• Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    The problem is a combination of intrinsic psychological biases of those with means. Once they reach a certain threshold, they become driven to keep accumulating until they own everything. Gotta catch 'em all.

    This threshold is likely different for everyone, and may not be related to other thresholds of accumulation, such as:

    • When you have everything you want, except to upscale your stuff.
    • When you make more money than you can spend on personal expenses, including renting Venice for a wedding.
    • When you make more then you can spend [on large business transactions, unrelated to the] threshold where you can’t possibly spend all your income without purchasing billion-dollar companies

    Some capitalists are self aware enough to recognize the impulse is not sustainable, (also that profits are better had with happy workers) which often comes from having risen to wealth from more modest means. (But not always).

    At any rate, rich dudes who drop billions into massive public improvement projects are rare, and when they do they tend to see it as revenue source, or at least something to exploit to improve their brand image.

    So the next step for society is to discover a sociological technique that allows rich guys to think I have enough, to drop their surplus into the hands of the community (say the general fund of the local governing body)

    That or accept that we are too simple a species to navigate some very imminent great filters. We may not count as a space-faring civilization that might encounter other space-faring civilizations.

    This is not a new idea. Fourth International–Posadism opined that developing communism (or a refinement thereof) would be a prerequisite for space colonization. I’d argue changing from capitalism is a prerequisite for societal sustainability more than a couple of centuries from now.