In this country, giving charity is socialist unless you do it the right way and get the tax break.

Words, generally speaking, mean next to nothing here. People just reach for the most flagrant synonym they can conjure on the fly.

Just unpacking fantastic vernacular in order to allow for substantive banter is a chore in itself.

Socialists share to create collective abundance.

Capitalists look to extract value from the collective to create apportioned abundance.

In other words, Jeff Bezos could give every houseless person in America $3K right now and it wouldn't even amount to 1% of his wealth. But he won't.

That's SUCCESS to a capitalist.

(BONUS QUESTION: If Bezos actually gave away $1.5B to the US houseless via direct payments, how much of that money would be back in his pocket within a week?)

A billionaire donating $1.5B to a research facility tasked with "finding solutions to combat poverty" is an economic stimulus that cities will compete to win tho. Great PR, plus can direct the funds to friends & allies' businesses.

Win-win, but the houseless get almost nothing.

How is it that we spend month and years trying to put the perfect words onto paper (i.e., policy) and then go out and do exactly the opposite of what we set out to do?

The answer - ALWAYS - is that someone had to profit off the solution. Talks become profit vs. problem solving.

Having to find the middle ground between profits and solving the problem they were given money to solve usually skews towards the profiteers since the people suffering from the problem aren't usually at the table...

Endless fundraisers. People still homeless.

Why do we trust giving millions - even billions - to non-profits and "leaders" when we can see how little makes it to the needy?

Why are we concerned with the poor wasting money but we don't mind if funds get lost in the "directing" phase?

Because "we" the ones directing.

Mask Off. The system uses the well-meaning and the grifter alike to exclude the needy from self-governance AND consistently redefines the "middle ground" (another useless term) as a reality where the grifter and the well-meaning coexist.

Trash. All of it. But we here. Falling.

Chronic Self-Interest... this culture of capitalism is, not ironically, collectively destructive, and we're reaching a critical mass.

The poverty rates.
The carceral state.
The dwindling middle class.

Shit's not sustainable.

Now I didn't come here to state that capitalism is inherently evil; rather, I don't think capitalism is bringing us success.

That "rich" and "successful" are generally synonymous in common speech is abhorrent to me.

Kids shouldn't learn that their worth is measured in dollars.

But they are.

And Black children are not only taught that their adult lives will be based on a $ value, they are also taught that, statistically speaking, their lives will be worth but a fraction of a white person's.

"Don't be a statistic," they tell you. "Work hard."

Thanks.

Encouraging our children to work hard within the instruments of the oppressor instead of instructing them to seize the means of production for the benefit of our communities is half the reason we're in this mess.

But what do I know?