Why People Hate Capitalism More In Theory Then In Practice

Or Why I Didn’t Buy an iPhone until Three Years Ago Explains That Statement

Until December of 2021 I had a flip phone. You know the kind of phone that only Liev Schreiber was using on Ray Donovan whenever he had to ‘fix’ something? I got rid of mine the year after the series was cancelled, come to think of it.

I have always had a very rudimentary view of technology. When I got a cell phone it was for one purpose: to make phone calls and receive phone calls when I was away from home. Texting was nearly impossible on it but that didn’t bother me because I was always calling people instead. I couldn’t use it to take pictures, the Internet or any feature but that was what other devices were for.

I’ve always had a very retro feeling towards technology even if it worked against my larger interests: I didn’t watch streaming shows regularly until I could get them on my television because watching them on any other device, even my computer felt like cheating. I bought a lot of streaming shows on DVD on Ebay — and in fact still do from time to time. Hard copies will always have a place in my heart. I never got a kindle because I will always prefer to read a book in its natural form. I’ve never used itunes or any of his follow up to listen to music online, but since I don’t really listen to music at all that’s never been a huge loss. And everyone of the articles I’ve published online has always been written on my computer and drafted on Microsoft Word first — and it will always be.

Another part of this was based on my lack of comprehension as to why I needed to buy the newest technological advancement when frankly the old one was working just fine. I always felt that, at the end of the day, so much of the technological advancements in my lifetime are more about convenience rather than necessity. Think about it. Did we really need to listen Beatles songs on CDs? No. But the technology was there, so we bought it. The fact that there’s been a movement back towards LPs and record players shows that we’ve seen the future and we realized we were just using it to buy newer versions of the past.

The same has been true, to an extent, of videogames. Even when the Super Nintendo was still in existence, quite a few versions of NES games were ‘remastered’ for it. Now you can get ‘remastered’ versions of every Final Fantasy going back to the NES era for your PS5. I guess that’s nice but it begs the question: why did you buy the upgrades in the first place if all you’re doing is looking at games from 20 years ago? Obviously that’s not the only reason but let’s not kid ourselves that the nostalgia factor has been driving so much of technology.

To be clear I probably would still be using my old flip phone had Verizon not made it clear it was going to end service on it. I have gotten a new iPhone and I do use it for more than my old flip phone but eighty to eighty-five percent is just communication. I resist any kind of upgrade for a new feature on any device — whether it is my computer, my tablet or my iphone — with real cynicism as I suspect — and am pretty certain — that Silicon Valley is creating upgrades of systems to already have for one purpose. They know the product they sold you on its own could last forever if you take care of it properly. And that’s not good for their bottom line. So they introduce new versions of the software which almost everyone just uploads without a second thought. At a certain point you get a message saying that your phone or your tablet won’t be able to download the latest version of Zoom anymore and I’m pretty sure the apps have something to do with this as well. So eventually you’ll buy a new phone and within months of that they start upgrading the system and the cycle repeats.

And considering that we now have an entire generation that has been raised on this kind of thinking, it’s clear this market will never run dry and they will be more than willing to keep buying the latest device without a second thought. Whether they actually need them to live their best lives isn’t something they even question; this generation hates being inconvenienced even momentarily by slow internet service. If they had to choose between living without a phone or the hand they used to text with it, they might need to think longer than necessary before decide what to give up — and I’m not sure how many would be willing to surrender a hand.

And yet somehow for all the arguments I see online about the evils of capitalism and everything it has done to destroy civilization; I’ve seen nothing online about how these kinds of technological upgrades are themselves one of the biggest money drains of all. Oh sure, they’ll rant about the evil of social media and all of the billionaire oligarchs behind them but they rarely make the natural conclusion: stop using their products. And it is in large for that reason that I view their overall positions towards capitalism being the fundamental evil of society with a very cynical eye.

Don’t get me wrong. Of course its unfair that the top one percent control so much of the world’s wealth. But the reason I’ve never truly trusted the people who shout so loudly about capitalism is how long would they survive without it?

I believe very strongly that the 21st century has convinced an entire generation that because they receive so much of their life — entertainment, communications, social events — at a non-existent cost, they believe that it cost nothing to produce. That’s absurd of course: everything costs money to make even if you get it for nothing. It costs money to make every bit of food that goes into your hamburger, every part of the Uber car you use to get driven from place to place, and yes the cell phone you use to send hashtags about how Elon Musk is destroying social media. And someone did get paid for making every part of it. The money has to come from somewhere to pay all of these expenses even if you yourself don’t pay for it. That’s how an industrial society works.

Now if you say capitalism is evil. Fine. Don’t use it. Give away all of your money to those less fortunate. Sell all of your worldly possession and give them to the less fortunate. Then go and live off the grid. Build your own house and live in it. Dig your own wells and find water. Grow your own food and live off the land. Use candles to light your house. Chop down wood for a fireplace and use that in the winter.

This sounds ridiculous, of course, but it is what a life without capitalism means in the world. You have to either be part of society or absent from it. And if you think capitalism is evil incarnate, well, then if you’re true to the principles you advocate for (and I’ve seen them put forth strenuously online) then you should practice what you preach.

That is why I believe all of the people who scream about the evils are only against in theory. They’re fine with it in practice. The fact that I’m pretty sure at least half of them are writing their screeds on cell phones to begin with shows a ridiculous amount of double think. They will no doubt love to argue about how much the poor are suffering and how sad it is, but would they give up their personal well-being to live among them? Of course not.

Yes, yes, the top one percent need to pay their fair share. I don’t think they understand how taxes truly work: as theirs a difference between income and wealth. I think in truth they basically want us to revolt, have them drawn and quartered and distribute all of their money among the less fortunate (I almost wonder if they think Jeff Bezos has a Scrooge McDuck type money bin if they think it would be that easy to locate) but they still aren’t willing to say that. Yet. And even if they were have any of them given up Amazon to get fifty to sixty percent of their goods? Of course not. That would mean living the house to shop and that’s too much work for them.

What they want really is to end capitalism’s evils without getting rid of the conveniences in brings. That the two have basically been interchangeable since the start of the Industrial Revolution is something they will never admit. And that’s the thing about technology. The cost of advancement ends up wrecking everything that came behind. It was true with the assembly line; it was true with vaudeville; it’s true with everything the Internets done including journalism. Convenience comes at a cost and our society has proven it always prefers convenience. And that’s definitely true of the new generation who wants their goods delivered to their door without leaving the house, who wants to get a car without having to bother to call anyone to get a cab; who wants to see a movie without going anywhere, or watch TV on their phone. Just because it’s easier and less expensive for you doesn’t mean it won’t hurt someone — or even that you really needed it in the first place.

I’ll admit not to being any different: the rise of technology has certainly made my primary focus on watching and reviewing TV a lot easier and I wouldn’t give up on streaming technology and its benefits for all the world. But that’s the only part of my life I’ve advanced. I still use the same computer I’ve had for the last seven years and I resist upgrading whenever possible. Sometimes it’s been a problem but for most of my work, it’s fine. The most advanced video game system I have is a PS2 and I still have joint NES/SNES player and most of my old games. And though I watch TV on streaming, I still have a DVD/VCR player and I’ve gotten nearly as much use out of them as I have streaming over the years. And I still do purchase hard copies of TV shows on DVD and some movies on VHS on Ebay.

And while I use my phone to take the occasional picture and there are certain apps I find useful by and large I’m still using it eighty to eighty-five percent of the time to make calls. I may someday buy a new cell phone battery if it starts becoming problematic but that’s as far as I’m willing to go. I resist all upgrades for my software on all systems and I will only be dragged kicking and screaming into new technology.

And I’ll keep writing my posts on my desktop and publishing them online. At least, I’m aware of the irony when I talk about the evils of technology and social media. I’m pretty sure that almost everyone else who rants about capitalism and how it is all that is wrong in the world doesn’t see that hypocrisy. Until of course they come up with their utopian solution. Just for the record, if you’re really committing you have the make the paper, draw the ink and distribute it house to house for you to really mean it.