5:40 a few years ago, when I first heard that American schools are funded by local property tax, I didn't believe it. It seemed like such an obviously stupid policy that I refused to believe that it was true ... but it is (with very few exceptions). Americans, you must understand: *this is not normal.* In pretty much every other country in the world, schools have some kind of equitable funding method. For example, the same amount of money per child throughout the whole country. Some countries still have inequalities because wealthier families can spend more time with their children, and can afford tutors, etc., but this pales in comparison to local property taxing funding local schools. The best countries try to offset this by providing more help to children at schools in low income areas. This is a *massive* generator of inequality in America, and it is insane that it has been allowed to go on for so long.

@echo512a2

2 жыл бұрын

Holy shit not just bikes KZread seems to be such a small place sometimes

@shanecolechannel

2 жыл бұрын

Wow never realized that this was not the default as an American who grew up in a small rural community. One of the largest and most common complaints from my fellow townsfolk was that the taxes for the school was a large burden on the tax base of the community. If only they knew that the system for funding the school itself was flawed to begin with.

@dariann1661

2 жыл бұрын

Heyyyy it’s my favorite KZread channel once again!

@planefan082

2 жыл бұрын

@White Kings88 That's one way to say that we actually give a shit about funding education properly Although it isn't enough, I've seen the state of public schools in Canada.

@USMCCGAGNG

2 жыл бұрын

Exxon runs a refinery in Billings Montana that poisons the air miles away (I lived there). Exxon fights paying any property taxes there even though it was understood how this works.

When I first moved to Hollywood to pursue my music career in 1986, a producer I met told me, "With the music industry, it doesn't matter how good you are. In fact, you don't have to be a good musician at all. It's all about who you know and who you blow." In 2021, I'd say that, based on my experience, he was very accurate, and not just with the music business.

@ane3sha

2 жыл бұрын

entertainment is sadly the only industry who tells it like it is!

@Yandel21ableify

2 жыл бұрын

Casting couch

@isaachayman9231

2 жыл бұрын

Looks like you didn’t find out either lmao

@gwills9337

2 жыл бұрын

@@fdjw88 lol OF and sex workers are entrepreneurs now?

@isaachayman9231

2 жыл бұрын

@@fdjw88 so says all the prostitutes I’ve eaten

My grandparents did very well, coming from rural Indiana to upper middle class. Growing up I always thought they were just better than other people, but when I got older working all the time going nowhere I started to realize something wasn't right. People like my grandparents were born into one of the most prosperous times in US history and have the nerve to tell later generations we're not working hard enough. The 80's in particular destroyed the souls of a lot of good people. It made them callous and hostile toward anyone who is struggling.

@broncomcbane6382

2 жыл бұрын

This is very true. You re getting "old folks advice" as though you live in a vacuum. If this were Post WW2, Post Depression economy with the US being the only first world country unscathed by war yea it was easy for Grandpa to get a foothold in the economy and some accomplishments. But it appears that the rest of us were sold out by NAFTA and a bunch of other trade deals and repealed Great Depression legislation so banks and hedge funds could make countless money at our expense.

@jameskennedy721

2 жыл бұрын

Reagan era propaganda . Too many people believed it , and their personalities became vile , even if they were 20 years old . The punk rock "rebellion " was really the same set of ideas , except you wore more black clothing .

@herohero-fw1vc

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly true......It was Reagan that got rid of regulations & the rich ran amock. Also his chief eonomic advisor Michael Boskin of Stanford University was the brains behind it. He used to be on TV almost everynight crying out to get rid of laws that protected the poor..

@jameskennedy721

2 жыл бұрын

@@herohero-fw1vc I dont remember Boskin . Bad times being sold back to us as not that bad .

@pdcdesign9632

2 жыл бұрын

Yes it all started with TRICKLE DOWN economics by REAGAN.

My parents were well off. I'm talking multiple houses etc. They bought into this myth, and honestly made my life hell for it. I had learning disabilities and celiac, none of which they treated. I had to work 2x as hard to pass anything. They then blamed me for it and I was forced to work as young as I was able in a minimum wage job to teach me what my life would be like if I didn't fall in line. They also stole my wages to keep me from wasting the wages. When I hit college I got SO SICK. I thought I would die. Instead of helping me, guess what they did. Forced me to get a minimum wage to teach me a lesson. I passed out from pain several times at that job. I don't talk to them anymore..... Can you guess why.

@rockfire1669

Жыл бұрын

Hope they like bequeathing their beliefs to a house.

@mhxybeats653

Жыл бұрын

Another example of how capitalism straight up destroys the family unit and renders empathy a perceived weakness

@thecrimsondragon9744

Жыл бұрын

Unfortunately, these sorts of parents are more common than most people think. They really deserve to suffer what they forced on others.

@dieglhix

10 ай бұрын

My dad was a piston engine pilot and worked as fishing pilot, among others, he was at that time rich, with multiple land, sea and aereal vehicles, real estate, but things have changed. Status quo is fragile unless you hold real estate assets. Now I am transitioning into lower middle class lifestyle after a layoff, considering my profession was considered invincible to depressions.

@codylujan

9 ай бұрын

karma will catch up to them.

"Opportunity itself has been comodified." I think that's the most succinct way I've been able to articulate what I see where people with money are able to get their kids better schooling, lunches, clothing, comforts, etc.

@carissahowell

2 жыл бұрын

I agree. When he put it in those terms, it immediately resonated. I will have to co-opt the phrase.

@KingJT80

2 жыл бұрын

@@carissahowell you could also say, capitalism is a zero sum game for you to win, someone somewhere, is losing.. just look at people living in tents along highways in the wealthiest country in the world...they def arent the winners in the capitalism game...

@Yandel21ableify

2 жыл бұрын

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates came from humble begginings.

@DF-hl2ds

2 жыл бұрын

“Capitalism has made it this way, old fashioned fascism will take it away!” - Prophet M. Manson Amen. The global cabal behind “meritocracy” needs to identified and brought to justice!

@TheTopo8798

2 жыл бұрын

@Newcious a o

“Let’s quickly go over liberalism” *cut to This Is Fine dog* just top notch editing there, chef’s kiss

@big_sea

2 жыл бұрын

yes

@WackadoodleMalarkey

2 жыл бұрын

3:15 "this is the result of the US neoliberal political project" _Sign shows no left turn_ Dayum 😹

@sirius_b_13

2 жыл бұрын

I litteraly thought my fire alarm was ringing

@matthewellison4442

2 жыл бұрын

Mixing alot of BS in the video.

@theQuestion626

Жыл бұрын

@@matthewellison4442 how so? There’s plenty of data to demonstrate that neoliberalism has been and will continue to be a colossal failure. I think listening to Milton Friedman was one of the biggest mistakes America has made since Richard Nixon.

When this topic comes up I always use the real life example of April Ellison, a person that was born a black slave, and died as a black slaveowner. There's always exceptions to ANY system, that doesn't mean we should be dumb enough to think those very rare exceptions are the rule.

@gwills9337

2 жыл бұрын

what a disgusting person, and disgusting system.

@doperagu8471

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly. Thank you. People focus far too much on the small percentage of people who do "make it" out of their circumstances instead of the 98% of people that can't. I find that a lot of conservatives love to focus on the exception to the rule, rather than the pretty obvious rule itself.

@yourex-wife4259

2 жыл бұрын

really good point to make. You can say "most people dont make it" but when theres an actual example it makes it much stronger

@hudson2441

2 жыл бұрын

Yes! For ever person you can point to that clawed their way out of a cardboard box, there’s 10,000 that didn’t make it and died in the gutter but no one wants to talk about them. And no one wants to create an actual system where the other 10,000 people can make it too! If you point to the exception as a sign that the economy works what you’re really doing is ignoring massive failures.

@tonyjones1560

2 жыл бұрын

IMO, it's even more insidious when the exceptions are used to justify the system, or even blame the marginalized for the system that marginalized them in the first place.

A Yale professor once said (not verbatim) "people can imagine themselves crossing a puddle or a pond but can't imagine themselves crossing an ocean. When wealth inequality becomes an ocean people on one side start listening to anti-esablishemt rhetoric." He also said "for those who are wealthy; they can segregate themselves and won't need to invest in programs or markets that the majority uses so the wealth is only distributed to the wealthy" Edit: the Professor is Ian Shapiro

@toppler8164

2 жыл бұрын

Most based Shapiro.

@EsKpistOne

2 жыл бұрын

Ian Shapiro DEBUNKS his vastly inferior right-wing counterpart with FACTS and LOGIC

@flyingsquirrel1135

2 жыл бұрын

@@EsKpistOne and their father defended OJ Simpson I believe. Damn civil war going on over there.

@dianamarcekova9615

Жыл бұрын

His father? Brother?

@SharienGaming

Жыл бұрын

@@dianamarcekova9615 as far as i can tell with a quick check of wikipedia, no relation

I like a George Carlin line: "The reason they call it the 'American Dream' is 'cuz you have to be asleep to believe it."

@bearmugs1408

2 жыл бұрын

In today's world you'll be lucky to get a good enough sleep to have a dream. The amount of stress or whatever you want to call it that we are forced to endure, just to simply live is insane

@condorX2

2 жыл бұрын

I still don't know what that mean.. "asleep to believe" We're slaves without chains ?

@devinfaux6987

2 жыл бұрын

@@condorX2 Pretty much, yeah. We spend a large chunk of our lives doing work for someone else, because if we don't we have no way to get food or shelter. It's just slavery with extra steps.

@AZ-rg3rf

2 жыл бұрын

🤭

@HoweFare

2 жыл бұрын

Still, 15% of Americans are millionaires, much better than the rest of the world

The Loughborough research - the first large-scale quantitative study into the phenomenon - found 71% of young single adults were living with their parents during their early 20s, and a majority (54%) were living at the parental home in their late 20s, falling to a third of those in their early 30s

@LukeMcGuireoides

2 жыл бұрын

I'm living with mine and I'm 41. I've never been able to afford my healthcare and I wasnt able to afford college. Now im not even able to get disability after having worked for 19yrs. The system is effed. Unless your lucky or you're able to grind like mad you're screwed.

@armyofninjas9055

2 жыл бұрын

@@LukeMcGuireoides Disability isn't based on how long you've worked though

@ayoutubechannelname

2 жыл бұрын

I see, so your ideal society is one that consumes in such a manner that empty nest parents can have extra bedrooms to themselves which no one sleeps in, which they then proceed to fill will stuff they don’t want in order satisfy an underlying urge to consume, then further combining with a pathological desire to prove to other parents that they are worthy of respect by showing that their children are “not dependent” on them.

@taranullius9221

2 жыл бұрын

@@armyofninjas9055 It's a feeling of resentment I think they're expressing. You get chewed up and spat out and have nothing to show for it and when you need help after years of paying into the system, you can't even get something that will keep you below the poverty line/suriving...and that is soul destroying.

@anmolt3840051

2 жыл бұрын

Is it such a bad thing to live with your parents?

"I don't want a union to hold me back. I want to go out there and see what I'm worth in the free market, what I'm truly worth." An American friend said that. It's amazing how the narcissistic self-regard of American individualism pushes people to go against their own interests and even see that as The Truth

@70blue63

2 жыл бұрын

And I say good luck, my family is well taken care of from my union career

@grmpEqweer

2 жыл бұрын

You might want to show them this: ...So you want to see how hard the employers will screw you if there's nothing stopping those employers. 😈 Seriously, an employer doesn't determine your "worth", they coldly calculate how little they can get away with paying for you. You're merely an overhead cost, a component, nothing more, to them. A union means you're negotiating in a rough sort of parity, and is to be highly desired. And don't ever let a freaking employer determine your worth. F those people.

@grmpEqweer

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I've been using the term Toxic Individualism. It seems to apply here in Free Dumb Land quite often.

@SynthApprentice

2 жыл бұрын

If you're not using your ability to make use of strength in numbers, then in the free market, you're worth jack diddly squat.

@dvf1736

2 жыл бұрын

That's because worker's unions in the US are worthless. The only unions worth a damn were bombed and shot in the mines of West Virginia in the 30s.

"The United States had two choices to make: increase capitalism or democracy. Unfortunately, the neoliberals made the choice and increased capitalism, and rolled back democracy, that now capitalists have more power than the public." - Noam Chomsky.

@brandonwombacher2559

2 жыл бұрын

This Society Is Going Down The Tubes My Friend👍

I'm happy there's a bit more humor in these videos. Sometimes it's hard to watch leftist content because of how depressing our world is.

@linnellgifford-mahany5906

2 жыл бұрын

you need to know though. its funny incels always talk about taking the red pill but really if theyre taking a pill its the blue one

@mathias3721

2 жыл бұрын

@@linnellgifford-mahany5906 Right-wing is redpill, incel is blackpill

@bongodave13

2 жыл бұрын

@@mathias3721 And neither can ever be happy.

@alexanderballa6152

2 жыл бұрын

@@bongodave13 yeah being incel seems downright depressing

@kvdrr

2 жыл бұрын

@@thotslayer9914 How about the FisherPrice pill?

The origins of the concept of "meritocracy" added some rather mind blowing context that makes the decades of its unironic usage kind of terrifying. Thanks, I think.

@monchete9934

2 жыл бұрын

It's the same thing as pulling oneself up their bootstraps. The term is meant to describe a physically impossible feat which is then sold as what we need to do to live in the bare minimum that is considered acceptable.

@Lincoln_Bio

2 жыл бұрын

@@monchete9934 Yeah, I'd always recognised it as an illusion, I just hadn't realised it went as deep as its core utopian ideal being in fact a terrible idea taken from previous literal dystopian warnings. Sort of like how the corporate rule and technological reliance of 80s cyberpunk is now basically a thing, lol

@Yandel21ableify

2 жыл бұрын

Rich people want the rest to believe in meritocracy.

@aminulhussain2277

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, it's pretty much just Social Darwinism presented in a nicer looking package.

@oceanthresher6184

2 жыл бұрын

Similar to how the US pledge of allegiance was written by a socialist

In my Sociology 101 class, the professor once asked what the primary factor was in determining how much money a person would make in their life, and everyone was throwing out meritocratic ideals, and each of them were told they were wrong. Then I was like, “how much your parents make”, and he said, “that’s it.” :shrug: I was always pretty aware of the disparity of opportunities.

@puellanivis

2 жыл бұрын

@tjuyftutjyfudt ¿Huh? Are you under the mistaken assumption that because I took one sociology class, I must have a sociology degree? I took it because I had general education requirements. Did you mistake college for a trade school?

@puellanivis

2 жыл бұрын

@tjuyftutjyfudt Oh. 🤦‍♀

@TheProletariat321

9 ай бұрын

My parents are middle class, and I go to a school with a great Reputation. I wouldn't say that I'm smart. My Grades are average at best. I only excell at the Subjects I'm interested in (Art, history, politics, and foreign languages). The only reason I'm able to go to that school is because my parents have the money to pay for it. The career that I want will never pay my bills, and I'll probably have to get a degree in something that I hate, just so I can possibly have a good life if I'm not over exploited and underpaid. In germany it hasn't been too bad as I have learned, but I don't know how it will be in a few years when I graduate. The career that I want wouldn't neccessarily require me to go to Such a prestigious school (I want to be an artist). But because of capitalism, I'll be forced to make something that is profitable, not what I want to make. It is so sad that there are people who want to become doctors or engineers or any job requiring higher education, but will never be able to. This fucking sucks. I don't understand why my parents want me to be a doctor just for the money. Weren't people supposed to want to become doctors because they wanted to help people? I'm sure there's plenty of poorer children who could have gone to that school in my place.

@realliferevue

7 ай бұрын

@@TheProletariat321coming from germany i can tell you. things start to get a little uncomfortable around here

the problem with the concept of meritocracy is who decides what's of merit. it's always the people in power, and they value what allowed them to succeed and what let's them hold power as holding the most merit. we live in a meritocracy, and maximizing wealth is the largest sign of merit, not creativity, intelligence, diligence, discovery, charity, etc. then they sell that back to the average person so they attach other positive attributes to them (genius, morality, divinity, etc) meritocracy can't be the ideal because humans see what they do as individuals as good, otherwise we wouldn't do them, and whoever has power assigns that "good" as the standard by which all should be judged. it's easy to be great and to be deserving of your power and influence when you get to decide what's of merit.

@LoudCommentor

2 жыл бұрын

Not always. Commonly in capitalism, 'what is of merit' is decided by the masses. eg. Bezos was given his power/money because people around the globe decided that what he did had worth and merit. If they didn't, they wouldn't have given him their money.

@voxomnes9537

2 жыл бұрын

@@LoudCommentor No.

@LowestofheDead

2 жыл бұрын

@@LoudCommentor The Amazon Store didn't make a profit for the first 20 years of its existence. It was sustained entirely by seed money and capital gains from the stock market - basically Capitalist money. And in those 20 years, Amazon was destroying small businesses that actually produce things for money in the free market. So basically, owning Capital is about more than taking money from workers, it's also about controlling what's produced in society and how. As workers, we produce things and money/capital is just a way to exchange them or facilitate that. But Capitalists turn money into more money, by using _all of our businesses, jobs and lifestyles_ to facilitate that. Google the MCM cycle for more details.

@MP-ut6eb

2 жыл бұрын

@@LowestofheDead ty.

@Hadoken.

2 жыл бұрын

@@voxomnes9537 What a sophisticated counter argument Socrates.

There are even studies that show that brain forms differently in kids, who are raised in families with different income. The parts, which usually make good self-control possible, don't get properly formed if children experience malnutrition or lack of external stimulation in early childhood.

@KateeAngel

2 жыл бұрын

In the current system if you are poor and reproduce, you set your children to be disadvantaged, if you are rich and reproduce, your children will inherit your privilege, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of inequality. Under capitalism, there is no ethical reproduction, just like there is no ethical consumption

@elroma7712

2 жыл бұрын

Yup my mom was a social worker in the early 90's when neoliberalism was used in our nation. The poorest people got malnutrition and she said that we have a generation of people with reduced brain capabilities.

@cakeisyummy5755

2 жыл бұрын

Could you PLEASE link the study? I NEED to read it! And i NEED to share it!

@alexcarter8807

2 жыл бұрын

This. I would fail "the marshmallow test" every time as a kid. And I've tested a fair number of standard deviations above the average in IQ and am good at planning and saving now. But when I was a malnourished kid I'd have crammed that marshmallow in my mouth right away, 100% of the time. Why? Because not only was I hungry, but adults were not very trustworthy or predicable, and I'd been fooled by their lies before. The usual adult lies like, "Stick around home because Dad's coming by with some money so we can buy food". I learned how much of a lie that one was most of the time, and learned to blow off the chance to see my dad in favor of taking my pole and going fishing so I'd KNOW I'd get something to eat. Once I was out on my own and able to earn my own money and procure my own food, live in my own place, that part of my brain magically developed right away and I was able to save and strategize and plan, because I no longer had to worry about my food, my money, etc being taken away from me.

@KateeAngel

2 жыл бұрын

@@cakeisyummy5755 I listened to an audiobook, and the written version has links to studies, I just don't know how I find that version

When he spoke about today's youth and "downard mobility", i could hear echos of boomers saying it is cause we are lazy and has nonthing to do with society.

@rockomcdagger6364

2 жыл бұрын

I'm not really seeing this line from boomers anymore, rather I'm seeing well off (as in labor aristocrat and petite bourgeoisie) millenials and gen xers

@thugstin6429

2 жыл бұрын

@@rockomcdagger6364 fair point. A lot of boomers i know are old school hippies, so it makes sense.

@gwills9337

2 жыл бұрын

@@Dukenukem Society is exactly meant to be fair in opportunity, not outcome - right now we have neither. If society doesn't exist to create opportunity you implicitly admit its there for exploitation, my dude.... Maybe grow up "Dukenukem"

@tonyjones1560

2 жыл бұрын

I'm a boomer (1962) and like to congratulate you for being smart enough to spit out the kool-aid. "Lazy," hell...

@zeffery101

2 жыл бұрын

I'd consider myself kind of lazy but also, I know hard work alone still produces a low chance of success. Its hard work + knowledge that increases that chance. I guess I'm just guilty of learning a lot more than actually working. I still feel there is nothing in this world that's worth working hard for. Working hard for the chance of success while feeling miserable the entire time doesn't sound like a fair bargain to me. I'd rather not take part in the rat race, go out, explore, be carefree, sacrifice on first world amenities, learn a lot along the way, and be happy with what I have. Happiness comes from within anyways.

Meritocracy is both the lie that everyone gets what they deserve and the justification for inaction. Another way to blame the individual for society's problems.

As someone who is constantly praise for having "made it", i absolutely detest hearing people use me as an example of how hard work pays off. Yes, hard work does indeed pay off but I would love it if those people went and thanked my mother, whose absolutely back breaking and exhausting work allowed me only have to focus about going to school and nothing else. As it turns out, even when you live in a disgusting one bedroom apartment in "inner city neighborhood" and sleep in a bed with your mom and little brother, not having to worry about where to sleep, what to eat, or paying any bills really does have it's advantages. It also doesn't hurt that my mom finished college in our native country and made it clear (practically everyday) that she expected nothing less than a bachelor's (minimum) from us.

@gwills9337

2 жыл бұрын

to even have an opportunity to "make it" is a privilege these days, that's his point

@cmpork7145

2 жыл бұрын

But you did put in the work, I'm glad you're giving credit where it's due and that's how it should be... But all those openings, opportunities, and so forth don't matter if you don't capitalize on em. Are you self made, probably not, I know I'd be lying to claim that I am, but that shouldn't be a knock on our ethic and efforts. It just means means we had a great support system to be thankful for.

@theQuestion626

2 жыл бұрын

@@cmpork7145 yes but to say that someone got there simply by hard work alone is not only naïve it’s also obtuse. And not to mention it also illustrates how lacking in a “great support system” really is a reality for many out there. We’re not knocking the hard work of other people taking advantage of a support system that clearly benefited them but we’re knocking is this illusion that they simply got there by gumption and gumption alone.

As a millennial, this is exactly why I chose to not have children. There's no frigging way I could give them a better life than I had. As an adult working a full time, permanent, municipal job, I still hardly break even every month with rent and utilities, insurance, food and gas and car payment/maintenance, etc, etc. And this is both me and my partner working. We don't go out to eat, neither of us are coffee drinkers, I buy one pair of shoes twice a year, clothes maybe every two years.... My parents are middle class who grew up working poor. This video kinda helped me understand it's not completely my fault. Unfortunately, in my generation, as we get older, we're starting to see diseases of dispair. Liver damage and failure, addiction and suicide, COPD and lung cancer. We kinda gave up and said, "fukitall." Let's go do shots.

@HShango

2 жыл бұрын

Same

@iheartjbgccb

2 жыл бұрын

@@mrsdragonite we will always have a budget. That's our only choice. Yet people have the nerve to ask about children in the future? Are you going to pay for their childhood ma'm?

@myronidasvestarossa

2 жыл бұрын

@@iheartjbgccb tell me about it. If it’s some how selfish for me not to have children because I may not be able to provide for them, then let me be selfish.

@Yandel21ableify

2 жыл бұрын

Boomers enjoyed the golden years of being an American.

@annekekramer3835

2 жыл бұрын

When is the "American spring" coming?

Socialists: *create the term meritocracy as joke* Capitalists: "Write that down, write that down!"

@Etaoinshrdlu69

2 жыл бұрын

Just like the game monopoly.

@Briggsian

2 жыл бұрын

@@patrickderp1044 the white supremacy is strong with this one

@Etaoinshrdlu69

2 жыл бұрын

@@patrickderp1044 Nooo not the suburbs! Oh won't someone please think of the suburbs!

@patchwurk6652

2 жыл бұрын

@@patrickderp1044 Lol, very telling that you had to say "white". Am I to take it that your idea of "ruining" white neighborhoods is by making them less white? If so, that tells me a lot more about you than it does "the Left".

@thegr0undislava

2 жыл бұрын

@@patrickderp1044 this makes absolutely no sense and is not analogous in any way you just wanted to write words for the sake of writing words

You failed to mention the expression “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is also a false premise. It used to be used to express something impossible. Just FYI, keep up the great work.

@theQuestion626

2 жыл бұрын

It’s ludicrous how conservatives, libertarians and Trump fanatics constantly use that saying while being completely oblivious about its origins and that it is physically impossible.

“This way lies the ‘meritocracy’; the society in which the gifted, the smart, the energetic, the ambitious, and the ruthless are carefully sifted out and helped towards their destined positions of dominance, where they proceed not only to enjoy the fulfillment of exercising their natural endowments but also to receive a fat bonus thrown in for good measure.” Alan Fox, 1956, Socialist Commentary Thanks for finding and showing us those words!

Rags to riches stories are shared as a rule not an exception. When you think about the amount of people who went from rag to riches is a very small percentage compared to how many people have walked this planet.

@gapsule2326

2 жыл бұрын

Media also calls falling into poverty and other bad things becoming a statistic despite escaping and winning is also a statistic. Obscuring that the game is designed to have losers and turning it into a personal failing.

@nukiradio

2 жыл бұрын

@@gapsule2326 they claim people who are victims of the complex have "a victim complex"

@iheartjbgccb

2 жыл бұрын

@@nukiradio I always hear "if you keep thinking of yourself as the victim you always will be" that's true but how hard is it to understand that not everyone has the same privileges and opportunities as others. They literally think we solved racism because we had a black president

@Yandel21ableify

2 жыл бұрын

Its the same as winning the lottery. Many people play but a miniscule percentage will win.

@philipmarkuszewski27

2 жыл бұрын

@@Yandel21ableify obtaining wealth is not always a lottery. You can get lucky, but many people just work hard. Wealth that comes through luck however is usually unsustainable however because you learned nothing to get there

Agreed. 100%. The comment on the term "meritocracy" is similar to the cliche of "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps", and used in similar contexts.

@denvergray8943

2 жыл бұрын

Honestly, it's starting to match the number of times I've had to furiously explain how utterly idiotic the "bootstraps" thing is through clenched teeth

@guy-sl3kr

2 жыл бұрын

Parodies of systemic injustice are being used unironically to support said systems. We live in the worst timeline.

@Social_Pugatory

2 жыл бұрын

@@guy-sl3kr Such an articulate explanation of how bootstraps ideology ignores systematic and wealth inequality and pretty much says “This is the way things are and the way they will forever be so why fight fit something better?”

@dayones4596

2 жыл бұрын

nah, conservatives said if you just get four jobs, you too can make it!

@blendergaming1579

2 жыл бұрын

Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is a legitimate thing. At the same time people are often taken advantage of. The truth is most people aren't going to get help and you have to make it yourself or with a group of people you trust. People have different work ethics, some people are more intelligent, etc. It's never a black and white issue. Things aren't the way they should be and tons of people don't have the opportunities they should. There's also people that get held back. Overall point being that both sides of the argument have merit and things need to change but people also have to recognize that the capabilities of two people are not equal. I'm not talking about some billionaire vs your average person, everyone knows a billionaire isn't doing the equivalent work of 1000s of people or millions. I'm talking about two normal people. Given the same exact circumstances and starting point the two people will end up in different places.

Its too true. I went from lower middle to upper middle class, so you'd think I'd be a believer in the system. However, I was not only able to breeze through HS, but college engineering as well. I work for a fortune 500 company as a senior engineer and never had to work hard for that goal. I basically skimmed along with a few moments of harder effort when I knew I needed to. There are literally millions of people who worked and are working harder than me all of their lives who will never see the kind of financial security I do under our current system, just because I was lucky enough to be born smarter than average and their talents are not deemed "valuable" enough. It is really sad.

@deanelvis777

11 ай бұрын

Thank you for this comment, none of us get to choose our natural cognitive abilities and we don't all have the same type of intelligence, this sadly seems to be completely forgotten in the meritocracy bs culture.

@EmyUrban

10 ай бұрын

Thank you for this comment it’s so true .

I am ridiculously passionate about debunking the myth of meritocracy. Thank you so much for this video. You put everything so eloquently & way better than I ever could.

@user-gu9yq5sj7c

11 ай бұрын

Isn't there some meritocracy? So you think all competition results are unfair? What about a singing contest where it doesn't require wealth, and it's just your natural voice? There's regular or poor people who were able to become wealthy singers.

@meinbherpieg4723

3 ай бұрын

@@user-gu9yq5sj7c Yes in theory merit does exist. However in a world as chaotically unjust as ours, unless resources are equitably distributed at the beginning of our lives, we can never know if someone was successful due to an unfair advantage/privilege or merit. There is too much favoritism, nepotism, elitism, cheating, and overall circumstance to honestly think merit is clearly discernable from privilege and other unfair advantages. Society has fooled itself into thinking "life may not be fair, but everyone has strengths and weaknesses" as though there is some hidden equity through the average distribution of potential... that's a coping mechanism. It's not true and there has never been any evidence for this idea. We don't all have the same potential and setbacks on average, and we don't all start at the same starting line.

@alih122

Ай бұрын

@@user-gu9yq5sj7cwhat a ludicrous rebuttal🤡

Neoliberalism, an economic term that is basically Reaganomics/Thatcherism.

@julieannmyers8714

2 жыл бұрын

Even Hayek wasn't as brutal as those who claim to be his followers... in the US, all the nuance was excised from his book "The Road to Serfdom" by the University of Chicago Press.

@davidwoodstaff9398

2 жыл бұрын

@@julieannmyers8714 That's because they aren't even Neo-Liberals. They're Libertarian and anti regulation of any kind.

@theQuestion626

2 жыл бұрын

So many people thought it would be anarchy or the Soviets that would ultimately do in the United States. Ironically enough it was the ridiculous and ignorant musings of Milton Friedman that was the death blow.

Thank you for the videos, I've enjoyed them. Also enjoying the podcast, thanks to all of you.

@SecondThought

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Glad you’re enjoying all the content 😁

@YakubianTrashboat

2 жыл бұрын

@@SecondThought ah bruh thanks for turning me Socialist, I see the world in a whole different light, and it’s scary but it’s also important, I just wanted to say thank you, you helped out a lot.

@johnnyonthespot4375

2 жыл бұрын

@@YakubianTrashboat - Welcome to Humanity finally - We are glad you are here ~

@brooksmiller5597

2 жыл бұрын

@@YakubianTrashboat I found this channel via the "Hasan industrial clip complex." You are probably already a fan if you like this content. If you have never heard of Hasan before, go check out his content... chef's kisses; just like Second Thought [though he streams - more of a react content creator, but he has opened my eyes just as much as this channel]

@skyharmic9655

2 жыл бұрын

@@brooksmiller5597 Same he is the one who got me into socialism and marxism

*People downplay factors like* -your parents class (lower / middle / upper) -your family (2 parents, stable / single parent / etc.) -your neighborhood ( crime / schools / etc.) -your traits (intelligence / athleticism / etc.) These make an ENORMOUS difference in outcomes

@user-gu9yq5sj7c

11 ай бұрын

Some socialist create and promote broken families too. Such as by promoting promiscuity or bad and rushed relationships which often ends in single parenthood or poverty. And not everyone wants a abortion. So people shouldn't force that either.

@TheProletariat321

9 ай бұрын

Your ability/disability

@TheProletariat321

9 ай бұрын

Desirability/appearence. Wether you look beautiful by eurocentric standards or not. Wether you abide by the gender roles assigned to your seggs or not. Wether you are visibly disabled or not. Wether you act "weird" or not. Wether you are skinny or not. That is also a factor in your ability to be employed, how you get treated by other people.

@northuniverse

9 ай бұрын

Give a blind man a flashlight, and he'll be just as lost as before.

I live in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, where Conservative candidates routinely win with about 80% or more of the popular vote. Both at the provincial level and the federal level. There is a certain right wing radio host here (John Gormley) who perpetuates all of the right wing propaganda you can think of and seems to have a massive influence over how politics is played here. I wish you could speak with this guy and put him in his place, because I do not have, nor do I personally know of anyone that has, the verbal skills to compete with him.

@Etaoinshrdlu69

2 жыл бұрын

Ontario here. It's a tough nut to crack because their entire ideology revolves around screwing people over and everyone who listens to right wing radio agrees that other people should be screwed over.

I have done the grind and have been fairly successful, and I can say with evidence, experience, and confidence, entrepreneur ship is not a profession, its gambling. The game is stacked against you. Millionaire entrepreneurs make it seem feasible because when you have a few millions above your lifestyle, you don't have to do anything to keep on making money. At that point any investment you make is not a risk. Is the equivalent to playing a board game for most people.

@baronvonlimbourgh1716

2 жыл бұрын

When you have money, money just keeps falling into your lap. Very true.

@badge5575

2 жыл бұрын

It's a good gamble though one of friends in south africa when we came out of high school took the money his parents gave him to go to university to start a gaming company and a digital paents company and 6 years later sold both of them for billions of rands

@KingMickeyMouseOoO

2 жыл бұрын

I'm terrible at board games, and it's only dumb luck that I actually WIN a few. Sound familiar?

This is definitely one of the best videos on this channel. Impeccable logic and presentation.

@SecondThought

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much!

@fupoflapo2386

2 жыл бұрын

@@SecondThought the humor was good

Meritocracy is functionally identical to Aristocracy. Both are defined by rich people telling the rest of us that they "deserve" their wealth because they are better than us, and that the proof that they are better than us comes from the fact that they are wealthy.

@ecoRfan

2 жыл бұрын

Yup. People do not actually get what they work for with an aristocracy in place. Considering less well-off people are more vulnerable to disease and disaster, that only makes it that much harder and makes one have to work many times harder to achieve a fraction of what someone born well-off would need to do. “Meritocracy” is certainly a glorification of aristocracy.

I'd really like to see a video based on our society's treatment of vulnerable groups such as the disabled and those with drug addiction. Often, instead of trying to help these people, we condemn them for their "moral failings" or inability to serve the Capitalist system.

@scifirealism5943

2 жыл бұрын

If we did that we'd be considered a 3rd world country.

@june570

2 жыл бұрын

Just toxic individualism I guess whenever something bad happens people tend to just "it's not my problem" and then don't care.

@scifirealism5943

2 жыл бұрын

@@june570 we cherry pick successes as if what is possible is also what's probable.

@june570

2 жыл бұрын

@@scifirealism5943 yeah that too

I guess I at first was cautious of this video because for my experience, I was a kid who grew up from home to home and yet now I have good grades and taking some AP classes to help me in the realm of college. So when I hear people say meritocracy is not the way to go, I incorrectly correlate them with my achievements and feel like "Well, what is the point of me succeeding then if it results in nothing." From this video, I think it shows that you being in a non-merit society doesn't mean you shouldn't be successful , it just means that you shouldn't have a stronger word than another person. Sometimes you get so caught up in the times that you don't think about what truly matters, which is making a democracy, not a autocratic state. People may be stupid, but that gives no right to take rights from the majority of people who may be "smarter" in a certain area and field. Anyways, Merry Christmas.

@carissahowell

2 жыл бұрын

Very insightful of you! This is why you made it to the AP classes and will do very well at university :) Good luck, and Merry Christmas.

@LukeMcGuireoides

2 жыл бұрын

Beautiful comment

@Youtube_Stole_Dead_Bunny

2 жыл бұрын

I ideologically love the idea of democracy. When done properly it gives everyone a voice and as such some modicum of control of their government. The problem with it however is two-fold: When you have too wide-reaching of a democracy, you get tyranny of the majority and a lot of decisions are made that don't make exception for or cater to specific groups. No one is really happy with any particular decision, and a lot of people get screwed over. The other issue is that people are a lot dumber than anyone wants to admit. They willingly vote for people who abuse power and they are distracted by light shows put on by those in power. Mob mentality takes over very easily, and rationality gets thrown out the window in favor of power in the form of control over the mob. Whoever can best steer the angry mob gets the most power. Now I'm not proposing an autocracy, but it's good to keep in mind that democracy is far from perfect and shouldn't be put on a pedestal as "the best political system".

@ane3sha

2 жыл бұрын

the video highlights what a meritocracy *actually* is and why its bad, but remember that this is Not actually a meritocracy, its just calling itself one. the way our economy is set up doesn’t allow it to actually run like one. your accomplishments don’t actually have anything to do with where you end up- the people in power (smart or otherwise, accomplished or otherwise) are the ones that come from money, money that has come at the expense/through the exploitation of people (smart or otherwise, accomplished or otherwise) who do not have that money and are kept away from that money, trapped in a cycle of poverty. if you’re pulled out of the cycle, you’re used to shame those still trapped in it, and the machine continues to chug away. keep digging deeper into this and learning more! i definitely suggest second thought’s previous video on meritocracy as well as rewatching and continuing to sit with this one.

@mitchellwilson951

2 жыл бұрын

@@KZread_Stole_Dead_Bunny Do remember that America is not a democracy. Democracy can and should be structured far better, and should rely on giving citizens a good education so that their opinions ARE informed. In that type of society, democracy succeeds. We are not there, unfortunately.

You explained what I've been trying to say on my show much better than I could. This is high key one of your best videos yet. You debunked the meritocracy myth thoroughly!

@aprilk141

2 жыл бұрын

Subscribed to your channel so I can check it out later!

@LONESTARINDIE

2 жыл бұрын

I love this channel 💜

@_Jaybefaunt

2 жыл бұрын

@@LONESTARINDIE It's very educational and straight to the point. I honestly want to be as impactful as this channel. I have a long way to go. But I'm working on it.

“What’s wrong with meritocracy is the ocracy part” - spot on!! This video is great!

I think people often have a resistance to the idea that upward mobility is a myth, particularly those who have experienced upward mobility. I would say I've experienced it. I'm more educated and will likely end up more wealthy than my parents. Many others in my position take the stance of "Well I did it, so that means everyone else can!" I don't look at it like that though. I'm extremely lucky to be where I am, and i didn't get here because our current system allowed me to, I did it in spite of that system. Our current system requires a handful of people to achieve upward mobility so we can stand there and go "see, anyone can do it!" but it's just not true. I was born into a working class family. Had my family been poorer, or not as good with their money, or not supportive of me, or not equipped to deal with my mental health issues, or they had substance use disorders; if any of these things happened, I'd probably not be where I am. I'm not here solely due to my hard work, its in large part to factors beyond my control. A lot of people who experience upward mobility get very defensive and feel as though they're being attacked by critiques like this. They feel as though their hard-work is being devalued or that they are being blamed for societies ills. When in reality all that is being said is that our society is not a meritocracy and that those that do achieve upward mobility are not a product of the system but rather very lucky individuals who manage to avoid getting fucked. People who move up in the world but then try to act like its something anyone can do is like surviving a shark attack and going "see, i survived, therefore, sharks aren't actually that dangerous" Myself, and others who have experience upward mobility are becoming an increasingly small minority. Yet a lot of them will point to themselves as success stories or examples of how efficient the system is. But I think the fact these stories are so rare is in fact indicative that our current system is fundamentally flawed. When a majority of people are ending up worse of than their parents, when we have people unable to buy homes, unable to put food on the table, it indicates something is wrong. But sadly, the ruling class will ignore the countless stories of tragedy and pain and look at the small handful of "hard-working citizens" and go "see! Look how great the meritocracy is!"

@theQuestion626

2 жыл бұрын

That is a spot on appraisal.

@pickywolf2728

2 жыл бұрын

Must be pinned 📌

Meritocracy is literally a dystopian nightmare.

@nukiradio

2 жыл бұрын

It's all fun and games until you lose your job and have to "merit" some food.

@justinallen2408

2 жыл бұрын

@@DarkArcticTV sees here's the thing meritocracy can be taken too far and everyone who isn't willing to fucking slave away their lives because they have imagination and actually enjoys their families and friends n the environment around them, will be left destroyed by meritocracy since of course they'll never put in that same work that shouldn't be required to live within society

@Hubcool367

2 жыл бұрын

@@DarkArcticTV you may be interested in this: "Why, mused the industrial sociologist Alan Fox, would you want to give more prizes to the already prodigiously gifted?" (Meritocracy: the great delusion that ingrains inequality | Jo Littler. The Guardian; The Guardian.). At its core, meritocracy is just a way to create and justify inequality. "Merit" is whatever those in power want it to be, whatever the poor "lack". There's not much else to it. It's like any other hierarchical ideology out there, from monarchism to nazism to slavery, an ideology founded on the belief that some people are inherently superior to others. It *is* a dystopian ideology, in every possible scenario.

@patchwurk6652

2 жыл бұрын

@@DarkArcticTV Meritocracy is incompatible with ANY system in which you're allowed to pass on your own wealth. Meritocracy only works with Capitalism if, when a rich man dies, all their wealth is redistributed back into the economy for a hard reset. The instant you have "Rich Kids", meritocracy is dead.

@MFillmore

2 жыл бұрын

@@Hubcool367 I think it's important to note the "prizes" aspect. Some degree of hierarchy is needed. I have to cede control over to the architect designing the building I live in. Because at the end of the day I'm not an engineer or architect. I cede some control to my doctor because there is some medical shit I just don't understand. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. The superiority narrative and the extent of the "prizes" is the issue.

There has never been meritocracy. Just people who were born into privilege pointing to the few people who did make it on their own as an example for everyone.

@Orrphoiz

2 жыл бұрын

Interesting words from someine who (supposedly) choked to death on molten gold :'D

@LordZontar

2 жыл бұрын

The Horatio Alger myth now on steroids.

At the end of the day, the reason the illusion of a meritocracies still exists is because when a person makes it, and they are interviewed or asked about how they did, they say that they tried hard or they started with nothing. This is then used as the precursor to say well if everybody only tries hard even if they start with nothing everything will be all good. But it dismisses the fact that 10,000 people could have tried just as hard starting with nothing and didn’t get there, but those people aren’t interviewed, therefore their experience isn’t disseminated to the rest of the community. Because they don’t interview the 10,000 people who did the exact same thing as the guy who made it and didn’t make it. And then we just use the fact that they didn’t make it to beat them down for apparently not trying hard enough or not being smart enough. It’s bloody convenient if it wasn’t so despicable. Funnily enough, even Adam Smith, who people hold up some bastion of free market capitalism warned against all of the current things our civilisation turns a blind eye to. So even then, we hold up the parts of the book we like while not paying any attention to the rest of what the same guy actually warned about.

@scifirealism5943

2 жыл бұрын

It's called survivorship bias.

@anonymoussaga8723

Жыл бұрын

And don’t forget the fact that even when people who didn’t make it do talk about how long the odds were, that they didn’t have the right connections, or that weren’t lucky enough, or whatever, they just get accused of sour grapes.

Absolutely loved the editing on this one!

@SecondThought

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much! Means a lot coming from you!

Just became a patreon and watched this early but I’ll always rewatch to support. Keep up the great work comrade 🙌🏾

@SecondThought

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!

"They're not my friends, they're slightly different kind of leftists and I hate them" 😂😂😂😂

@obrandondonaldson1208

2 жыл бұрын

The passive agressiveness though

@ahsokaventriss3268

2 жыл бұрын

🤣🤣🤣

@5kamon

2 жыл бұрын

so true. the division, the defeatism. that's why we can't have nice things... or fund grifters

@zuralias10

2 жыл бұрын

This pervasive sentiment on the left is why the left has no power. Instead of contempt for those who have slightly different views, why not collaborate with them on views we share? The content is poignant but this strategy of hating each other will get us nowhere.

@hannibalbarca9832

2 жыл бұрын

@@zuralias10 I'm pretty sure he's making a joke about infighting on the left, not that he actually hates them

Yikes, Life is simply not fair. It's a roll of the dice where and when you're born. I was "LUCKY" to be born with entrepreneurial parents that could afford to send me to the US for college, no debt, and now that I'm "successful" and out earning everyone I know, I was naive to think I did it because of my hard work. This video is quite eye opening. Damn. To everyone that didn't get a favorable roll of the dice, I'm so sorry. I hope you break out of the cycles and move up in this unfair rock we live on.

@meinbherpieg4723

3 ай бұрын

Some people get a royal flush, some people get a pair of twos. Bluffing helps sometimes, but in the real world lies have consequences. Maybe we as a species should be working toward reducing luck and chance... (yes, we should, that's my point)

Even if you are lazy, ignorant, and unpleasant, I still think you ought to have fundamental human rights. Food, shelter, healthcare, and education are RIGHTS. But when I say this, so many assume that I believe being lazy, ignorant, and unpleasant is a *good thing.* That's how the upper class poisons your imagination.

@Ninjaananas

2 жыл бұрын

Indeed. So many people cannot think differenciatedly.

The whole thing is based on blocking others from resources and hoarding it. It rarely has anything to do with actually producing anything of value.

@nukiradio

2 жыл бұрын

Gaslight, Gatekeep. They don't want the girl boss tho

@iheartjbgccb

2 жыл бұрын

That's what I've never understood. Wouldn't they want more people paying taxes? Why not help as much people as they can to improve the economy and life in general?

@v.k.rt.m.6030

2 жыл бұрын

@@nukiradio they do if it benefits the elites however. And The Elites have a good way of appeasing the Liberal like protests and the Conservatives.

@MrKongatthegates

2 жыл бұрын

Thats what marginalisation means, keeping people out from where the best land and opportunities are, and it happens on an individual level, like at work with management, it happens in communities like with school funding, it happens on a national level like keeping the border closed

@CraftyF0X

2 жыл бұрын

@@iheartjbgccb You don't pay taxes for them you pay taxes for the state so why would they care ? Generally speaking they are not interested in having nice things together as a community much like they interested having everything by themselves, even if that means the community will have nothing.

I really need to join this dude's patreon. He deserves it more than most.

@kevincrady2831

2 жыл бұрын

I see what you did there. 😂

@elvinccw

2 жыл бұрын

@@kevincrady2831 we also see what you did there 😅

@Mattysizzle

2 жыл бұрын

Haha

The reason why there's a downward spiral is because people have realized working to make somebody else Rich doesn't fulfill their dreams

Thank you for this video. A lot of “leftists” talk about meritocracy as if it’s the goal, the thing we should want but don’t truly have right now despite what elites say. But it never sat right with me. Who gets to decide what has the most “merit” that warrants having power over other people? What about about the people who simply can’t perform what this society defines as merit? We end up in the same place. People are made to feel they don’t have any worth of they can’t play the game.

@CFlandre

2 жыл бұрын

I am definitely one of those people who believed that meritocracy was desirable. I'm starting to reconsider that position though, because I'm starting to realize that it's utopian thinking, possible only under the best of circumstances (that is to say, highly improbable and unlikely to ever happen), and that any effort or amount of progress that is made towards that ideal is either undone or ineffective at curbing inherent biases that people tend to have towards their own kin and strangers.

@CampingforCool41

2 жыл бұрын

@@CFlandre I don’t even think it’s particularly utopian, because it doesn’t really account for the vast differences in ability, physical or mental, that might inherently prevent someone from being seen as having “merit” in this society, and also what is considered worthwhile/valuable varies wildly between individuals and cultures. Who gets to decide what has merit and what doesn’t?I find it rather dystopian actually. Like the video says, it’s a good thing to encourage the cultivation of skills and passion, but I think it’s wrong to judge a person’s whole worth on whether or not they can be “useful”. Not sure if I explained that well but...

@CFlandre

2 жыл бұрын

@@CampingforCool41 When I say "utopian", I mean in the sense that a person regardless of class, race, or creed is able to improve their own situation through nothing but their own ability (which one could argue would be a classless society). You're right, though, in practice it could very well be dystopian in nature because it requires a central authority to decide what's of merit.

@tonyjones1560

2 жыл бұрын

From someone who knows, if you're not careful you'll spend (waste) a lot of time trying to figure out ways to "hack" the system in order to fit in. There's actually a lot of pressure to do this. It seldom works for long, and sometimes ends badly.

@crystalfullerton3908

2 жыл бұрын

Had that thought myself. Definitions get sketchy in politics. Kind of like "freedom of religion", "prolife", and "right to work".

That f*cking thumbnail 🤣🤣🤣

remember to stay hydrated friends

@spencerkagie

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the reminder!

The fact that "meritocracy" actually had a dystopian connotation originally... This is where the _"this is literally 1984"_ expression actually applies.

@haruhisuzumiya6650

2 жыл бұрын

So a technocracy

I wish everyone was able to accept & discuss the obvious facts that were so well stated by Second thought. Appreciate you talking about this & hopefully opening more eye's. ..

I spent most my life building homes for people across the United States. I’ve built in at least five states, frame, finish, and cabinet carpentry. However, when i became unable to work, my worth in the eyes of “America” became zero. I don’t think that’s right. It’s the same mentality that Adolph had in 1930’s Germany. I’m happy you’ve addressed this notion of the American dream. It’s a lie.

@LdyVder

2 жыл бұрын

George Carlin said many years ago that "It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."

@LdyVder

2 жыл бұрын

@@Reddit1872 My husband is disabled. He had fought against it for years to the point I had to put my foot down and say enough. You can't do this anymore. I've told him and the mental professionals he's seen on a regular basis over the past 16 months. People's worth should not be fixed to what job they do. People are worth more than that. He's slowly coming to grips with the fact he can't work when he wants to work. His body can't take it and deep down he knows it. But constantly struggles with it. He hasn't worked since before Labor Day weekend 2020. We hired a lawyer, who filed the SSDI claim in January and he got his first SSDI payment two days ago. It's been rough 15 months and we both feel like no one cares.

@doperagu8471

2 жыл бұрын

@@LdyVder exactly. We are a county where you can bust your ass for years working a good job, putting in the hours. But the second you're out of commission, even for a reason outside of your control, you're worthless. It's "why not get another job? Then you'll be worth something again." 🙄

@allendean9807

2 жыл бұрын

@@Reddit1872 i truly hope you never get sick. Have a disability. It would be a rude awakening for you. Disability insurance- third party insurers are a living nightmare. Every 30 days, you have to Prove your disabled. Three times a year, your doctors have to prove you’re disabled. If you’re not in constant treatment, they find a way to drop you. Nest eggs. One illness, one disability can collapse a nest egg in an instant. My wife, a neonatal ICU nurse, suffers from a congenital malformation of her skull base, that didn’t rear its head until she hit her 40’s. It compressed her brain stem. It required two surgeries of over a million dollars each. Whilst she was having brain surgery, i was arguing with our insurance, who didn’t think what was wrong necessitated surgery. Her long term disability has only now, after 8 years, changed her reviews to annually, instead of three times a year. It took three years to get disability. Her nurses union refused to pay her until we sued. So i truly hope you don’t get ill. Because, believe me, once you have no marketable value, you’re thrown to the curb. Period.

@allendean9807

2 жыл бұрын

@@LdyVder I’m glad his payments began, it took me three years. The United States have the highest disability denial rates in the world. They also have the lowest payouts. If you work from, say 14 years old, until you’re 40, you’ll get about 1,500 a month. A far cry from 100k, Paul Swanson…. Out of that, you’ll have to pay for your Medicare, and prescription drug plan. Then you’ll have to try and live off of 1300 a month in the USA. I got lucky. I made good money as a residential frame foreman. Some only get 1 grand a month.

I showed your videos to some of my more Liberal leaning friends and have managed to move them a lot further left. Thank you for all you do!

@SecondThought

2 жыл бұрын

That’s great news! Keep up the good work

@austinhernandez2716

2 жыл бұрын

It's good for those first getting into it. His original video on capitalism last year is what got me to thinking about it, and now I'm a socialist.

@Workingatm

2 жыл бұрын

@@austinhernandez2716 congrats mate!

@Workingatm

2 жыл бұрын

@@luxiusilluminus2844 not really, if you're faced with facts that disprove your world view and you change it accordingly then you wouldn't be stupid.

@baronvonlimbourgh1716

2 жыл бұрын

@@Workingatm don' feed the trolls.

I saw this one beautiful meme which says: Canada banned conversation therapy, Germany is going to legalise Weed while raising their minimum Wage in the proces, New Zealand is raising their minimum Wage and raised Taxes on the Rich And Iceland has started 32h work week. The American dream is to move out of the country. lol

I think emphasizing how expensive poverty has become is such an important point to get across. There's an absurd number of ways that exploited people get reexploited, and people who've never been poor are clueless to this. Great vid!

@doperagu8471

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly. Being poor costs so much more. So many "small" hidden costs that really add up when they "small" cost is a far larger percentage of your overall income. A $25-$50 fee, for example, is nothing to someone who makes a lot, but could be the difference between eating that week or not to someone who is living paycheck to paycheck.

@scifirealism5943

2 жыл бұрын

Right.

I appreciate your video essays. I’m GenX and I grew up in the U.S. during the last stages of the Cold War. So I was indoctrinated with the ideal of a meritocracy and American exceptionalism. Although I have mostly done everything “right”, I still see that my economic future is different from my pre-boomer parents who were born during WW2. I have always felt a gnawing shame that my career choices were a bad reflection on myself because I did not choose the most profitable industries (mostly because they didn’t interest me). I assumed that because my grandparents were poor (share croppers even) and my parents clawed their way up to middle class through the end of the segregation era that the logical trajectory would be that I would have to become rich to continue the legacy of generational economic improvement. What I didn’t realize as a young man is that I would have had to formulate a plan in my teens and stick to it ruthlessly to achieve such a payoff.

@baronvonlimbourgh1716

2 жыл бұрын

What is more important? Doing what you like or be miserable pleasing dead people?

@Yandel21ableify

2 жыл бұрын

America is all about becoming rich

@gwills9337

2 жыл бұрын

@@Yandel21ableify America is all about eating the poor.

@kionnakelly2918

2 жыл бұрын

@@Yandel21ableify I love your username. I haven't listened to that song in so long lol

@carolperdue7534

2 жыл бұрын

Yes!!! Or you need to be born on third base like this video states.

It’s terrifying when he snaps and gets angry. Its like things get really serious

@aturchomicz821

2 жыл бұрын

Second Thought nooo D:

@ane3sha

2 жыл бұрын

consider: They Are Serious and We Are Suffering!!!!

@anibalhyrulesantihero7021

2 жыл бұрын

It is getting serious.

@justinallen2408

2 жыл бұрын

It's serious not just because of common injustice but they are actively and nefariously tampering with our food and water supply to unknown extents.

Meritocracy is just the modern "If God did not want me to be king why He let me become king? Surely you don't dare question God's wisdom?".

Great video as always. Its amazing how conservatives claim to be people of facts over feelings when the facts are NOT on their side. I used to be a conservative until reality hit me in the face thanks Second Thought for the help along the way.

@filipwolffs

2 жыл бұрын

I came across a Republican who said, in apparent earnestness: "Facts and evidence no longer matter in an argument, because they keep backing the liberals." Of course, that was only the one person and I might just not have caught the signs that they were telling a joke, but the fact that I could not immediately dismiss that as a joke spoke volumes of the kind of image the right-wing extremists have cultivated for themselves, where they care about nothing other than opposing the left-wing/liberals.

@user-gu9yq5sj7c

11 ай бұрын

Both sides say some lies and assumptions.

@meinbherpieg4723

3 ай бұрын

@@user-gu9yq5sj7c Yeah but one side is clearly more unhinged and absurd. There might be corruption on both sides but it's not equal... just like meritocracy!

It'll be cool to see him cover a future where shortages are normal

@martymccorkle225

2 жыл бұрын

The future of less is calling from inside the house. Infinite growth on a finire planet is the current experiment we call "industrial civilization." Spoiler alert: Infinite growth doesn't work because it can't. Less is piling up fast.

@GTAVictor9128

2 жыл бұрын

@@martymccorkle225 The only solution to preserving infinite growth within the capitalist framework is outward expansion.

@Dragrath1

2 жыл бұрын

@@GTAVictor9128 Even with that it only buys time space is vast and everything is farther and farther apart as you head out into the solar system and beyond and at the largest scales the distances between galaxies is increasing. Technically though there is growing evidence that the acceleration of this is not uniform but that doesn't matter form this perspective) Ultimately spreading out to consume more resources only maximizes entropy the fastest giving you the least potential returns at some point the distance to the nearest resources will be beyond your grasp and you will end billion perhaps even trillions of years earlier than had you used those same resources wisely. The brightest stars live fleeting "lives". We have largely exhausted Earth's resources and the difficulty going beyond is not yet surmountable.

@moe3213

2 жыл бұрын

Lol shortages are already here

@Ascend777

2 жыл бұрын

Biden is really asinine for increasing ONLY the child tax credit. That incentivize people to become baby factory and exacerbate the shortage. He should increase the tax credit for EVERYONE, not just children and parents. Trump did the same thing, I know.

I completed college, with Honours in my program. Would've gotten a job at my Co-op placement. Except for the fact that this particular location has a policy of Only hiring University Graduates. This left my career there in shambles, You had honours? Doesn't matter if you don't have at least 1 year's worth of experience. Thus I went from completing College with Honours only to be left with working as a Fry Cook, which to be honest, I don't know I would've gotten had I not gone to College.

@Yandel21ableify

2 жыл бұрын

You need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience.

@gam3rman0924

2 жыл бұрын

Whats ur degree

@129das

2 жыл бұрын

@@gam3rman0924 It doesn't matter what his degree is this issue is still happening. Few jobs are for sure with a College degree these days, the ones that are are 6 or 7 years of College is clearly costly, there 100,000s of people with the same story as him.

@gam3rman0924

2 жыл бұрын

@129das theres something called a job market and looking at entry level jobs and how in demand that degree is. Engineering and very few other degrees will make you enough money in todays economy its sad you cant alwyas do what u love unless your the best and get a lil lucky

@theQuestion626

2 жыл бұрын

@@129das it actually does matter what his degree was in. It’s a sad reality that a college degree alone is not enough to guarantee you a good job. But then again even I have to concede that the major for that particular degree is an unfortunate indicator of whether or not you will gain beneficial employment. However that is not to say that that should be the case. It shouldn’t be that simply because you got a degree in philosophy that you should not be able to apply that education to beneficial employment. When I was in university it was all about stem related fields and nursing. Now it’s all about trade schools. The pendulum swings far too, well, far in either direction. Which tends to happen when you follow the whims of the market system. We need to stop listening to economists and stop this fanatical obeying of the “market”.

The fact that the American public transportation is so bad that I am not surprised about this, blame mostly the car culture for this

Of OECD countries, the US is down with the UK and Italy as the most class-ridden. All the usual ones are at the top of the social mobility rankings - Nordics, Netherlands, Can/Au/NZ.

Comprehensive, concise and beautiful, as always 👏 The hunger games example was especially illustrative of the absurdity of the term's adoption by the elite.

The American Dream: The greatest and most successful lie ever told.

@nearby222

2 жыл бұрын

Idk man the Jesus is white one is pretty good.

@Mars-et8vc

2 жыл бұрын

The real American Dream: Work yourself to the bone and make your boss a lot of money.

@torrb420

2 жыл бұрын

@@nearby222 or that he ever existed.....

The biggest issue I see with Meritocracy is that it only rewards the end result of one's work, not the effort they put in. Working in manual labor all of my life, I have seen people, men and women, who can really work. I'm talking 50-60 hours a week of intense labor just to keep their kids fed and their rent paid. Not only does meritocracy throw aside the socially disadvantaged, but it also clearly throws aside the physically and mentally challenged. Do we really want to live in a society that neglects the disabled because they don't have the "merits" to move up in life? That sounds like advanced natural selection, not civilized society.

@valerietaylor9615

9 ай бұрын

It sounds like Nazi Germany.

JT I just have to say it has been a beautiful ride getting more radicalized with you and watching your radicalization. Really enjoy the podcast and all the content too. Your becoming a major player in this your work is invaluable.

There is no left movement in America. Thanks for touching on that. I can’t wait to migrate from the USA, here soon. It’ll be lovely living my life in a civilized country.

@Zift_Ylrhavic_Resfear

2 жыл бұрын

Congratz on leaving the third world :)

@BlitzkriegOmega

2 жыл бұрын

I wish I could leave the states, but I don't have the money nor the marketable skills to immigrate to a country with healthcare.

@samuraisatoshi1906

2 жыл бұрын

Buddy, what country do you consider civilized? As a Russian citizen I am so curious about your point. I just wondering what country it is, because every state today supports capitalist implementation of labour division (with exotic exceptions). And in every capitalist state degree of benefits for citizen depends on role of particular state in global economy. Besides, regarding left movement, it needs you as well, doesn't it? ;)

@baronvonlimbourgh1716

2 жыл бұрын

We will welcome you in the developed world when you are ready;)

@baronvonlimbourgh1716

2 жыл бұрын

@@BlitzkriegOmega learn how to edit. A friend of mine did that and is making good money working freelance. Just an idea.

Luck at birth = aristocracy Luck at birth + luck during life = meritocracy Btw that's not to say personal effort doesn't lead to genuine merit, I think everyone ought to strive to be the best they can be in their circumstances. But it's just to point out that edge cases like millionaires all, invariably, rely on luck

"Meritocracy dies in just one generation." What a quote.

“It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” George Carlin

@Spiral.Dynamics

2 жыл бұрын

@Class is Fundamental I’ve watched this video. That’s hella cool. Thank you for sharing. Capitalism is a phase in human development. In the spiral Dynamics model it’s Stage Orange. It being a phase doesn’t change the fact that it’s likely to end our development all together.

I love the thumbnail, good job 👍👍👍

As a general rule, whenever some minority of a society gains a privilege they will do everything within their power to maintain that privilege and grant it to their children. Whenever the majority or any other segment of that society overthrows that order and installs their own group into that privileged minority status they will behave in precisely the same way. Given that the United States of America has spent its entire history protecting the privileges of a minority while threatening the lives of everyone who might oppose those privileges it is safe to say that nothing whatsoever will change until our own civilization collapses and once that happens there may or may not be an improvement since the loss of the economy will demand resources and survival skills and probably a whole lot of violence, if our civilization follows the well established pattern of collapse.

@ane3sha

2 жыл бұрын

i’m scared!!!

@armyofninjas9055

2 жыл бұрын

If the government fell, I don't think survival skills will be required. Look at the Soviet Union. They were poor. But they didn't die from mass famine or anything.

@jus-7421

2 жыл бұрын

@@armyofninjas9055 Yeah, sure lol

@rickeybernard8156

2 жыл бұрын

It deserves to collapse honestly. This country had a chance to make things right after the disgusting start it used to establish itself. As a citizen of this nation, it's weird to look at the development of my character since I learned the truth. Every powerful nation collapses because of greed and discrimination. Every one of them deserved it. The U.S owes a debt that it refused to pay and now it must also pay with interest. It sucks because I believed we had a chance to become the greatest nation the world has seen due to diversity, but diversity was suppressed along with freedom. It is a crying shame.

@maybelikealittlebit

2 жыл бұрын

@@armyofninjas9055 I think with how connected we all are now the likelihood of a first world country collapsing is slim to none. Simply due to other countries interference. No one wants to lose a good customer let alone business partner, China makes so much off of Americas consumption and I would assume Canada needs America to survive the way their economy is organized. A true collapse for this type of reform is something we only read in history books now. The only type of change we will see now is bitter and snail paced slow…

Ever watched the movie "Expelled from Paradise"? It brings up this exact topic. The main character is from a highly advance society that favors meritocracy and she herself is one of those that are considered hard working. However it quickly becomes clear that she has become obsessed with work itself so as to not be seen as lazy. Not only that, but the whole hyper individualism is brought up as well. She even go so far as to deliberately handicap herself in one aspect in order to get a head start on her supposed teammates. It is pointed out that in a bit of irony, she works hard to gain privileges but then paradoxically she is less and less able to actually indulge in those privileges as that would indicate she is lazy. And then there is the whole thing with a finite resource. In her society, computer memory is a vital resource but it is pointed out that for those with supposed merit to gain more, it has to be less over for the rest. This of course constantly moves the goal posts to what is considered hard working thus leading to more and more being considered "lazy" and are thus "archived", basically an extreme form of solitary confinement, as they are deemed not necessary and thus freeing up memory for the rest.

I recently signed up for Nebual and I can’t wait to check out your content on there! Keep up the amazing work.

Starting my day with some Second Thought 😌

I'm amazed KZread hasn't shut you down by now. Please keep doing this heavy but necessary work dude

Thanks for always putting your sources in the description. There are a few channels that try debunking Second Thought based on the usual stale talking-points, but never cite their sources, which is hella hilarious. Citation really widens the gap between this channel and channels like PragerU.

This is some of the best editing you've done yet, keep it up.

We cannot wait for our rights to be given to us, we must take them.

@armyofninjas9055

2 жыл бұрын

Yep. Read the Declaration of Independence. The rights outlined aren't granted by ANY government. They are inalienable and you have them because you are alive. NO government grants you these rights. They were always yours. And standing in their way means violent war.

@paulsawczyc5019

2 жыл бұрын

Don't expect any help from your neighbors.

@i_like_chomp6382

2 жыл бұрын

@@armyofninjas9055 get a bunch of guns and people and pull a January 6tj then. I think thatll work

Although I doubt humanity will ever have the balls to try it, this is why I believe in a society devoid of currency and trade... well, one of the main reasons. The farmer works for his own enjoyment, and for no other reason. He decided to be a farmer just because he loved it, not because there was a necessity to fall into a job immediately just to survive. You're born and raised with the absolute knowledge that all your needs will simply be met, regardless of what you do. There would be better, more innovative products, free products, just because people are obsessed with doing the thing they love to do, and getting better at it.

@theghostofspookwagen4715

2 жыл бұрын

There's a theoretical way for this to happen. Find a way to make it so that literally anything anyone could ever want falls out of the sky whenever they want it. That way, people don't have to worry about working to survive and can just focus on whatever they want to do.

@lukusblack6442

2 жыл бұрын

@@theghostofspookwagen4715 The system, or lack thereof would actually accomplish that all on its own. All your needs are met by everyone else also doing what they love just to do it. It's self-perpetuating. The trick is to begin it in a world where money is assumed, and due to the internet, nowhere can ever be a closed system.

@theghostofspookwagen4715

2 жыл бұрын

@@lukusblack6442 How do you know that your own work is going to meet someone else's needs? Or that someone else's work is going to meet yours? To be a bit ridiculous, I could derive immense, life affirming pleasure from tossing a rubber ball at a wall over and over again and catching it. But that's not going to help me get all the other things I need to live, nor is it going to help literally anyone else.

@lukusblack6442

2 жыл бұрын

@@theghostofspookwagen4715 But, by your own words, your example is a bit ridiculous. Most people have some great passion for something, even if they haven't found it yet. Hell, if all else fails, you can set up a camera, and be entertaining. Lord knows, there's a ton of that, even today, and they get paid for it. The minority of people that never find anything at all would still benefit from the system, they just wouldn't contribute to it. Essentially, they'd be equivalent to our children or elderly.

@theghostofspookwagen4715

2 жыл бұрын

@@lukusblack6442 But that's exactly the point. There's only so many photographers the world can use. If you're a crappy photographer, nobody is gonna want to look at your images. Here's a question for you- how will trade work in your society? Say I'm a good chef, and I have a broken toilet. Would I still be able to tell the bad photographer, "Hey, if you come over, and see what's up with my toilet and fix it, I'll give you a bowl of ramen for your trouble?"

Bootstraps? I can't afford shoes!

This video speaks straight to my heart, i am gen z and ever since I graduated from high school i haven't been able to afford university tuition fees, so no higher education for me. İt sucks to be on the receiving end

Another banger video, keep up the good work!

Never stop doing videos, no matter the platform men! Always a great work that sparks thoughts

Your videos make me depressed but I can't stop watching

@luc6284

2 жыл бұрын

Don't be depressed comrade, socialism works. The future can look bright if enough people are committed to ending this destructive system. A better world is possible, but it will take a lot of courage and determination of a united and educated force of people to get there.

"they're not my friends they're slightly different leftists and I hate them" felt that.

@SynthApprentice

2 жыл бұрын

I laughed so hard at that!

Second thought, you keep putting out bangers, thanks for the videos! I love the podcast btw

This is very well done. I have noticed a substantial increase in production quality compared to previous videos.

To quote George Carlin “it’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it “

The REAL problem with meritocracy is HOW does one 'prove' their merit? Is there a standard test or natural way to showcase that? Wealth could be a good measure, but how can one account for things like inheritance, parental influence or simply better food and nutrition? The only way I can personally think of where 'true merit' can be judged is through a 'common childhood' kind of system where kids are put in common schools, are provided common food and live in a mixed, common environment, kinda like the proposed Soviet schools where all children would be taken from their parents and raised entirely by the state. Needless to say, such a system would be unimaginably traumatic, and even immoral. Ensuring 'equal opportunities' is about providing a VERY basic and standardised education, healthcare, nutrition. We can only go so far without going into the uncanny valley of morality and human/democratic rights. But that would mean a high degree of influence from the state (govt) , with it acting as a sort of 'great leveller' by taxing appropriately, and using legislation to ensure baseline uniformity in all the above listed services across the nation. That, frankly, is something which the US is never likely to accept, given its history of 'freedom'.

@jesseleeward2359

Жыл бұрын

Money don't you know

LMAO love the use of the Consoom Wojaks…ironically very fitting.

Great video comrade! Also, totally love the new podcast!!

Thanks for your work JT! Your podcast with Hakim and Yugopnik has become one of my favorites in just a couple weeks.

Love the video as always. The Curiosity Stream ad at the end wraps up your videos on KZread rather well but when watching on Nebula they can seem to end unexpectedly so I was wondering if you could add a wrap up to those videos, even a simple "thanks for watching" clip in place of the ad would work, I think.