It took me years to truly pinpoint what rubbed me the wrong way about capitalism at its core. Now credit where credit is due: competition certainly leads to innovation, and we have observed skyrocketing quality of life in first-world economies as a result of this economic system. It promises individualism and the ability to express yourself uniquely through consumerism.¹ Many of us benefit greatly from this system: I can, generally speaking, exchange money for convenience and enjoy the pleasures of the material world.

Despite all of that, there’s always been a subtle, nagging feeling behind this system that I’ve never truly been able to describe until now: Capitalism is simply demoralizing.

Now, to preface this, I’ve thankfully been blessed enough to achieve a reasonable amount of success in my life, so this essay isn’t the product of being upset with the unfairness of the system or some socialist diatribe of the economic systems powering the Western world. It’s simply a commentary on the fact that, despite all of that, it still has a subtle component of demoralization within it that slowly eats away at you.

Here are a few examples to illustrate my point before I get all philosophical.

An Exercise in Futility

The way this essay gained inspiration still makes me chuckle. Our story begins with what is, quite possibly, the biggest First World Problem an average middle-class tech bro can face…

So I dove into a river over 4th of July weekend to save something and ended up getting my phone water damaged. It somehow survived by the grace of Tim Cook, but it was certainly time for a new one. Thanks to EU regulations,² the latest version of the iPhone (15) has a USB-C charging port. I’m sure that’s great and all for most people,³ but I don’t really own any USB-C devices, so that would mean a giant headache, a bunch of e-waste, and a necessity to set a bit of money on fire to replace everything. To avoid that headache, I wanted to get the previous generation. But, in true first world fashion, I still wanted the latest camera upgrades Apple has made.⁴ That meant I needed an iPhone 14 Pro.

Unfortunately, Apple absolutely refuses to sell previous models of the Pro after the new generation comes out. This includes all of their “authorized resellers”: Target, Best Buy, Costco, etc. Unsurprisingly, they do this in the name of profit, since not having the previous generation available encourages more spending and inflates the popularity of the latest model. Don’t hate the player, etc.

Of course, I could have searched the secondhand market for a new-in-box phone, but I’ve been burned there before: I bought a boxed iPhone 6s secondhand and it turned out to be stolen—something I found out the hard way when I tried to get its battery replaced. I didn’t exactly want that to happen again…

So there I was, money in hand, completely happy to spend a bag on a brand new device (something I try to never do). Of course, if I’m going to spend that amount of money, I want to get exactly what I want. Isn’t that the promise of the system? If you can afford it, you can acquire it? And yet, what I wanted was impossible to get. So I had to settle for something I didn’t want and pay more money for it.

Demoralizing.

Death and Taxes

My sister is currently fighting through the arduous process of buying a car. It made me recall the struggles that I went through and the demoralizing process of actually getting the title and registration in my hand.

I always purchased my cars from a private party because I don’t see the point in paying a premium to a used car dealer to witness their sales tactics. Unfortunately, if you buy a vehicle in California from a private party, you pay a 7.5% “use tax” regardless of the vehicle you buy. Actually, it gets even better than that. If you buy anything outside of California and don’t pay local taxes on it, then “use” the item here, you have to pay a 7.5% use tax on it. I found that out the hard way, too, when I bought myself a nice watch from Germany⁵ and the Franchise Tax Board came after me because they wanted their cut.

Use tax.

Use… tax…

A tax to be able to use something in the state that you live in.

How inspired.

In summary, I bought a car from someone who already paid sales tax on it (with money they earned after income taxes, mind you) using money that I already paid income tax on, and on top of all of that, everyone who buys that car in perpetuity has to pay California the privilege just to use it. (That doesn’t include registration, insurance, etc., mind you.)

Demoralizing.

It Doesn’t Stop There

These might feel like superficial examples, but that’s exactly why it took me so long to describe the subtle demoralization of capitalism. It’s a slow death by a thousand cuts; it’s Chinese water torture; and it’s the slow boil of the frog to get you to just throw your arms up, submit to the system, and just ignore it. There are so many little places in which it happens:

• when your \$8 LED lightbulb that’s supposed to last 10,000 hours burns out because the circuitry is garbage and your 40¢ incandescent is still working;
• when your car’s features are blocked by a subscription service;
• when you’re forced to buy wireless headphones because the new phones all got rid of the best port ever made;
• when your Netflix subscription goes up $2 every year yet removes or cancels shows you like
• when you’re expected to tip a server \$8 extra dollars for bringing you a single \$40 bottle of wine;
• when you qualify for a recall for all intents and purposes but get screwed over on some legalese technicality and have to pay for it yourself anyway; or
• when your doctor can prove you’re in serious pain, yet insurance (or, God forbid, someone else’s insurance) gets to make the call.

It’s subtle. It’s slow. It’s demoralizing. And, unfortunately, it’s the system working as intended. Yet it’s fundamentally so… not the way human beings should interact economically.

We can and should do better.