this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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Showerthoughts

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If they could somehow monetize breathing, they would

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Private healthcare has got this covered

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Ouch my sides. From laughter though, I don't want to increase my premiums.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If air were a limited resource, rather than one available in great abundance, it probably would be.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

The air has already been made in to a limited resource, killing millions annually:

  • Air pollution is one of the greatest environmental risk to health. By reducing air pollution levels, countries can reduce the burden of disease from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and both chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma.

  • In 2019, 99% of the world’s population was living in places where the WHO air quality guidelines levels were not met.

  • The combined effects of ambient air pollution and household air pollution are associated with 6.7 million premature deaths annually.

  • Ambient (outdoor) air pollution is estimated to have caused 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2019.

  • Some 89% of those premature deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries, and the greatest number in the WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions.

Source - WHO

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Don't worry, they're working on it...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

"Come on, Cohaagen. You got what you want. Give those people air."

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

The HVAC industry is working on that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In a way that’s already happening, people with astma. Same with being able to see, glasses.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

As someone who has to wear glasses (have since I was a toddler), I fucking hate that there is a paywall for vision.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They already have monetised breathing: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2021/mar/01/take-a-deep-breath-how-cornish-air-sells-for-60-a-bottle-even-if-its-from-devon

It might seem like just a schtick to con rich people, and it currently is, but that doesn't change the fact that there are scammers out there literally "collecting" air in jars (I saw a segment on them a while ago on tv, they even got a "collection net" out thinking it made them look less like scammers. It didn't) and selling it to Chinese people (who's own air is so bad because their production is trying to keep up with wester demand) for profit.

And it isn't just out of touch rich people who need to do this though, they're just the only ones who can afford to waste their money on this useless "solution" to their problem, but the problem, which was created by capitalism, isn't going anywhere until capitalism has sold us a "solution" for it. Just like they're trying to do with this sun blocking and carbon capturing bullshit now.

[–] misterundercoat 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Pretty much!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I recommend Kaon's Wonderland (novel).

They literally build a solar panel that blocks the sun, so they can charge people for the heat and light.

[–] deleted 8 points 1 year ago (5 children)

This is why I prefer socialism over capitalism.

In socialism, I’d be poor and have no choice of what I buy or eat but I can live and afford having children.

In capitalism, where you have freedom, the same rules applies to poor and rich citizens. The difference is that the rich can afford lawyers and are able to lobby to change/break the law on their favor. You don’t.

This is how the cost of living would go 100% up and you wage increase by 1.34% each year.

[–] razza856 19 points 1 year ago (7 children)

you do know that under a socialist system worker-owned companies would compete in the market right? you’d still have lots of choice lol

[–] deleted 11 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I’m interested to know more.

Some people only think of bad vibes of the Soviet Union when anyone talk bad about capitalism.

In my country, we have free healthcare, free education, livable wages, free market.

We’re not capitalist tho. A mix of socialism and capitalism.

100% communism is bad, 100% capitalism is bad, 100% socialism is bad.

[–] razza856 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

socialism isn’t just “government owns/provides everything.

There are different flavours. One of which entails workers owning the companies they work for, rather than the state owning everything.

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[–] within_epsilon 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am a worker under capitalism. The owner tells me how to work. I sell my time for money. I produce value for the owner. The owner keeps the difference between the value I produce and the money for which I sold my time. The excess value after paying for my time is kept by the owner. I have money to buy products.

I am a worker under socialism. I decide how to work with other workers. I produce value. I provide my value to those in need.

I prefer to own my time and value. I do not want to pay a state to give money to owners. I do not want to empower a state to use violence if I do not comply.

I am not sure how communism, socialism and capitalism are being used here. I am an anarchist. I would say states are bad, owners are bad, heirarchy is bad.

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[–] lemminer 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We live in a deceiving world. Electricity is supposed to be free but some dude wanted to make money out of it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How would electricity be free?

[–] cottard 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

~100 years ago, when Nikola Tesla discovered AC, he wrote about electricity being a free resource for everyone.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

It's not so much that Nikola Tesla discovered AC as much as he figured out how to make use of it. I believe generators give alternating current by default as they spin around, but they'd use commutators to convert it to DC.

Source: saw one of those Discovery Channel shows.

Either way, Tesla was a brilliant engineer, but it shouldn't take much to understand that it takes energy (that has to come from somewhere) to produce electricity. That money has to come from somewhere, and I wouldn't want to see a gigantic factory or mansion or whatever paying the same amount (even if $0) compared to some grandmother in Vermont keeping the lights on.

[–] lemminer 2 points 1 year ago

He built a tower which could deploy usable electricity into the atmosphere. The ionosphere acted like a reflectors of energy which could help sending electricity over a long distance.

Sadly it was destroyed in the world war (i think).

You can search about Tesla on YouTube. There was a well made documentary on his life.

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[–] YourHuckleberry 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In capitalism, if you don't work, some capitalist pig will throw your family out on the streets, whereas in communism, if you don't work, some communist pig will throw your family in jail.

[–] Something_Complex 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And that's why extremes will never work. Look every complex problem need a complex solucion.

We would need hybrids of all past rulling systems in order to actually improve.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Even my country is "mixed" economy and still does not work well but i think its better than 100%capitalism or communism. Imo its still not that good because its not roperly configured

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[–] solivine 4 points 1 year ago

You won't like to see the Dyson Zone

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"Capitalism is paywalling life."

[–] Lemmino 4 points 1 year ago (24 children)

Well-regulated capitalism on the other hand has resulted in an explosion of technological advancement like no other era in human history.

The key is regulation. Not too little, but not too much either. Some things, like minimum wage, are clearly under regulated. Other things, like mandating USB-C, are honestly better left to the free market (and I fucking love USB-C.)

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

the systems is still inherently flawed and based on exploiting nature and people. Trying to make a system that is based on "infinite growth" adhere to the reality of our finite world is like telling a warrior society that they should start being peaceful

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Yes. Regulation helps to work around the problem but doesn't fix anything

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tw: rape

You realize that, capitalism, if left EVER unrelated, will use power to endlessly underregulate itself and just gain more power?

This is like saying "firing a gun in my mouth doesn't kill me as long as I live". Sure, it's true I guess, but it's also so, so inherently wrong.

I've been trying to do what you're doing now for so long. But in reality, you have to take a look at what capitalism really is: it's a form of power designation that designates that power with the powerful, or pedantically, with capital, but it's the same thing, for all intents and purposes. And THAT is an unbalanced system from the get-go, right off the bat.

It's also like saying "slave systems are SUPER productive!". Like, sure, they are. But they're also incredibly destructive and prevent a lot of other things from happening.

It's also like saying "a lot of sex happens when you rape somebody". Sure, yes, I guess that's technically a true statement. But.... It's an unwanted power imbalance that hasn't accounted for what would have happened to the victim OR the rapist had they not raped somebody. The rapist could have developed into a normal human being and even fell in love or had a lot of consensual casual sex, and the victim could have stayed not raped and been perfectly happy progressing through their life not raped.

It's just such a half baked, biscuit brained thought and statement. You literally cannot compare our tech right now to the past because technology typically progresses exponentially ANYWAY. You cannot know what would have happened or what would happen if not capitalism, because we've had nothing BUT it for basically all of human history. Every time we even want to try something else, capitalism LITERALLY attacks it with everything it's got and refuses to ever let up until there's nothing but ashes, and a lot of those places are capitalist. Native Americans? IMPERIALISM BECAUSE OF CAPITALISM.

Greed kills selflessness every time in every experiment as long as it exists and is given the smallest chance.

Capitalism is cancer; it just mindless destroys everything in it's path, along with itself, only existing and leeching as long as its host stays alive.

You gotta read some more books and history.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I used to think this was true too, but then I realized that the fundamental problem with capitalism is that it's incompatible with democracy and regulation. That's why literally every capitalist country on earth (including the wealthy ones) has a problem with regulatory capture, corruption, and buyout and supplanting of the actual government.

Capitalism encourages the greediest, trickiest, and most selfish people to rise to the top and stay there through a mixture of brute force and media manipulation. In essence, it's not much different than totalitarian authoritarian governments, it's just more subtle.

Look at Fox news and right wing media bubbles for instance, or the Democratic party which opposes ranked choice voting whenever it can and constantly says one thing and does another. Humans are too greedy, selfish, and short-sighted to live and exist for long under a system like capitalism. How do we know this? Look around, climate change and pollution's already serious and it's not changing anytime soon.

We're probably already fucked, and we just don't know how much we are just yet.

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[–] InverseParallax 3 points 1 year ago

Fine, so long as you ban campaign donations and most forms of lobbying.

Otherwise regulation goes to the highest bidder.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

There is a lot of space for discussion on the desired reach of free market and regulation, and it is actually happening in politics. Too bad in public space it sometimes looks like the only options are extreme capitalism or anticapitalism.

By the way, highly regulated authoritarian states have even more success to regulate breathing than capitalism, so it is weird to focus the hate on one but not the other.

On the other hand there is something to be said about those who feel like they are left out by the system which does not self correct in their favor. Hearing their voices, which might justifiably sound extreme, is important.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, there's a principle of nature...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That you gotta go get food if you want to eat?

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