tocopherol

The structures of society are created by human will, but the structures in place and the interactions they require also shape our values as cultures. Capitalism is a system in which by owning capital, wealth and the means of production, a capitalist derives profit from the workers who are the producers using the tools and facilities owned by the capitalist. To be successful in this, or to raise yourself above the working class, you must own capital and use it to derive profit to increase your capital further, or else other capitalists will take your place in the market.

Capitalism and market based economies have only been a part of the global structure for a small minority of the total time that humans have created societies. There are thousands of years we have very little information of, making it difficult to derive what sort of social structures were in place in different societies.

In the absence of pressures like poverty and economic competition, people help each other. When someone trips in front of you, the vast majority of people will be concerned and help them up. I truly believe altruism is a core aspect of 'human nature' as much or more than greed.

I no longer work there but in the last year I worked for a "leading global source for education materials" according to Forbes, worth 2.8 billion and I was paid minimum wage as a retail employee.

Shout out to the show Person of Interest, pretty clichéd crime/action show but gets good with AI, surveillance/police state and related themes. SLIGHT SPOILERS But basically a super intelligent AI was created in the pursuit of perfecting the surveillance state.