ChocolatePoopy
31833
1169
4
Jun 22, 2026 7:06 AM
ChocolatePoopy
31833
1169
4
KillingTlme
Insurance
Bowtie8bit
Organsisms that forcibly direct resources to themselves at the harm of everything else.
NullSecc
Hunt the rich
levyathyn
Capitalism. When money is the ultimate end goal and ALSO the lubrication to get there, you have an endless loop of win-more parasitoids who float to the top like bricks of shit and work towards satisfying their greed like fat ugly dragons. It's how the system was designed.
Isorikk
When you have fifteen different companies all taking a piece of the pie at every level, there isn't much pie left. That's basically how every American social service works. We privatize everything and never conduct audits ever.
Goodmerlinpeen
Wealth used to raise basic living standards of a lot of people could be instead used to raise the investment values of a small group of people. Which group do you think is in charge?
SecurityBadger
It's called "Trickle-down Economics". All the money goes to the richest people, and we wait for it to trickle down. ... We're still waiting, Ronnie.
freeAssociator
You can’t spell “parasite” without PE
CheeseB0t
And it will stay that way until enough people push back and stop supporting such a broken and corrupt system.
For enough people snap and reenact the French revolution.
Either or, or both.
bambinod
them yachts aren't gonna buy themselves
thegarts
I’m thinking the trickle -down economics was a load of bullshit started by Reagan.
TheShogunOfSarcasm
Hey, administration needs to get PAID.
DecapodianSaysWoopWoopWoopWoop
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1NnVnaWt6aDI1dzFnc2Z0ZDYycGMwdGRhMjA5YXBxZ3gwdWtiaG5uMCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/gTviM5HfTDKapOJ8eL/200w.webp
ArchaeoJones
It's all going to "Administrators", which is latin for "completely useless, moneygrubbing fucknuggets".
TheAngryMarineBiologist
It's most obvious in healthcare with health insurance people, but pretty much every necessity has it's blood-sucking middlemen parasites who make the costs higher and higher while making sure nobody else makes a cent.
GravyEducation
Colleges exist to provide college sports to rich alums, duh
wejustdontknow
It also exists to keep educated people in debt slavery and therefore cheap to buy. When people are entering the workforce in their 20s with a debt equivalent to buying a home but without having the home, you've created debt slaves for decades.
GravyEducation
Oh also one that keeps fucking boiling my blood, college campuses/towns are food deserts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert i fucked up my college experience super hard but the one thing I remember... and felt weirdly guilty about trying to be my own independent man... my mom had to help me grocery shop. Otherwise? Fast food or dining hall or take the bus downtown on a two hour grocery trip. Colleges are setting you up to fail more than they're trying to help you succeed. America anyway.
CP3oh
Nursing homes exist to strip any semblance of a person's remaining wealth away before they die. One last chance to hold them upside down by their ankles and shake them.
RoseHarmonic
Across several recent decades, wealth has increased by 700%. During that same period the wealth of workers has increased by 8%.
somebackup
The transfer of wealth leads to the transfer of assets which leads to everyone except the upper most echelon becoming poor. That includes the people with a few million.
tmdkcyotes8
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1c3JkbGtub3pqMTA1ZWExYTFjaTBkMjljbHRtc2VzbnVmb2l1M2I3eCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/gIqusaeYxgSiY/200w.webp
HerdOfPotatoes
Yes, American society is broken
FreePalestineAndTheWorldFromIsrael
*Global
getadogupya
TheDoctorCrankenstein
GravyEducation
SedatedSl0th
I love this song. But I hate this song. Related, I extremely dislike that a lot of states are not right to work, but PRIVILEGE to work states. Fuck the system.
The701
convenient link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvANy49Kqhw
GravyEducation
I set em up, you knock em down, thanks
Dannoboyo
Stop trying to cheer me up. It's Monday morning and I'm already fried.
medimr
It's almost like society is run by ultra-rich parasites or something.
Alle00P
Exactly
Sebastopol140
Mmmm...
StealthToaster
AtmaDarkwolf
Wonder when we will declare open season. How much more will we take?
TMMay
NO. Not 'run'. They might OWN much of it, but make no mistake: Its the Rest of US that make it RUN. And THAT will be their downfall;-)
levyathyn
Parasitoids, actually; parasites are detrimental, but parasitoids are creatures that eventually kill the host. In 2026 I think it's fair to make this change.
pompoikpoik
Not only Ultra rich parasites... You also have to account for the next Joe who invested all his savings in a fund who promised him 10% interest rate
TsubakiTragic
It's called capitalism... the USA needs to get used to this old paradigm.
Das75
Corporations and lobbying
GrimleyGraves
Capitalism feeds money back into the systems it controls, this is more like an oligarchical black hole, money goes in and is never seen again.
CheeseB0t
Kleptocracy
CheeseB0t
No, it's called 70+ years of propaganda to enable the removal of safeguards and eroding of the progressive politics and the welfare state that came after the last World war.
Almost nobody alive today was alive back then to remember, but it wasn't always like this. Capitalism wasn't always like this.
tychog99
It, very briefly, was socialism, following the World Wars, the Marshall Project, and the threat of Communism being wielded to end the progressuve policies that amde your country what it is today
CheeseB0t
It's not my country btw
tychog99
Sure, my bad
My point still stands; capitalism has always been like this except for when it was Democratic Socialism that claimed it was Capitalism
OperatorWay
swedeonamoose
The biggest lie ever told "private ownership will make everything cheaper" there are some things that should be ran by the state with 0 focus on hoarding profits.
KrowWithAK
Co-ops. There are more co-ops popping up in various industries in the States. Colorado has a local Uber/Lyft co-op that is not only cheaper per ride, but also nets the drivers more money per ride. Nebraska ranchers started a meat packing co-op after Tyson fucked off. One in Washington as well for produce farmers. A few more. We need to get more co-ops in more industries and cities. When employees own it, they are motivated to provide the best service/prices. Andthere's no shareholders. Win win.
qazxswedcvfrtgbnhyujmkiol
Societal needs vs wants. Needs should never be privatized. Including such things as education (Including kindergardens etc), health care, prisons etc. The fact some people think Healthcare for example can be privatized, which literally means maximizing profit above all else, is so ridiculous it's hard to fathom.
Rogahar
The funny thing is, it can be *if a publicly funded alternative exists alongside it.* We have the NHS in the UK, but private healthcare does still exist - it just has to set its prices at a level that makes it actually seem like its worth paying for. And we still give them shit for being expensive (bc, again, the free-at-point-of-service option is right there and readily available.)
Sh3phrd
Anything which prevents harm to people, or the lack of it would cause harm, should never have a for profit motive
Scallion420
We used to have nice public utilities in Canada
SavageDrums
Honestly? Nationalize every corporation. Business people have shown that they cannot be trusted with the responsibility.
friendsofsandwiches
you mean like...schools?
FiftyShadesOfTiramisu
Schools incl. universities, the public health system (insurance, pharmaceutical industry and hospitals), social security (can all be rolled into UBI), the mail system, public transportation, public infrastructure, public housing, utilities incl. internet access, and at least a part of the media with a mandate to adhere to journalistic ethics and fact-based reporting.
ropetopus
Yes, and with actual proper funding not this “weeeellll… the State will barely fund it and leave it up to counties to raise enough through property taxes, ensuring education is still largely tied to economic class” bullshit.
swedeonamoose
Schools are escpecially fucked since private run ones still get a lot of tax money and there has been scandal after scandal about how they pocket most of it and run schools with worse standards than state run ones.
anappalachian
Look at Ohio, where public school buses are forced to prioritize bussing private school kids first, and many public school kids now don’t have access to bus transportation
thotterpop
"Ohio sucks" -Peter Griffin
Unclescam
Those are the scam ones. The "legitimate" private schools simply take the government money and then raise prices to continue to refuse the poors.
Skuggen
It's simple. All of it's for-profit.
GravyEducation
I want this to be top comment because brevity
SayRamrod
another description ive heard is that "capitalism is built on intermediaries"
the idea is that the owning class gets in between us and a fair price. health care, dentistry, vet clinics, utilities, etc. it's all peasants exchanging money with peasants while shareholders keep the bulk of it.
vorasaurus
profit of the *owner class
nikinnorway12
Norway has a public model. It sounds crazy to Americans: You sign your pension away to home (of various kinds, including independent living with home nurse visits daily), and they make sure you have a dignified and enjoyable life until you die. It works pretty well.
Isorikk
That's how it works in America, too. Except they generally don't care about you after you signed the paperwork, they just do what they legally have to do.
zombiejedediah
Same in Denmark. Occasionally there's a scandal where someone did not in fact provide the service, but at least those scandals are bugs & not features.
ThingsThatDontJustifyGenocide
So, in the USA, basically what would happen is that an entire industry would sprout up focused exclusively and specifically on finding the exact cheapest, bare minimum, that would qualify as meeting the legal definition of doing their job.
And then that industry would lobby to proclaim that minimum is too expensive, and 90% of hte businesses would never come close to that minimum, and the workers would be paid almost nothing, but the owners would be multimillionaire Trump donors.
GravyEducation
"Crazy to Americans"? Gotta rephrase that. Sane to Americans but unobtainable due to oligarchy
discretezd
Ooh Norway. Are you sure you're not mishearing their response? I kept telling this guy "There's this country that has a public model for retirement" and I thought he said "Noway!"
slack3rdav3
Must have been an Aussie accent
GravyEducation
Badumtss
Skuggen
But we're in constant danger of backsliding. Because it works reasonably well many people don't understand what it takes to keep it working reasonably well and will vote for the ones promising short-term benefits, which invariably means the right-wing parties promising lower taxes (particularly to businesses). Recent polls have FrP, which is anti-tax, anti-immigration, anti-environment, pro-religion, pro-capitalism (though they're still to the left of everyone in the US) as the biggest party.
nikinnorway12
FrP i think is very wary of touching anything that hurts old people as they rely on the older generation for a lot of their support base. But many of the home nurses are immigrants, it's a tough one for them.
b0stark
Since the world obliterated the 1.5°C goal with no actual decline in sight (considering there governments around the world seem to be implementing anti-environment practices), everyone in power are trying to get as much money as possible to build their own little "survival bunker" and live as comfortable as possible until the day comes. We fucked the planet, and since everyone aren't willing to make a meaningful change before it's too late, we're all gonna suffer because of it.
DeanSledgehammer
Kinda true, but there has been considerable progress even if there isn't actual decline happening. The worst predictions were 3.5-4C degrees of warming at 2100, now were looking at 2.1-2.7C degrees depending on whether countries keep up with their targets; actions taken and faster than expected renewables growth have helped.
So warming is not declining yet but is increasing much slower.
b0stark
For now, sure. But as you say "depending on whether countries keep up with their targets", yet we see the biggest ones increasing their emissions and passing laws to allow for even more. Slowing down isn't good enough anymore.
Scahrossar
It happens everywhere, sadly. Its what happens when the wealthy own most flows of information.
or0b0ur0s
They do that here, with Medicaid, too. They take your entire Social Security and all other income, less a whole $60 / month allowance. You're allowed to keep $8,000 or less in your bank account (excess is simply billed until you fall below that). When you die, they seize your entire estate, including your house if it's still in your name OR A FAMILY MEMBER'S NAME within like 7 years of getting Medicaid (not of your death), to recoup the costs. >
or0b0ur0s
Problem is, all that buys you is a hospital room you share with someone, low-paid aides who don't speak English and steal your possessions and your meds, who leave you sitting in a wet diaper for 12 hours at a time. For $10k / month.
torokunai
Here in California a Transfer on Death Deed is enough to avoid losing the house to estate recovery, and the cash asset limit was raised from $2k in 2022 to $130k now.
or0b0ur0s
I did neglect to point out, if anyone was wondering, that this does vary by state, since state governments administer the federal Medicaid funds. So while they all do this, the exact dollar amounts & details vary. In my state, if they'd updated the monthly allowance they get to keep for inflation, it would currently be $180 / month, rather than $60 (and they did just update it from $45...). AFAIK, there's no way to keep your house, other than sell or transfer it before the lookback period >
or0b0ur0s
Which they have extended several times over the years...
ImYourWifesBoyfriend
College is a scam at this point. The whole system is rigged to keep us stupid, broke, and obedient. It’s ass backwards and it’s sad.
arewenotkingsandqueenstogether
Idk if it's a scam. Education beyond high school is still a worthy endeavor. And without a degree your options are far more limited.
manystripes
And allowing students to take on unlimited debt to pay for it means they can charge unlimited prices
mobiusstrip
Reductions in state and federal funding have piled debt on students and the pathways to jobs have been delimited substantially in an incredibly tumultuous job market. All that being said, short of the trades (carpentry, electrician, plumber,etc.) the skills one gains in college and the networking connections one makes cannot be found without a degree. We could choose to make college free, that would be good. But without those connects only the rich will prosper.
laDisparitionDesHeures
As a CS prof in a dept with 4000 CS students: shit's gonna hit the fan reaaaal soon.
bottledham
*ouch* I can't imagine what CS is like these days. Is enrollment falling off yet?
laDisparitionDesHeures
Dramatically.
torokunai
daaaaamn. UCLA had ~100 people in my class in the mid-80s.
UsuallyARabbit
Damn, my class had 25 people graduating in the late 'aughts. CompSci had some serious entry criteria barring entry.
OatmealChocolateChipCookies
The dot-com crash happened in 2002 and it affected Comp Sci enrollments for a good while, plus it's damn difficult which affects graduation rates.
UsuallyARabbit
Apparently not anymore?
laDisparitionDesHeures
Enrollment kept rising steadily, in Illinois at large, until this year.
EstoyPoopis
Could you elaborate on that a little bit please? If you don't mind, of course.
bottledham
The job market has been saturated for several years and now AI is killing entry level coding jobs.
laDisparitionDesHeures
That's it. And enrollment will plummet, while in many universities, the CS dept is the one with the best margins, so lots of univ were surviving because of this inflated enrollment.
GravyEducation
I was just talking about this the other day in a conversation about skilled work and unskilled work. Was trying to make a point among many other points that a degree doesn't mean you're qualified for shit. The bar for quality of education is lowered. The people that can't get degrees are the people that can't afford to attend in the first place, or people who aren't provided mental health services. You do not need to be smart to get an average degree. You gotta be rich enough in both time and $
mindstorm8191
Agreed, & things get worse after you graduate. College has produced millions of graduates in fields that only have some 100K jobs. The job markets are flooded, which has driven the price of workers WAY down. Now people can't find an entry-level job that pays all their bills - if you can get one at all.
We should all be furious. There's a whole generation of people with skills wasting away from un-usage, b/c corporations don't need them. I think gov't should put them to work on... anything
GravyEducation
And precisely why AI is fucking shit up too. Corpos only see profit in terms of acceleration and not velocity. If they are not making more each quarter, they're not going anywhere. But quick math question, if I'm going 60mph down the highway and I am not now doing 61mph, did I still travel? FUCKIN YES I STILL DID 60 MILES IN THAT HOUR. I'M STILL FUCKING MOVING
GravyEducation
2/2 And to further the analogy, there should be SAFETY LAWS that prevent you from moving at a quick pace compared to the other people on the road. Somebody doing one million in a 60 should be forced to SLOW THE FUCK DOWN
slack3rdav3
or healthy enough to whore your body to the US government for 4-6 years. Sometimes it seems the only way to get out of the situation you are currently in...
GravyEducation
I'm a pacifist... and yeah... I know. Nobody should have to join the military. There shouldn't BE militaries in my Utopic opinion. They're suckering people in too with that promise of education. You end up with PTSD and no medical recourse... hell WORSE than none because the VA will promise you something, you'll waste your time trying to get it, then they'll tell you no. Same shits gonna happen with Social Security too. You'll have put your part in. But then its gonna vanish and leave you broke
slack3rdav3
I joined when I was being threatened to be thrown out of the house. My thoughts were, if I had to go to war, I'd just kiss a dude and get kicked out. Dont Ask Dont Tell was repealed while I was in, but was in a non-combat role.
Healthcare should be a human right. We should reduce military spending SUBSTANTIALLY.
I have actually had wonderful experiences with the VA. I dont even have reg insurance because there is no point. I got genetic testing due to an imgur post thru the VA. Positive hunch.
GravyEducation
That's great that you had good experiences with the VA. I've just heard nightmare stories. And obviously I can't speak from experience so that's just hearsay stuff... but I know that I count aircraft carriers in terms of free school lunches so you're 100% on the spending part. I hope that they did actually educate you well in your noncombatant duties and you're living a better life not being adjacent to war. What a stupid wish but a necessary one "I hope you are not adjacent to a war"