The Bitter Truth Behind Consumerism
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- čas přidán 19. 04. 2022
- Consumerism is a symptom of an underlying problem. Our pop-culture criticizes consumerism while perpetuating the same problem that enables consumerism. Are we not missing the elephant in the room?
For further clarifications:
1. This video deals with the core of the economic issue, but do not touch all the specifics.
2. Our boy Karl did talk about supply-and-demand and all other stuff like that. He didn't "ignore" it. Read his works for more details.
3. "Labor is not the source of all wealth. Nature is just as much the source of use values (and it is surely of such that material wealth consists!) as labor, which itself is only the manifestation of a force of nature, human labor power." - So, yes, Karl did acknowledge this.
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Nicely done, specially the flow of the whole explanation was top notch. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks! Gonna post more now.
I came here from a Reddit post. This is very well said, and I do hope you follow up with more elephants in rooms and solutions from that dude Karl with the cool beard.
It's a whole herd of elephants LOL.
Thanks a lot for watching! Stay tuned.
Production : Top Notch
Content : Top Notcher
Your knowledge : Top Notchest
All jokes aside, this is the best video on consumerism and capitalism I have ever watched. Gained a lot of insight. 💯
Thanks a lot. Means a lot! I am making another one on the "self-help" craze... as a victim of consumerism myself.
In this world of commodities even human being has become a commodity that he is exchanging his life for money just to survive .
Coom, consume, repeat.
Cause you know what... "Capitalism" is taking care of us!
Did a great job. Looking forward to more.
Thank you. Absolutely, stay tuned!
This is gold. Please keep them coming.
Surely. Stay tuned. Thank you!
I watch a lot of these informational info video's and I normally never leave reviews but I have to compliment you on everything in this video. Its just sooo good, if you love analizing stuff and absorbing information!! It just sparks Joy listening to a video like this one:) Please keep up the good work:)
Thanks a lot! Stay tuned, gonna publish in a week. Agree or disagree, do comment!
You have a great thought provoking channel
Thank you!
Good vid! Just subbed, and I'm gonna for sure watch more.
Thank you. Stay tuned!
Everything's on point brother !! Narration, editing and content perfectly done !
Thank you, man! Why are you inactive these days, though?
wanted to say the same
@@AndreiStroescu Thanks a lot, Andrei!
@@SamSinha Got caught up in something tbh, will resume asap
Thanks for sharing your work. Great video. Just subscribed.
The BGM, editing, and yourself 🔥🔥 Waiting for more content bruh
Hopefully, in a couple of days! Stay tuned.
I like your videos a lot, but please change the background music
Point noted. Thanks for watching.
really great video, would you please consider turning down the background music or having no background music at all, it really helps us listen
This does a really good job explaining the first chapter of volume one of Das Kapital. Nice.
Thank you for watching. Stay tuned.
Excellent job mate! +1 subscriber!
Thanks a lot for watching. Stay tuned. Will publish in a week.
Well explained
Thank you, Jacob. Do stay tuned for more on the same line. Next, dissecting the politics behind "self-help".
Background sound is pretty high brother..bit content explanation is good
Will keep that in mind. Trying to learn haha! Thank you.
Society is bound by commodity fetishism! Awesome delivery with proper facts and very detailed explanation.
Oh, I'm gonna make a video specifically on commodity fetishism as well. Thanks for the idea! It's the second/third elephant in the room.
This is Awesome!
Thank you!
This is Gold!
Thanks a lot. Stay tuned.
Great content bro
Glad you think so! Thank you.
Essentially very toxic cycle and to an extent self destructive
Absolutely. That is the problem.
Sehr gut! I agree.
Great!
This is such a wonderful video omg!!!!!!!!!
Thank you! Stay tuned.
@@SamSinha also, do you not use social media? I was looking for your ig handle but couldn't find you.
Haven't created one for the channel. But, I will. Will comment here.
The profit or surplus is what the "capitalist" takes as a payment for the incurred risks of the investment itself.
The problem that enables consumerism is the self-indugent lifestyle that gets encouraged by the media and advertisement with the intention of keeping the wheel spinning. Like the ads that will pay you for this video, telling me that I need shoes when the ones I already have are more than enough; the ads that tell me that with those shoes I'll be the coolest guy in town. Marketing and politics are the only two "socially accepted" types of massive manipulation, when no kind of manipulation should be tolerated, no matter how noble their intentions are.
You are spot on teaching that the things we own end up owning us, but unless people decide that they should live frugally with less than what they are spending on for the sake of fashion or novelty, there won't be any change. This means that, if we demand less, there will be less offer, and it will be cheaper. But it also means that producing less will cause less demand for labor, which translates to unemployment and less demanded skills, which in turns makes that labor itself less valuable.
First of all, thank you for posting such a well-articulated comment. I appreciate it. But, I do have certain disagreements here. Or, at least, I *think* I have some disagreements. May be, not.
Yes, the capitalist takes the risks. The risks of losing his already significant monetary value. Losing it makes him go (often, back) to being a normal worker who gets paid a certain amount in exchange of his labour.
On the other hand, employees take more significant risk. The failure of the business basically means the loss of their livelihood, going down to poorer conditions. When a large busines fails, in many cases, there are layoffs which target the normal wage workers - while the executives often get paid in millions (and, bonuses too). A quick web-search will yield many such stories.
Is losing the investment and having to live as a wage-worker more significant a risk than losing your entire livelihood? The answer to this question is not a matter of fact, but more of position - the side we're on.
Is the condition of the wage worker so bad that the capitalist fears the *risk* of becoming one?
Coming to the point of supply and demand (with respect to consumerism), the answer can be found in the fact that "value" and "price" are two different things in scenario. For the absolute boring parts, I can point to two analyses that I agree with.
Capital needs to expand its horizon, beyond time and location. Making a pool of consumers is the material step for making that happen.
Regarding the "risk-taking part": www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1863/theories-surplus-value/ch06.htm#s3a
Regarding the "demand-supply": www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/ch03.htm
@Sam Sinha That is a great answer, and my favorite part was this one:
"Is the condition of the wage worker so bad that the capitalist fears the risk of becoming one?"
It's a really accurate question and gives me something valuable to think, I appreciate your answer.
On the other hand, since the risk the capitalist incurs in is minimal, what prevents the workers from replacing the capitalist itself? What prevents the workers from organizing as a competing force against the capitalist? Wouldn't that also raise their work value, making their wage more expensive for the capitalist to re-hire them?
I think that both things are utopic. The idea of capitalism becoming less massive than what it already is, and the idea of workers taking the control using the same tools that gave the capitalist such a momentum, but I think that both sides deserve their own thought without falling in any extreme.
I work in an industry where I'm able to be independent from my employer, I don't do it simply because it's too risky for me (for now, I'll give it a try someday), so I'm probably biased because of my own perspective. But I'm also sure that managing an organization is not as easy as it tends to be protrayed in the marxist media
Nice video. How does this help anyone though?
To me, the first step towards solving the problem... involves the will to acknowledge the symptom. What's your view?
Your time or your Money
Both.
You will become next dhruve ratho😂??but you are different and will be more batter
Haha LOL!
Stop talking about capitalism. Consumerism doesn't equal to capitalism. Capitalism has existed for hundreds of years, whereas consumerism is a more recent phenomenon. Stop spreading misleading knowledge.
Capitalism has existed for less than 300 years.
You are not an economist, or if you are, you seems like a very cheap one (sorry).
First, Utility is one thing (individual's usefulness of an item), while purpose is another (clearly the meaning of the item).
Workers are CORRECTLY paid for the economic value of an item, not the individual's Utility; otherwise an ordinary person could buy a camera for cheap price while a professional photographer ought to pay way more for the same camera (due to his enhanced Utility): NON SENSE.
Second, you pretend to criticize CONSUMERISM, when in fact you merely show Marx's critics over CAPITALISM, precisely the exploitation of labour force and the appropriation of surplus value by the owner of the means of production.
Capitalism is one thing, concerning the PRODUCTION, or the supply system on the market, while consumerism is another thing, clearly regarding the demand area: specifically, the induced over-consumption of useless items (I couldn't call them "goods") in the post-modern society.
So, at the end of the day, in this video you provide ZERO new content and don't stick to the headline.
Worse then ever, you miss the central point.
Sorry bro.
Damn. you wrote a whole essay defending consumerism
@@careforjusticealways Wrong. I wrote a short piece pointing put the mistakes on the video.
So bad you couldn't grasp the meaning of the words, it seems to be so clear.
Crystal, in fact.