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Bull
(jschumacher, Morguefile)

Money Fool
(jfelias, Morguefile)

Capitalist Bone Demon
(mzmatuszewski0, Pixabay)

"Still not enough"
(M. Wuerker, Politico; fair use, educational)

Capitalist Oppression
(unknown source; fair use, educational)

Poverty Girls
(rghitulescu, Morguefile)

Pyramid of Capitalist System (The International Pub. Co., 1911; fair use, educational)

Domestic Labour
(Oakland Museum of California; fair use, educational)

Militarised Police
(caglecartoons.com; fair use, educational)

Chemical Barrel (Nathalie Lees, The Guardian; fair use, educational)

ATM in Tree
(earl53, Morguefile)

Distorted Globe
(pschubert, Morguefile)

Murdoch's Cookies
(unknown source; fair use, educational)

The Poisoner
(Mike Moreu; fair use, educational)

Spot the Sponger
(Goddard Cartoons; fair use; educational)

Benefit Fraud vs.
Tax Evasion
(unknown source, possibly here; fair use, educational)

Grandpa State
(Jen Sorenson; fair use, educational)

State Capture
(First Dog on the Moon, The Guardian; fair use, educational)

Capitalism = Rule by Psychopaths
(Unknown source; fair use, educational)

Bull Sculpture
(ubu760, Morguefile)

Capitalism Symptoms
(unknown source; fair use, educational)
 		BullCapitalism 
 Definitions

Capitalism is the world's dominant economic-political system. Definitions include:-
  • "The essential feature of capitalism is the motive to make a profit." (Jahan & Mahmud, IMF, posted June 2015, accessed 17 May 2024) N.B. Whatever else is claimed, this self-interest allows anything - murder, war, genocide, ecocide - as long as profit occurs.
  • "Capitalism is an economic system founded on colonial looting. It operates on a constantly shifting and self-consuming frontier, on which both state and powerful private interests use their laws, backed by the threat of violence, to turn shared resources into exclusive property, and to transform natural wealth, labour, and money into commodities that can be accumulated." (See George Monbiot: Bluesky, posted and accessed 15 January 2025; Threads [broken link], posted and accessed 17 May 2024)
  • "Capitalism is not, as its defenders insist, a system designed to distribute wealth, but one designed to capture and concentrate it. The story capitalism tells about itself – that you become rich through hard work and enterprise – is the greatest propaganda coup in human history." (George Monbiot, Threads [broken link], posted and accessed 17 May 2024)
Overview

 "Capitalism is a death cult." (Prof Julia Steinberger, 22 October 2020 tweet)

"Our financialised economy is short-term, crisis-prone and deeply unequal. As always it is the poorest who are forced to pick up the tab for the crimes of big finance." (Global Justice Now, 14 September 2018 email; also read here)

Money Fool
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Capitalism is Demon, not Saviour

Social murder is a term coined by Friedrich Engels in 1845 and used to describe murder committed by the political and social elite where they knowingly permit conditions to exist where the poorest and most vulnerable in society are deprived of the necessities of life and are placed in a position in which they cannot reasonably be expected to live and will inevitably meet an early and unnatural death. (Seen on the internet, e.g. here)

"A core feature of liberal punditry is to attribute social progress to capitalism while erasing the progressive movements that actually fought for it, quite often directly against the interests of the capitalist class.
Labour rights, the weekend, the franchise, public healthcare, women's rights, abolition, decolonization - none of these gains were handed down from above, or bequeathed spontaneously by capital; they were won through collective struggle."
(Jason Hickel, 4 August 2021 tweets)

"Placing profit above all else isn't just evil, it's the root of all evil. And this is precisely what our society has become." (Peter Kalmus, 5 December 2020 tweet)

A stone sculpture on a church of a skull with bulging £ eyeballs and bony hands and serpent tail

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Capitalism creates Inequality
Inequality in a capitalist system = mental ill health five times more common than in the most equal societies. Many other disadvantages too. (See The Spirit Level book)

Inequality in a capitalist system = discontent, as few actually become wealthy = a police state or revolution = violence is inevitable. (See 'The Super-Rich and Us', Part 2 of 2, first aired on BBC, 2015)
"The state could solve homelessness.
But it won’t, because the solution would require citizens to confront the fact that capitalism *requires* homelessness and poverty.
If nobody can make money off you, the state wants you to die, preferably invisibly."
(Chad Loder, 1 April 2021 tweet)
Cartoon of planet Earth, the lower half of the urban masses, packed tightly together, walled off from the green golf course and mansion of the upper half. Atop the globe a 1% banker - old with hands on hips and in a top hat - stands saying "Still not enough".

Also see:-
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Capitalism creates Poverty

(1) Eight billionaires 'as rich as world's poorest half' (BBC, posted and accessed 16 January 2017). Then there are the fat cats, the oligarchs, the footballers, the celebrities, the bankers, the global corporations, etc. They conceal their money offshore unethically or illegally, and deprive society of funds for the betterment of society (e.g. paying undervalued and underpaid carers and public servants). All this is disgusting.
Contrast this with the Hadza, where sharing is a moral obligation without expectation of return (Survival, image 8 of 18, accessed 30 October 2012).
Once upon a time, only a few decades ago, bankers were paid the same as nurses and teachers ('The Super-Rich and Us', Part 2 of 2, first aired on BBC, 2015).
I do not value these overpaid people and remain stupefied at how they get away with impoverishing and damaging society.
I do value the carers and the bulk of humanity who are crushed by the reality of capitalism.
Cartoon of CEO at the top on the phone in his skyscraper, then miltarised police, then the distracted brainwashed people of the richer world on sofas in front of digital screens, then the military, then the poor masses with their land desecrated

(2) Capitalism not only creates material poverty, but also spiritual, collective and emotional poverty. Its exploitative mantra is 'growth, growth, growth' instead of 'Love, Love, Love.' We need happiness economics or similar.
"Sometimes I think the heart of the fixation on the economic growth imperative is the recognition that the end of growth will make plain the need to share."
(Dr. Elizabeth Sawin, 15 August 2021 tweet)

 (3) Consider modern Rich World education and its deep interconnection with poverty and capitalism (notes from documentary Schooling the World [also see here]):-
  • The modern education system that started in the Industrial revolution of the 18th century was not created to help humans deal with life and all its problems, and be independent citizens able to live in community. Rather, it was intended: (1) to be part of the industrial production system, manufacturing human machines that could be slotted in to the system to achieve wealth for the few, at the expense of the many; (2) to support European colonial expansion. Modern education in the Poor World does the same, pulling people off the land, away from their culture and self-respect, and makes people dependent on a centralised economy.
  • We need to question what becoming part of the mainstream means today? It means a Western urban consumer culture, where the local culture is perceived as backward, primitive, shameful. It means putting everything local into the service of the global economy, so 'Education for All' = train everyone to suit the greed of giant, global corporations.
  • Poor world people sell everything to allow their children to follow the success story that education offers, but only about 10% succeed. Modern education is creating worldwide inequality. Modern education is creating failure!! Can you see this? The failed 90% are in-between people, neither suited to the modern world nor their local culture. They are cast adrift, depressed and purposeless, vulnerable to drugs, alcohol, debt, exploitation, prostitution, etc. 
  • There is a widespread belief that modern education lifted and lifts people out of poverty. But the truth is that the arrival of colonialism, development and aid created poverty! Poverty does not exist in pre-modern cultures!!
Poverty girls

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Capitalism is a Pyramid Scheme, a Scam

"In a pyramid scheme, an organization compels individuals who wish to join to make a payment. In exchange, the organization promises its new members a share of the money taken from every additional member that they recruit."
(Wikipedia, accessed 4 October 2021)

The thing is that being born on Earth, we are forced to join the capitalist pyramid scheme. For most of us the payment is lifelong enslavement of body and soul. Do we get our promised share? Not likely! For now, the scam only serves the people at the top = the 1%:

"They told us their wealth would trickle down to us. But in reality your money is just funnelled up to them." (Jon Trickett, Labour MP, 7 September 2021 tweet)

But the scam will backfire:

"Capitalism itself is heading to its own extinction. As resources dwindle and the numbers of people vying for them increase, we are facing collapse of the largest Ponzi scheme of all, the global financial system."
(Catherine Ingram, dated 2021, accessed 29 August 2021)

Capitalist System pyramid image, people in tiers like layers of a cake, the many workers support the base, the rich and rulers at the top
Pyramid of Capitalist System (The International Pub. Co., 1911)

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Capitalism is Systemic Sexism & Misogyny

"The right’s obsession with childless women isn’t just about ideology: it’s essential to the capitalist machine...
A woman who does not bear children is a woman who will never stay home and provide unremunerated care. She is less likely to be held in the domestic zone and extend her caregiving to elderly relatives or the children of others. She cannot be a resource that undergirds a male partner’s career, frailties, time limitations and social demands.
A mother is an option, a floating worker, the joker in the pack. Not mothering creates a hole for that “free” service, which societies increasingly arranged around nuclear families and poorly subsidised rights depend on. The lack of parental leave, childcare and elderly care would become profoundly visible – “disorienting and disturbing” – if that service were removed."
(Nesrine Malik, The Guardian, posted and accessed 2 September 2024)

"Capitalism will always be racist and sexist, because it has to mystify its core contradiction - the promise of prosperity vs the reality of widespread poverty - by denigrating the 'nature' of those it exploits: colonial subjects, women and the dispossessed."
(Silvia Federici)

"From a capitalist view point women's breasts can create profit as long as they are sexualised. Breastfeeding in public makes women's breasts less sexy, therefore it is not acceptable." (Victoria Tahmasebi, a women and gender studies expert at Toronto University, tweet cited by BBC, posted and accessed 30/7/2017)

Also see:-
A poster. At the back a factory from which a queue of men emerge on the right, heading for the foreground. In the foreground three women, caring, ironing, cooking, basically doing so much for the system. The queue of men then leaves the women on the left and return to the factory.
Sexist oppression and economic exploitation are interrelated.
"Women's work" is undervalued and underpaid. See here.
Instead of climbing the corporate ladder, tackle economic & gender inequality?

Capitalism uses the Police & Army as its Gang

"Capitalism is at root a legal system that is upheld by laws that are enforced with the threat of violence." (Laurie Macfarlane, The Guardian, posted and accessed 29 April 2021)

"The idea that the military could be a force for good in the context of environmental catastrophe and social breakdown is laughable. Whatever the rhetoric, the role of the military is to secure the interests of a nation’s capitalist class amid the competitive global scramble for resources and markets... The military are gangsters for capitalism. And in the future, they’re likely to double down on savagery."
(James Plested, Red Flag, posted 10 December 2019, accessed 3 September 2021)

Surely by now there can be few here who still believe the purpose of government is to protect us from the destructive activities of corporations. At last most of us must understand that the opposite is true: that the primary purpose of government is to protect those who run the economy from the outrage of injured citizens.
(Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization)

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."
(Major General Smedley Butler, War is a Racket)

"The captains of capital need the fascists (cops) and the cops need the capitalists ($$). It's a match made in hell." (Peter Kalmus, 7 January 2021 tweets adaptation)

Cartoon of a heavily armoured policeman and machine gun outside a wealthy walled property, the 1% asking him why he's not dealing with the noise. Meanwhile, outside, the small people have their arms up and ask him who he is sworn to protect and serve.

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Capitalism is complicit in Colonialism, Slavery, Racism

"You can't have capitalism without racism." (Malcolm X)

"Accrual capitalism (where wealth begets wealth exponentially) is like a genie that was let out of the bottle about 500 years ago, leading to indigenous genocides, slavery, colonialism, famine, artificial scarcity, and now climate and ecological breakdown."
(Peter Kalmus, 14 December 2020 tweet)

"Capitalism, at its core, requires a workforce of poor people or slaves to do back- and brain-breaking labor to maintain the wealth of those at the top."
(Akin Olla, The Guardian, posted and accessed 20 March 2021)

"The notion that wealthy countries have "achieved" growth while poor countries "haven't" erases both colonial history and neo-colonial forms of power. In reality the former have grown rich by exploiting the latter, and they continue to do so."
(Jason Hickel, 21 February 2021 tweet)

"We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifices. Capitalism was built on the exploitation of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad." (Martin Luther King, Jr.)



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Capitalism peddles Harm, not Health

Capitalism prioritises profit above all else. What do you think happens to the health of a people under this system? Enter predatory capitalism:-
  • Precious nationalised health systems for the good of all - like the NHS - are underfunded and understaffed. People have to wait years for treatment and are often forced to resort to expensive private health companies or DIY. Or they are otherwise exploited. Examples: here, here, here, here, here, here.
  • Big Pharma holds the whole world in a strangehold, so much so that it puts profit before potentially saving masses of lives. It promotes drug dependency over health. Examples: here, here, here, here, here, here.
  • Countries become toxic chemical dumping grounds, minimally regulated or unregulated. Examples: here, here.
Under capitalism, the ethical standards of Hippocratic Oath's "First do no harm" has morphed into the psychopathic "Fuck the people. Grab their money. Grab the profit. After doing all this harm, then maybe help them."

A yellow barrel marked as extremely dangerous, from whose top leaks chemicals. The chemicals are the colours of the UK flag.
Chemical Barrel (Nathalie Lees, The Guardian; fair use, educational)

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Capitalism is not Sustainable

It rapes and destroys the planet Earth:

"When you understand that under capitalism, a forest has no value until it’s cut down, you begin to see the root of our ecological crisis." (Adam Idek Hastie)

"Remorseless and unstoppable growth in the human body is called cancer. So why, when it is on Earth, do we call it progress?" (Bella Lack, youth environmentalist and writer, The Guardian, posted and accessed 30 March 2021)

We need simplicity, simple lives in harmony with nature and God/Goddess:

"If everybody lives like the rich people, we need two other planets. Live on this planet with seven billion people in a way that we can all live." (Ervin Laszlo, 2006)

ATM in tree

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Capitalism fucks with Evolution

Capitalism has enabled humans to be an existential threat to themselves and all species.

'Survival of the fittest' as a violent competitive process is a corruption of Darwinism. Industrialists like Andrew Carnegie believed that it justified an economy of vicious competition and inequality.
This has given rise to a corporate, capitalist dominated world, which is actually threatening our survival and that of many species - see here, here. And consider:-
  • It’s a shame that capitalism does not incentivise the continued existence of life on earth... And it is even more of a shame that pointing this out gets you branded some kind of radical. (Sam Knights, 16 June 2021 tweet)
  • Reality check... Capitalism is an abomination which inflates ego, not mind or spirit! (himalayanbear, posted 18 November 2017, accessed 20 November 2017)
  • The global industrial economy is the engine for massive environmental degradation and massive human (and nonhuman) impoverishment. (Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization)
  • We’re trapped in a truly rotten system. Not only is capitalism driving pretty much all life on Earth to extinction, but it’s keeping most people so busy and distracted that they’re not even really aware it’s happening. (Climate Dad, 10 December 2021 tweet)
  • The interesting thing about capitalism is that it’s entirely incompatible with the future, so we’ve just decided to get rid of the future and keep capitalism for a short while (Tiberius, 13 August 2022 tweet)
  • Wealth sharing and co-operation are more consistent with Darwinism. (See Eric Michael Johnson, posted 3 May 2013, accessed 3 November 2016; also check out the ideas of Peter Kropotkin and his book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution)
  • Traits like co-operation, sharing and compassion have been at the basis of the most dramatic steps in the history of all life. (See Michael Le Page, New Scientist, posted 16 April 2008, accessed 3 November 2016). 
So, success - or the fittest adaptation - is 'survival of the most loving', where:

"We do not own the earth. The earth owns us." (Chief Seattle)

But, for now, we are living in that corporate capitalist economy with its inequality and unsustainable lifestyle.
Until the Climate & Ecological Emergency (CEE) undoes the distortion of capitalism.
Distorted Globe

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Capitalism exploits Your Fears, banks on Your Stupidity

"Capitalism is going to kill you. But it also thinks you’re stupid." (Sam Knights)

"Global inequity is astounding if you look at it objectively. It's just that we're brainwashed by capitalism to think that it's fine that some on this planet get only a dollar a day, while others can have tens of millions a day. No other species lives like this."
(Peter Kalmus, 10 July 2021 tweet)

"They say that capitalism rewards those who work hard, when in reality it primarily rewards those who exploit the hard work of others." (Jason Hickel, 26 April 2021 tweet)
At a table, three seated humans facing us. Billionaire Rupert Murdoch in the centre with a piled-high plate of cookies. To his left is a white-skinned worker in a hard hat and high-visibility waistcoat - with a plate with just one cookie. To Murdoch's right is a dark-skinned man with no plate or cookies. Murdoch - with a smile on his face and pointing at the dark-skinned man - says to the white man, "Careful mate, that foreigner wants your cookie".
The evil of Rupert Murdoch

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Capitalism uses Torture Psychology to Coerce You

Torture disorientates and shocks. For a period of time, the personality becomes susceptible, open to suggestion, more likely to cooperate.
Torture and its shock can also be applied collectively when it is called 'Shock Doctrine'. Although the shock doctrine is not limited to capitalism, it has been called 'Disaster Capitalism' by Naomi Klein.
Shock doctrine is a political and economic strategy. It uses moments of crisis - whether natural or engineered - to ram through outrageous and publicly unacceptable policies. The goals = deregulation, privatisation, undermining democracy and public services, the destruction of any collective capacity for decision-making, leaving it all in the hands of wealth and industry.
When shocked by national or global events, the masses are softened up and more likely to follow leaders.
Milton Friedman said, "Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change." 
Trump is a master at applying it, continually engineering shocking situations to achieve fascist, plutocratic, oligarchic, theocratic goals.


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Capitalism is the real 'Nanny State' = the 'Grandpa State'

A nanny is someone who provides childcare to a family, often staying with them. Sounds helpful, right? Indeed, natural family living knows that we need a village to raise a family, not just a nanny! But capitalism and its associated cult of hyper-individualism has corrupted it all.
A 'nanny state' is a derogatory term. It refers to a government that is overprotective or interferes unduly with personal choice (Adapted from Wikipedia, accessed 30 July 2022). Or a state whose government institutions are authoritative and over-paternalistic, interfering with and controlling people's lives (Adapted from Wiktionary, accessed 31 July 2022).
Capitalism brutally lies and says that acts of a responsible government - such as free healthcare, nationalised transport & utilities, universal basic income & services, healthy food - are actually interference and the erosion of freedom. It is mindfuckery.
A cartoon that has a man identify a criminal from a line-up. There are three very dodgy looking men that wear jumpers with words like 'GE Food' and other unhealthy ultra-processed foods. There is also in the line-up an old, kindly, small granny. She wears words that say 'Fresh fruit and veg'. She is identified as the criminal to the police. She is "The Poisoner."
Capitalism says good things are bad, bad things are good
(Cartoon by Mike Moreu; fair use, educational)

Meanwhile, capitalism has enslaved the masses through dependence on its ratrace system. We are very much not free, yet are being told we are free. Instead of the compassionate support of a good nanny, we are under the evil machinations of capitalism. Evidence: (1) Withdraw the system for a few weeks and most would be starving. (2) Parenting and caring are unpaid or low-paid. (3) We are told that people who need benefits are scroungers, whilst it is actually the rich who are immorally or criminally accumulating huge amounts of wealth at the expense of most of us:
A cartoon that frames someone on benefits as a fraudster and a rich exploiter as an astute entrepreneur utilising tactical tax efficiencies
Benefit Fraudster vs. 'Astute' Entrepreneur - Is this the truth?
(Cartoon by Goddard Cartoons; fair use; educational)

Vs.

A graph that shows how little money is used for benefits and how huge amounts are lost to tax avoidance and evasion etc.
Benefit Fraud vs. Tax Evasion graph
It seems the UK Benefit Fraudster is very low-level crime or actually Government error.
Meanwhile the 'Astute' Entrepreneur is an organised criminal plundering from the public.
(Graph is of unknown source, possibly from here; fair use, educational)

When capitalism attackes the 'nanny state', it allows Big Money to continue fucking up the Earth for vast profit with no repercussions.
If we must use the derogatory term 'nanny state', then surely it is capitalism that is the evil nanny? It erodes the freedom of the masses and maintains wealth for a very few. Or the truth is that a 'nanny state' is actually very good and what we need = eco-socialism. But what now exists is not that. We have a 'grandpa state'.

A cartoon has a grandpa in a top hat smoking a pipe in an armchair. He chastises a waitress for not working hard enough. Words around include, 'Hate the nanny state? You'll love the aristocratic old grandpa state.'
"Britain is full of grafters at the bottom – and grifters at the top." (Enough is Enough, 16 August tweet)
Capitalism = The Aristocratic Old Grandpa State =
Freedom of the few at the expense of the rest of us.
Nanny state is blamed. Grandpa state slips under the radar.
(Cartoon by Jen Sorenson; fair use, educational)

"They reframed responsible government as the “nanny state”, the “health police” and “elf ’n’ safety zealots”. They dismissed scientific findings and predictions as “unfounded fears”, “risk aversion” and “scaremongering”. Public protections were recast as “red tape”, “interference” and “state control”. Government itself was presented as a mortal threat to our freedom."
(George Monbiot adaptation, The Guardian, posted 18 March, accessed 1 November 2020)

"The myth of the nanny state gives believers a teenage thrill of anti-authoritarianism. But because the high is fleeting, they must always search again for a nanny against whom they can prove themselves: trade unionists, judges and human rights lawyers; virologists, statisticians, people wearing face masks; the BBC, the SNP, the ECHR. In extreme cases they assert themselves against the nannying laws of physics, which insist on governing the interactions of CO2 molecules with solar radiation."
(Alan Finlayson, The Guardian, posted and accessed 30 July 2022)

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Capitalism captures Governments

State capture is 'a type of systemic political corruption in which private interests significantly influence a state's decision-making processes to their own advantage.' (Wikipedia, accessed 16 January 2023) It is everywhere.

"Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world." (Henry Kissinger)

"Globalisation has in effect made the citizen disappear, and it has reduced the state into being a mere instrument of global capital." (Vandana Shiva)

"State Capture is when wealthy and powerful 'interests' arrange things so government runs to benefit them and their friends."
(First Dog on the Moon, The Guardian, posted 11 March 2022, accessed 16 January 2023)

A cartoon showing a bilby [an Australian marsupial that somewhat resembles a rabbit] explaining State Capture. The bilby uses a chart that shows an input and an output. Fed in is 'Democracy'. Fed out - after 'Influence' and 'Corruption' - is 'Oligarchy'.
Detail from the cartoon 'The Truth about State Capture with Arthur the Anti-Corruption Bilby' (First Dog on The Moon, The Guardian, posted 11 March 2022, accessed 16 January 2023; fair use, educational)

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Capitalism = Rule by Psychopaths

Capitalism means wealth inequality.
Wealth leads to lack of empathy.
So capitalism leads to rule by psychopaths.
Words on a blue background: 'Capitalism means wealth inequality. Wealth leads to lack of empathy. So capitalism leads to rule by psychopaths.'
(Seen on the internet, e.g. here responding to this; fair use, educational)

Also see:-
Resources
Articles
Videos
Poster of a black doctor with words that describe Capitalism Symptoms, such as 'sad', 'anxious', 'isolated'

 Also see:-

Money articles

The Human Catalogue of Evil 2 - Capitalism

Opening Pandora's Box

Simplicity

The Conflict between Evolutionary Skills & Modern Life

Why is a Culture of Love needed?

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Page last updated: 25 April 2025.