capitalism is the problem, and by proposing solutions that cater to capitalism’s hegemony, you are undercutting society’s impulse towards revolutionary change.
While capitalism is indeed the problem, allowing its effects to accelerate unchecked will cost untold numbers of people their lives, and I, for one, do not consider that a reasonable or acceptable solution to the issue.
I believe that once more people become aware of the alternatives-- through mutual aid programs, through union drives, and other public actions against the status quo-- the more they will challenge capitalism’s stranglehold on society. Abandoning folks to starve and die does nothing but prolong suffering and changes nothing.
You’re assuming working-class people are ignorant. Why?
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I am a vegetarian, and a working class Midwesterner born and raised. Vegetables the way I eat them now are radically different than the way I grew up eating them. Even understanding that I can eat a main course that neither relies on meat nor on meat substitutes was a bit of a learning curve for me. Most of the hand-me-down cookbooks I have don’t even have any real vegetarian options, and the stuff I find online often relies on expensive kitchen gadgetry, more complicated cooking techniques, and/or so-called “superfoods” that are hard to find and have been priced outside of the range of working people. Can I do it? Yeah, I can, because I know how to cook, enjoy cooking, and don’t have a hard time finding quality ingredients. That doesn’t mean I’d judge other people for not doing so. In fact, I understand perfectly well why they wouldn’t.
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I was just talking about Vietnam with a friend last night. The country is simultaneously communist and capitalist. So sure, you see entrepreneurship and people making money, but you also see that everyone has enough good healthy food to eat, the schools are very good and free to all, etc. etc.
Capitalism on its own isn’t the problem: the choices humans make in manipulating capitalism for their own ends is the problem.
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Is the Vietnamese system democratic Socialist? That sounds alright to me. Plus, pho.
The full official name is Socialist Republic of Vietnam and (from Wikipedia):
Vietnam is a unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist republic, one of the two communist states (the other being Laos) in Southeast Asia. Although Vietnam remains officially committed to socialism as its defining creed, its economic policies have grown increasingly capitalist with The Economist characterising its leadership as “ardently capitalist communists”. Under the constitution, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) asserts their role in all branches of the country’s politics and society.
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This is fair. I just don’t think it’s reasonable to assume that working-class people don’t have knowledge of basic cooking skills and nutritional facts. Lack of money does not necessarily equal lack of ability or intelligence, even if certain food or equipment is unavailable.
I’m not fond of cooking, for various reasons, but I do know how to make quite a few decent, healthy meals.
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Thank you for that. Still sounds way better than naked and raw American-style capitalism.
I think you would have been better suited with a phrase like “good point, and” if you were looking to be additive. “Not entirely wrong” often conveys “mostly wrong”.
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