What are your thoughts on the reddit conversation graphictruth? The top comment disagrees with article, and most comments on that comment offer counterpoints/rants in support of the article.

I'd prefer that people engage with one another's points more, and that the debate involve more stats and less anecdata, but I have that criticism about just about every political discussion everywhere.

I have certainly noticed that I have tended towards being an apologist for the status quo after my financial situation became comfortable.

In that role, I'd say that capitalism has been responsible for a ton of wealth creation. First world people are materially far better off today than any group of people ever has been in the past. This isn't just gold watches and fast cars either. WIthout modern medicine I would have probably died as a young teen. Without modern transportation I couldn't have afforded to move 2300 miles to take the chance at getting my dream job. Without modern telecommunications we couldn't be having this conversation.

That said, I also believe that we should not settle for something that's merely less awful than the past. Capitalism, like feudalism, has resulted in a very skewed wealth distribution. That alone would not bother me were it not for the fact that hundreds of thousands of people die every year for lack of an inexpensive antimalarial interventions. We have jobs that suck the personality and individuality out of people. You can get rich selling drugs, or scamming people. The US will bomb a group of people coming home from a wedding party because there's a moderate chance that they're enemies and through a very abstract chain of reasoning they could be a threat.

I don't yet know what a solution to any of those problems would look like, but I'm gonna keep looking.