It's not capitalism gone wrong. It's a great example of a historic success of capitalism.

You can't expect capitalism to solve your addiction problems.

Even if you are not the one addicted, other people’s addiction problems are still your problems. Being blind to that fact makes you both complicit in it and vulnerable to it.

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rhelz 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Sure, they are your problems, but to expect capitalism to solve your addiction is just magical thinking.

	▲	ahf8Aithaex7Nai an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I see three problems here. 1) You’re misunderstanding the concept of magical thinking. It is not an umbrella term for false expectations. Magical thinking occurs when a person assumes that their thoughts, words, or actions can influence, cause, or prevent events that are not causally connected, thereby disregarding conventional rules of cause and effect. Or one could also say that a hidden causality is assumed where common sense would recognize that none exists. 2) You’re confusing the societal level with the individual level. The expectation that my own personal problem will be solved for me is different from the expectation that a society will get a handle on a widespread problem among its people. The first sounds like someone should take more personal responsibility. The second is a reasonable expectation. 3) You leave open what follows from this. If capitalism can’t deliver on this, what should be done? Should it be reformed or overcome? Should we simply accept that many people will be harmed and let things take their course? If so, I’d like to know why we don’t also turn off all traffic lights, remove all traffic signs, and abolish all traffic rules.

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blooalien 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> "You can't expect capitalism to solve your addiction problems."

You can hope and wish that they would have at least enough ethics to not actively abuse psychology and the way human brains are hard-wired to totally take unfair advantage of those facts to extract maximum profit for a tiny handful of humanity at the expense of everyone everywhere pretty much.

	▲	rhelz 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sure, better ethical principles might solve this. But extracting maximum profit is the prime directive of capitalism. This might be shit ethics, but it is brilliant capitalism.

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pupppet 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If capitalism promotes suffering then maybe capitalism is the problem.

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blochist 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In fact, you should expect capitalism to exploit your addiction problems in pursuit of profit. That's what it does...

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goatlover 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Should it be allowed to intentionally make addiction problems worse?

	▲	rhelz 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Depends upon how laze-faire you want your capitalism to be.

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Analemma_ 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This is emblematic of a certain kind of foolish libertarian thinking where capitalism is treated as an end rather than a means. To normal people, the entire selling point of capitalism is that it is pitched as the best way to achieve a happy and comfortable life for the greatest number. If it's working against that end, what good is it? Toss it out and replace it.

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simianwords 9 hours ago | parent [-]

You have zero theory of mind if you think the poster is a libertarian instead of making a tongue in cheek comment

	▲	rhelz 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I'm still refactoring my theory of mind in the face of the obvious successes of AI.
	▲	Analemma_ 9 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I don't think the parent is being tongue-in-cheek, and even if he is, plenty of people have expressed that sentiment seriously. Robin Hanson famously thinks addiction is impossible (or rather, that it's a true expression of revealed preference), which he ideologically needs to do because to admit otherwise creates problems for his defense of unrestrained capitalism.