I don't doubt that Americans work longer hours than peer nations, or that they are far more prone to deaths of despair than peer nations.
It's a non sequitur, however, to directly attribute the latter to the former. You haven't demonstrated that the Americans dying deaths of despair are the same Americans working extremely long hours for meagre pay.
I'm not saying that deaths of despair can't be attributed to (American) capitalism, only that you haven't demonstrated that deaths of despair are directly caused by long working hours and poor working conditions.
Does capitalism get credit for the technological innovations it produced that drastically improved life expectancy? Or just alleged cases where life expectancy falls from fairly extreme highs?
>They found the fastest rising causes of death for Americans were related to economic misery, such as overdoses, suicides, drunk driving accidents, and liver failure.
It's a reach to say these things are necessarily caused by economic misery, because they aren't.
>Outside of national governance, a revitalized labor movement would drastically improve our lives. Stronger, prevalent unions would bolster worker rights, ensuring:
What annoys me most about socialists is how wildly confident they are. They never say that they estimate a certain thing provides the best probability for achieving some outcome. It's always a grand proclamation that the thing they support will simply work.
Of course, unions cannot work the way they may have in the past, because labor today has so little leverage. Globalization and mass immigration mean that corporations have options now they they did not used to. It's funny,
because socialists always end up zealously advocating for the same kinds of immigration policies that corporations and billionaires exactly want.
>Higher wages so workers have more money for fun, like travel and video games.
Travel is a major contributor to climate change. And video games? Aside from the fact that most people can afford video games, is this really your grand vision for a happier future? People spending more time playing video games?
People already spend too much time engaging in capitalist electronic entertainment. A lack of video games is not the source of society's woes.
I don't doubt that Americans work longer hours than peer nations, or that they are far more prone to deaths of despair than peer nations.
It's a non sequitur, however, to directly attribute the latter to the former. You haven't demonstrated that the Americans dying deaths of despair are the same Americans working extremely long hours for meagre pay.
This article (https://www.brookings.edu/research/americas-crisis-of-despair-a-federal-task-force-for-economic-recovery-and-societal-well-being/), for instance, notes that American deaths of despair are concentrated among non-college-educated whites out of the labour force i.e. the chronically unemployed. This fits with the existing picture in my head of Rust Belt cities in the Midwest which were never able to economically recover from the destruction or migration of the large manufacturing industries therein.
I'm not saying that deaths of despair can't be attributed to (American) capitalism, only that you haven't demonstrated that deaths of despair are directly caused by long working hours and poor working conditions.
Does capitalism get credit for the technological innovations it produced that drastically improved life expectancy? Or just alleged cases where life expectancy falls from fairly extreme highs?
>They found the fastest rising causes of death for Americans were related to economic misery, such as overdoses, suicides, drunk driving accidents, and liver failure.
It's a reach to say these things are necessarily caused by economic misery, because they aren't.
>Outside of national governance, a revitalized labor movement would drastically improve our lives. Stronger, prevalent unions would bolster worker rights, ensuring:
What annoys me most about socialists is how wildly confident they are. They never say that they estimate a certain thing provides the best probability for achieving some outcome. It's always a grand proclamation that the thing they support will simply work.
Of course, unions cannot work the way they may have in the past, because labor today has so little leverage. Globalization and mass immigration mean that corporations have options now they they did not used to. It's funny,
because socialists always end up zealously advocating for the same kinds of immigration policies that corporations and billionaires exactly want.
>Higher wages so workers have more money for fun, like travel and video games.
Travel is a major contributor to climate change. And video games? Aside from the fact that most people can afford video games, is this really your grand vision for a happier future? People spending more time playing video games?
People already spend too much time engaging in capitalist electronic entertainment. A lack of video games is not the source of society's woes.