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50 ‘Humans Of Capitalism’ Pics That Might Make You Laugh And Cry At The Same Time
InterviewWhen it’s taken too far, capitalism becomes a mockery of itself, encouraging greed instead of rewarding effort and innovation. If you take a moment to really look at the state of the world right now, you might come to the conclusion that we’re living in a bizarre dystopia of sorts where consumerism is king, employees are burned out, and corporations (arguably) run rampant despite all the distrust that’s growing.
The ‘Humans of Capitalism’ Instagram page collects and shows off examples of what capitalism is actually like in our day-to-day lives, from the hilarious to the haunting. Scroll down to dive into the dark (not to mention weird) side of living in a capitalist society. And if you enjoy the content, be sure to join the ranks of the 286k Instagram users who follow the page or consider supporting them by purchasing their NFT art.
I reached out to Angel, the founder and moderator of the 'Humans of Capitalism' page to learn more about the account's history, about their views on capitalism and corporatism, and the possible alternatives to the system we have in place now. "I was inspired by a lot of things, like the absurdism of the current capitalistic system and its flaws, the injustice that 99% of the people experience every day while they are at work, shopping, and home," they told Bored Panda in an interview via email.
They said that people are bombarded with non-stop information to "build up their consumerist spirit so they can keep capitalism alive." Unfortunately, for Angel, the future doesn't hold much optimism. They think that with the improving technologies, the situation for the everyday man and woman gets even worse. "A not so famous movie from the late '80s, 'They Live' (1988), explains this concept perfectly. I believe everyone should watch it if they want to combat the urge of consumerism and mind control," they suggested. Scroll down for Angel's full interview with Bored Panda.
In the mood for some more quality reading about the pros and cons of capitalism? You should check out Bored Panda’s articles here, here, and here once you’re done with this one.
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Angel, the founder of 'Humans of Capitalism,' believes that capitalism evolves into corporatism after some time "because human greed cannot be measured." In fact, they are of the opinion that the system currently in place is one of corporatism, not capitalism.
"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 explained to Bored Panda how smaller businesses have their work cut out for them because they constantly have to compete against better-established, more powerful companies that have more clout.
"We have many companies that have been bought by enormous giants that I do not want to mention and they won't stop there, they are trying to get their hands on any business category. Is there a solution for it? I believe that there can be some solutions, but capitalists will work and find a way to bypass those solutions and continue with the destruction of the system while being totally ignorant about it," they said that capitalism aims to protect itself as a system, so changing it isn't as straightforward as some people think.
But what will happen with people in North Korea, if the police find this kind of USB at their home? I expect nothing really nice.
According to Angel, the founder of 'Humans of Capitalism,' each and every system, from capitalism to socialism, has a chance of becoming corrupt if bad behavior isn't punished. "If we go back in time where socialism or communism were at their prime, we can see that the top of the head of the system was corrupted and that resulted with the fall of the system," they said that people should look at communism realistically and historically, not romantically.
As for what the future might bring, Angel thinks that we might be moving toward a "utopia" of "automated communism where machines will produce, deliver, and take care of food supply, clothing, health." However, the issue would still be who controls the distribution system and how exactly it operates. What's more, this inevitably means that some people will be left without a job.
"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."
In Angel's view, as technology improves, more and more people will lose their jobs. However, they think that there will always be people who disagree with this point of view. According to them, these people argue that capitalism creates new jobs and someone will have to create the machines that replace workers, install them, maintain them, and do a myriad of other jobs related to automatization.
Unfortunately, the founder of 'Humans of Capitalism' thinks that, eventually, we'll end up with machines creating more machines, without the need of (barely) any human input. This would be done for the sake of maximizing profits by reducing employee costs.
"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.'"
Instead we get indoctrination, consternation, ruination, contamination, and eventually extermination.
Life isn’t always a black or white, a good versus evil affair. And the same can be said about capitalism, like about most things. However, problems start to appear when capitalism is taken to the extreme. Earlier, finance writer and financial independence expert Rick Orford went in-depth with me about the positives and negatives of capitalism, why social democracy works, and what role greed plays in financial crises and inequality.
In the expert’s view, when a large enough part of the population is willing to take risks, that’s when extreme capitalism and excessive greed thrive.
Probably referring to Rastafarians. Smoking weed is an important part of their religion.
Load More Replies...No matter what the question is, it definitely worked!
Load More Replies...but it is also possible that since, for example, there are more christians than atheists, it would look like christians are more willing to help when they are actually just more people.
I doubt he is trying to make a point and really just trying to get people to give him money. People will want their religion to be the best so they put the cash in.
Load More Replies...Researcher who is Jewish here. As with all pictures on the internet, context & data are key. Here's some data: 1) HuffPost article from 2013 [tinyurl.com/2p94h89t] says the picture was taken in Austin, TX. 2) Pew Research Center [tinyurl.com/2fuy2mxa] says 77% of the adult population in Austin is Christian, 18% is unaffiliated/atheist/agnostic, and 13% claims no religion in particular. 1% claims to be Jewish. Not sure of the date for this though. So let's keep going: 3) Population of Austin in 2013 was 836,800 [google]. The Jewish population of Austin in 2013 was ~18.000, according to NYT [tinyurl.com/y4a6m73r]. 4) Pew says [tinyurl.com/2tdauj32] that 1.1 million of the 5.3 million adults in the US who identified as Jewish in 2013, also identify with atheism/agnosticism/no religion. This because Judaism is a culture as well as a religion, so one CAN be a Jewish atheist. Some of the atheist/agnostic money in the bowls may have actually come from the ~18k Jews in Austin.
I think that data would go toward explaining some of the amounts in the bowls. But let's look at context too: 1) It's possible the bowls were shifted around for the picture. If the bowls had the religions written on them it'd be harder to manipulate, but still possible with photoshop. 2) The HuffPost article doesn't say what day the picture was taken, but if it was on Saturday, most religious Jews wouldn't be carrying money, and might not even frequent that area (comment on Reddit says the man is often at University of Texas [tinyurl.com/yckmkrmz]). Bottom line, don't believe what you see on the internet, at least not without a grain of salt. And anti-Semites gonna anti-Semite. Even if this picture wasn't intended to be anti-Semitic, Jews are often attacked disproportionately. This data from the FBI [tinyurl.com/yj6fv8w7] says that of the 1,715 anti-religious hate crimes in the US in 2019, 60% of them were anti-Jewish. Sixty percent. And the percent of Jews in the US? 2%. Let that sink in.
Load More Replies...Wish I could throw a 20 into his agnostic bowl. This dude is genius. If he was in my area only the christian bowl would be full, (or maybe not full..) Because where I live at is like 95% christianity. I am in the south. I don't know...the weed smoker bowl would definitely give christians a run for their money!!! I wish we knew how much was in each bowl at the end of the day.
Well, that brought out the anti Semites, didn't it? I wouldn't give money to this person. What a nasty, divisive little 'experiment'.
I agree. I find it repugnant. It's less about getting the help he needs and more about making an unfair "Statement." Lots of people donate directly to homeless shelters or give elsewhere... But hopefully that man is back on his feet and is okay now.
Load More Replies...No, but in by area tons of christians would walk by him. If the Christian bowl was empty it woukd look real bad on them.
Load More Replies...And if this would be in a muslim country or in a Hiduism country it would most likely look different. This is the most stupidest thing I've seen this week.
Depends on where he lives. Less than 1% of my community identifies as Jewish... so it would be perfectly possible that not a single Jewish person passes by the guy in a given day.
Load More Replies...Atheist is not a religion. It's just people with good morals and values who don't follow the bullshit.
This is incredibly smart, from a certain perspective. Humans are naturally competitive creatures, as are all living things, really, so folks that normally wouldn't care about people without homes would be eager to "prove" that they are the "kinder" religion. It is sad that the dude has to resort to this kind of thing to get a proper life though.
There are more churches than homeless people. So why are there any homeless.
Hey now, This poor man has got a very creative and smart head on his shoulders to come up with this!😉
I know I've become much more caring and charitable since I left Christianity. Maybe just me.
As an atheist I'd put a blank job app in every bowl this lazy-bones has.
What a smart homeless, further pinning different belief groups against each other to get the most money possible 🤑
This is great. Love the weed smokers in the upper right hand corner.
Pagan seems like the best religion. It celebrates woman and sex, and doesn’t ban drinking
Aside from Islam, which other religion bans booze??
Load More Replies...this man is some sort of a genius, not to be offensive, but this most certainly increases the amount of money he gets
He could have written: "No religious affiliation, including agnostic, atheist, Humanist, and 'no religion' ". But people don't have time to read that. This got the point across and everyone knew what he was getting at. Your desire to be pedantic doesn't accomplish anything.
Load More Replies...Hahaha lots of pennies in the Christian bowl... Guess there are more Willing to give a penny than a dollar
Or they wanted to make it look full, perhaps because they felt their religion was being tested.
Load More Replies...i'd put money in the Pagan bowl. im disturbed theres nothing in the Jewish one unless no Jews had passed him that day.
All the Jews I have ever known in my life are so open handed so I am surprised the bowl is empty.
Did... you think you were being original with this comment? Did you not read the literal dozens of comments like this and see all the downvotes? And did you not read all the comments replying to the other antisemitic comments showing why they are antisemitic?
Load More Replies...Did... you think you were being original with this comment? Did you not read the literal dozens of comments like this and see all the downvotes? And di you not read all the comments replying to the other antisemitic comments showing why they are antisemitic?
Load More Replies...He’s “homeless” with Adidas trainers and an iPhone? He sits there faking being down and out due to real life issues like Veterans dealing with PTSD , LGBT youth kicked out of their homes or mental health issues causing people to not hold jobs. He’s a pot smoking loser preying on decent people who think they’re helping him. He doesn’t pay taxes while we’re the morons paying for him to fund his life of Riley lifestyle. I hate him.
Higher up in the comments, Le Hunter and Dave P posted some detailed information - major props to Le Hunter for all the sources and variables. The TL:DR; The Jewish population of the area at the time was well below 1%, and some people who are ethnically Jewish identity as agnostic or another faith. Depending on how much foot traffic there was, how early in the day the photo was taken, and a bunch of other things, not a single Jew may have walked by before the photo was taken, or they may have 'voted' something else, such as "weed smoker" just for the humour value.
Load More Replies...They make up less than 1% of the world's population. It isn't that common to come across. So there's no reason to be like that.
Load More Replies...Is... is the population in his community 77% Christian and 1% Jewish?
Load More Replies...LMAO Emily, I found another anti-semite.
Load More Replies...No, you're not. This post really brought out the anti Semites.
Load More Replies...When's the last time you gave anything to the homeless?
Load More Replies...The stereotype of being only 1% of the population, so they would be unlikely to pass by this guy... yeah I suppose so. But if you are suggesting that Jewish people don't care about charity, you are extremely wrong.
Load More Replies...'I'm allowed to say that because I'm....' never excuses racism, and in this case, anti-Semitism. I don't suppose the possibility that no people who identify as Jewish haven't passed by crossed your mind?
Load More Replies...No, it's not funny. Unless you think racist stereotypes are hilarious.
Load More Replies...Found, the anti-Semite and racist! Damn, do you idiots even try anymore?
Load More Replies...“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," the financial expert explained to Bored Panda.
According to Rick, capitalism isn’t dangerous to society, but an excess of it can be. “[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," he explained to me.
The expert noted that at the other end of the scale, opposite extreme capitalism, we’ll find social democracy, aka modern socialism. The way that this system works is by taxing citizens much more than capitalistic countries. In return, the citizens of those countries have access to vital services.
"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," Rick said.
In the expert’s opinion, capitalism can—theoretically—give absolutely anyone the ability to flourish. What’s more, he noted that we shouldn’t have the illusion that well-known businesspeople are always making a profit. They undertake big risks and suffer heavy losses as well. It’s not always a marathon of wins for them.
However, Rick warned that major companies and social media have the power to influence elections and change how people think. “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,” he said.
I found a similar post back in the days in 9gag where somebody did the same thing with a newborn. It was titled with lifehacks. This is so sad.
According to the financial expert, capitalism can help ordinary people flourish, open up businesses, and sell their products. But when we compare their potential with that of industry giants, we realize that competition in the marketplace isn’t as straightforward as it seems.
“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.
Meanwhile, an expert working in the banking industry who asked Bored Panda to remain anonymous because of how sensitive his work is, said that capitalism disproportionately rewards individual incentives and punishes the lack of it.
"As someone acquires more capital, it—on average—becomes exponentially easier to acquire even more of it, which adds to extreme wealth inequality. It really bothers me when trillions in pension funds are wiped out only for a couple of bankers to get slapped on the wrist. Making sure that the costs of financial crises are borne by financial institutions that manufactured them (even if unintentionally), as opposed to transferring the burden to other members of society, would increase accountability,” he said.
According to the expert, capitalism cannot exist as “pure capitalism” and has to focus on “effective social programs” if we care about our fellow citizens.
Come on, they might be winding down after a hard day playing. We don’t know the full story.
Imagine if watermelon had a durable skin/rind that would negate the need for plastic waste...oh wait.
Comments could be turned off for a number of reasons, such as the video being suitable for kids, monetisation, and controversial/upsetting content. Sometimes, YouTube automatically turns off comments as well.
Note: this post originally had 63 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
A lot of people don’t know what capitalism is including todays billionaires
Load More Replies...What a messy post, almost none of these have anything to do with capitalism.
To be brutal, most people do not really know what capitalism, or proper communism for that matter, is. What most folk label "capitalism" is more akin to "consumerism".
Load More Replies...Seems like somebody started a thematic post, but gave up halfway through and decided to just throw any more or less amusing picture in one post. At least half of them are neither capitalist nor dystopian.
Is Bored Panda hitting the eggnog hard today? This should have just been called Non Sequitur
This article an example of its own thesis: taking content ('product') from where it's produced, adding a small amount of comment ('added value') and repackaging it for new market ('distribution'). And other content platforms will do the same with this.
I agree except for the 'added value' comment. BP uses content it doesn't pay for, and advertises on its site, meaning it profits from the content (including our comments!). Then the editors get into the starka (Lithuanian tranya), write some rambling drivel to pad out the free content, and voila! Capitalism at its finest!
Load More Replies...Boredpanda used to expose great art now it's just "Americans bad westerners bad" "evil money evil capitalism." Snore.
Only like 12 of these actually connect capitalism to dystopian-like issues. There are plenty of connections between the two but Influencers (which have basically always existed, just in different forms) and silly products like the chicken arms are absolutely not evidence of the connection. 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
Definitely! I had to stop reading the comments after a while, because it made me feel like punching someone!
Load More Replies...This is what happens when you let Instagram pages and subreddits do your writing for you.
Note to world: Read up on your -isms, and apply them properly. Thank you. This was just, IMHO, dumba**-ism.
Some of those were actually good ideas, the tiny ear pins for face mask and the face mask that had a clear plastic cover so you could see a person’s mouth is useful for deaf people who must read lips. And service workers so customers can see smile & emotions
Agreeing with the rest of the comments here, this isn't about capitalism, bad post with funny images doesn't deserve the likes
Some of these seem to be lacking context, which makes it easy to interpret any way we want.
I could argue against every single example bp has, but it would take to long. I believe we need to learn from a master and be reminded again why Capitalism is one of the greatest systems ever discovered, and that since its implementation, we've seen the greatest leaps in human prosperity. What America is experiencing today is not capitalism. It is government cronyism. Here is Milton Friedman, nobel-winning economist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kx__dnAWqQ
That has nothing to do with capitalism, and also, capitalism is the least worse system.
Agreed. All of the countries with high standard of living, high happiness index, and lack of human rights abuses are capitalist societies. (In the US, capitalism has run amock, but it need not be so.)
Load More Replies...A lot of people don’t know what capitalism is including todays billionaires
Load More Replies...What a messy post, almost none of these have anything to do with capitalism.
To be brutal, most people do not really know what capitalism, or proper communism for that matter, is. What most folk label "capitalism" is more akin to "consumerism".
Load More Replies...Seems like somebody started a thematic post, but gave up halfway through and decided to just throw any more or less amusing picture in one post. At least half of them are neither capitalist nor dystopian.
Is Bored Panda hitting the eggnog hard today? This should have just been called Non Sequitur
This article an example of its own thesis: taking content ('product') from where it's produced, adding a small amount of comment ('added value') and repackaging it for new market ('distribution'). And other content platforms will do the same with this.
I agree except for the 'added value' comment. BP uses content it doesn't pay for, and advertises on its site, meaning it profits from the content (including our comments!). Then the editors get into the starka (Lithuanian tranya), write some rambling drivel to pad out the free content, and voila! Capitalism at its finest!
Load More Replies...Boredpanda used to expose great art now it's just "Americans bad westerners bad" "evil money evil capitalism." Snore.
Only like 12 of these actually connect capitalism to dystopian-like issues. There are plenty of connections between the two but Influencers (which have basically always existed, just in different forms) and silly products like the chicken arms are absolutely not evidence of the connection. 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
Definitely! I had to stop reading the comments after a while, because it made me feel like punching someone!
Load More Replies...This is what happens when you let Instagram pages and subreddits do your writing for you.
Note to world: Read up on your -isms, and apply them properly. Thank you. This was just, IMHO, dumba**-ism.
Some of those were actually good ideas, the tiny ear pins for face mask and the face mask that had a clear plastic cover so you could see a person’s mouth is useful for deaf people who must read lips. And service workers so customers can see smile & emotions
Agreeing with the rest of the comments here, this isn't about capitalism, bad post with funny images doesn't deserve the likes
Some of these seem to be lacking context, which makes it easy to interpret any way we want.
I could argue against every single example bp has, but it would take to long. I believe we need to learn from a master and be reminded again why Capitalism is one of the greatest systems ever discovered, and that since its implementation, we've seen the greatest leaps in human prosperity. What America is experiencing today is not capitalism. It is government cronyism. Here is Milton Friedman, nobel-winning economist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kx__dnAWqQ
That has nothing to do with capitalism, and also, capitalism is the least worse system.
Agreed. All of the countries with high standard of living, high happiness index, and lack of human rights abuses are capitalist societies. (In the US, capitalism has run amock, but it need not be so.)
Load More Replies...