives and solutions. Let's find tools for change nobody expected to exist. Let us never reduce ourselves to means to an end. We are not work horses that need to kick, we need to run free.
Load More Replies...Let's compare college prices before 1965 and after 1965 when the government stared guaranteeing student loans removing incentive for colleges to keep tuition affordable.
Well this was sad and very depressing. Its eye opening to the fact that while some think they are living the American dream , other countries are actually taking care of its citizens. The US, seems to set everyone up for failure except for a choice few.
Boo westerners bad West is evil we should all be 1990s eastern Europe. Every single post on BP.
People who think there is a system better than capitalism are complete morons. Humanity has never had it easier.
Well most of them are US specific, and the US healthcare problems are not caused by capitalism itself, the absolutely out of this planet prices of anything healthcare is anti capitalist.
They fixed it, this post used to be filled with garbage memes, I'm glad they fixed it
Simple concept: "We all do better when we all do better" but few seem to grasp it.
Superb commentary on capitalism. When we think and act as a collective taking into account the basic health, financial and shelter needs of all of us, we have a society worth being part of. Capitalism isn't based on fairness. Let's give everyone and ourselves a fair go.
I would say it's focused on the USA, some of the stuff doesn't happen in europe. We have law protected unions, universal healthcare, support for people out of work and we question where the tax money goes. (The current EU president isn't very popular here in Germany - for spending more money on advisors than getting our army essential equipment during her time as secretary of defense with it)
Here's an anti capitalist tip for amazon customers. When they ask you if you want to donate to charity through that smile gimmick just say no. They use that money as a tax write off for charitible donations so they dont have to pay tax on the same amount of profit. You are paying the donation but they are claiming the tax credit from it. If you want to donate, do it direct to the charity and dont let these companies use your charity as a tax write off
Living under capitalism is not perfect. But I have lived under communism, and that was truly horrible. The perfect and flawless system would be one where human beings cannot influence. It does not exist. If you manage to tear down our current system, you might find that you get to spend less time surfing the internet and more time picking turnips and hoping the bread line is not too long today, or that the nosy lady in your apartment block does not denounce you to the police for playing unsocialist music.
As an anarchist I agree with the criticism against capitalism here. What concerns me however, is the jump-the-gun attitude and optimism of violent revolution as a means of solution. "Kill the rich", "not spared in the revolution" etc. only remind me of Leninist sentiments that quickly became about shifting power instead of fighting it. Old Tsar officers became Red officers. I do not consider communism like that of Soviet a viable alternative to capitalism. It is trading being steamrolled for being shot. It is understandable to be furious about capitalism and wanting to do something about it, but revenge served cold will only lead to suffering and solves nothing. Let's think about it. Let's come up with a plethora of alternatives and solutions. Let's find tools for change nobody expected to exist. Let us never reduce ourselves to means to an end. We are not work horses that need to kick, we need to run free.
Load More Replies...Let's compare college prices before 1965 and after 1965 when the government stared guaranteeing student loans removing incentive for colleges to keep tuition affordable.
Well this was sad and very depressing. Its eye opening to the fact that while some think they are living the American dream , other countries are actually taking care of its citizens. The US, seems to set everyone up for failure except for a choice few.
Boo westerners bad West is evil we should all be 1990s eastern Europe. Every single post on BP.
People who think there is a system better than capitalism are complete morons. Humanity has never had it easier.
Well most of them are US specific, and the US healthcare problems are not caused by capitalism itself, the absolutely out of this planet prices of anything healthcare is anti capitalist.
They fixed it, this post used to be filled with garbage memes, I'm glad they fixed it