Permanently Deleted

  • dom [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    why

    Same reason the car industry exists. Capital creates inefficiencies from which to extract profits.

    People own cars that sit idle 98% of their operational lifespan. Why do this when mass transit and shared ownership would be more resource efficient? This resource waste is what is sold by the car companies. How? They make the market for it (buying and gutting mass transit, advertising, lobbying, etc.).

    This principle applies to other less wasteful, more communal solutions too. Cooking, shelter, healthcare, states.

    This tendency to create inefficiencies in a system in order to extract profits is an emergent property of capitalism. It's not even consciously pursued for the most part.

    There's probably a snappy term to describe this phenomenon, but I'm a lib and don't read theory.