Profit seekers

[Artsu Tharaz]

Being rudely surprised by ads coming up on youtube has reminded me of something important.

Humans, a good many of them any way, are obsessed with the attainment of profit. Advertisements, with the occassional exception of an informative one, do nothing to advance mankind in anyway. We could do away with them and we'd all be better off, but instead greed dominates humanity. This is wrong, totally wrong - a virus plaguing mankind. Where the hell this idea comes from is beyond me, but what's clear is that it has to stop. There is no honour, no goodness,

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqK1FrO3BdM

and I am fucking sick of it.

When will humanity pull itself together? When will multibillion dollar corporations stop destroying others and the earth for a dollar sign they don't need? When will high ideals become common place - not even high even, but just... goodness.



Greed. Fucking everywhere. Trampling over others. Chasing a hollow fucking dream.

I proclaim this virus an end of its days. That is the message I proclaim.

Instead, love could dominate. Chase profits and you spread hate. Spread hate and you're bound to get irate. People gotta eat, but food don't cost all that much. Plus, most the food you're getting is shit. Why? Profits.

We have to live as slaves, living lives of hollow chasing, of betrayal of our nature. Why? Profit.

Here is my gameplan.

1. Eliminate the profit drive
2. ???
3. Profit!!!

Thank you.

[posted in philosophy section because ethics]

 

[TheManBeyond]

you reminded me of an article i read today about arcade fire's new album called everything now, which is basically themed on the topic. we want everything now, we need all the products, all the information, all the sex, all the marriages, all the divorces now. so what do they did (to critize our society?) and promote their album? they invented tons of random products as merchandise, a brand of cereals, a corporation called everything now and much more random shit.

now you listen to the album and it sucks sooooo much.
even fans, (if you wanna find some kind of Fe proof) damn hipsters and stuff, agree on it.

love means patience and being constant, steady, determined. so it can be quickly replace for envy and hate or erasing emotions.
sadly, it is better to get everything now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIjgAWZNzbg

edit: in case i didn't explain myself that well, i think you do what you gotta do, what's better for you.

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

I doth admit,

There is something to be said for selfishness.

[...]

On topic though, wasn't this a great movie?

https://youtu.be/PYI09PMNazw

 

[Cognisant]

There's nothing inherently wrong with money or wanting to be wealthy indeed the more wealthy one is the less money is worth which I think is something a lot of people miss. Instead they purse wealth for wealth's sake which I see as a neurosis, like collectors who hoard stuff obsessively.

Generally the wealthier someone is the more generous they become and, interestingly, the more they dislike receiving gifts, this makes sense when you think of it in terms of social standing being a form of currency. To give a gift is a conversion of money, which is of little benefit to someone who has lots of it, to a higher social standing with that person which can be very useful. As anyone with a spouse/partner from a wealthy background can attest the family likes to involve themselves with gifts, it's a kind of leverage and it can be quite annoying, if your stepfather gives you a car it's almost impossible to say no when he asks for a reasonable favor.

What I'm getting at is there's nothing wrong with being wealthy if you use that wealth to benefit others, which is the rational thing for a wealthy person to do because beyond a certain threshold a higher social standing is more valuable than having more money.

People who fund schools and hospitals are, and should be, held in high regard and treated as such by society, it's their compensation for allocating resources to where they're needed most.

 

[Hadoblado]

1) how do you plan on curtailing the profit-drive
2) society looks pretty shitty when people aren't rewarded for their efforts. What's the replacement?

Personally I like the idea of regulating ads. They disgust me on so many levels. The way they target children feels like abuse to me... They're also wasted productivity as well as a systematic mechanism for keeping the rich richer. McDonalds could not exist as it does today if it's ads were merely informative.

 

[k9a4b]

Yeah next you're gunna tell me that jesus loves me and wants to suck my dick and tickle my balls arent you

 

[k9a4b]

Tell that faggot jesus to borrow mohammads goat for his sick masochistic fantasies

 

[Minuend]

People aren't that profit driven after they reach a comfortable income. People need to feel purpose, usefulness, mastery and shit like that. One of the reasons you see people with high education and lots of money still doing charity work, doing free programming, writing articles for wikipedia and stuff that gives them positive feels even when the money for it is vacant.

Of course, some are more money driven than others, but I wonder if that's not really a drive to status and power, rather than the profit itself.

But sure, the system we have isn't perfect, many would say it isn't even good. Star trek future when

Was supposed to write a bit more, but door bell

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

 

[Rixus]

Why so much hate for advertising? It irritates me when it pauses a video in the middle to show me one, but other than that I'll put up with it to a certain extent.

We use money in order to exchange goods or services. This is a part of our society and no one has come up with a workable alternative - unfortunately, the future where we work only to better ourselves and the rest of humanity, where the acquisition of wealth is not the driving force in our lives and where robots produce all the necessities and luxuries we could want for is a long way off. Right now, I have to work to pay to the bills. And as well as those bills, I need to buy things. I may even need entertaining. So does everyone else.

No longer is it normal to simply go to the high street to find what I want and accept the limited range offered. Now I can find what I need online. Now, I don't watch TV anymore so I don't see adds on there. So I don't know what's out now.

The crux of the internet is that without allowing advertising, people tend to go straight for the places on the internet they know. Amazon, Google, E-Bay. By ignoring advertising as much as possible (especially cheap internet adds for minor underdogs), we have not "stuck it to the man" of capitalism. We have instead done the opposite - we have given control of massive amounts of wealth to a small, select group of online companies that have a small handful of employees. We have given them monopolies.

Your claim to hate greed is fuelling the greed of the very, very few rather than allow the small developer or brand to show you their innovation or the niche market that you may actually want. Or the independent publisher who paid $7 to spread his add for his book to 2k people on Facebook so that a lesser known writer can sell a book. No, instead if you need a book you will search on Amazon's top best seller list and give money to them and the big publishers of already established authors.

 

[Hadoblado]

I believe this analogy was Ricky D's.

Trees are inefficient. Why? The trunks. They represent resources invested in competition rather than reproduction. If all the trees decided to stop growing trunks, they'd all still receive the exact same sunlight. But no, if there is sunlight available, slightly taller plants will out-compete everything else, and set off the evolutionary arms race to be the tallest.

Markets are the same. So long as consumers are more swayed by advertising than they are by quality or service, an enormous quantity of resources will be used to out-compete each other, at the expense of basically everyone.

Not only that, but it's about as close to mind control as you can get. Even when your conscious brain is able to see the flaws in the signals you're receiving, the likelihood of you purchasing that product increases (unless you somehow reach a spiteful threshold where you refuse to ever buy a product because of how an ad offended you somehow, but that's niche af). It's systematic manipulation that starts from the moment you're developed enough to hassle your parents. It's dehumanising and makes me feel like I'm being farmed.

That all said, I tend to prefer market based solutions. #muhfreedomz

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

Humanity is in general obsessed with progress. Self-interest and greed have been the drivers behind just about all of human progress. Greed is good.

Besides, it is a classical case of Millennial confusion when they gladly consume what the free markets offer them yet complain about capitalism. You consume youtube videos free of charge by virtue of watching ads, and at the same time show your contempt for ads. Where is the consistency, m8

Another besides; everyone likes to complain about people chasing power and money - until they get chance to do so themselves.

 

[TransientMoment]

ads don't equate to greed. We all need money for something. It's a nice exchange unit rather than carrying around tons of actual products with us. Not to mention the value of money doesn't go down as fast as the value of most of the stuff we buy with it.
I think the ad-spamming has occurred in part for two reasons:
1.) This is the corporate back-lash against people trying to avoid ads via ad-blockers. Ad-blockers are so popular now that there are entire companies and products devoted to defeating the ad-blockers. You gotta make up for lost expected revenue somehow.
2.) Companies have lost the talent of advertising. They simply don't know how to do it anymore. What ever happened to fun ads? Commercial jingles? Legitimate humor? I used to be able to laugh, cry, and sing-along with ads. Now they're just irritating and I mute them every single time. I miss fun ads. :..(

 

[Artsu Tharaz]

higher social standing

sigh, and for my next thread...

Tell that faggot jesus to borrow mohammads goat for his sick masochistic fantasies

lol'd

--

People don't understand how much better the world can be. Instead, it's a fcuking mess.

What's up with that?

--

People seem to assume that human nature is this static thing that is working in today's society the way that it always has and always will. They'll come up with all kinds of long-winded pseudo-scientific arguments to back up their claims.

They have no fcuking idea.


Oh, and censoring of music videos is doing funny things to my brain.

 

[Polaris]

I have no problems with advertising as a concept, but I do have a problem with the lack of humour and blatantly patronising tone of some of them. Not to mention misleading "information", and/or the witholding of information. For this reason, I think ads are mostly unethical which is why I boycotted commercial TV and radio stations as soon as I got to this country.

The thing that advertising companies don't seem to get is that funny ads are really rare, and people actually enjoy them. Instead they come up with lame shit that targets people's insecurities and - yes, greed.

I don't care about ads on the internet, they are necessary. I have always been visiting sites that have ads that are non-intrusive. Ad blockers and spam filters also work pretty well, so I don't have the issues with crap in my mail account. Plus, I can always just turn off my computer.

But when you get them everywhere in the public space is where it becomes an issue. Not only is it ugly, but you are robbed of your choice to avoid advertising. I mean, what is it with the billboard sign forests, big buildings completely covered in garish colours and the general complete lack of regard for aesthetics?

There is nothing more depressing than a suburb covered in this shit. No wonder people are feeling empty living in these places where the main message is: "We think you are stupid enough to fall for this shit, and besides that, you are also in need of having it shoved right in your face at all times, because we are really desperate and concerned that you may, perhaps miss our 20 metre tall, blue building that sells mostly shit quality vacuumcleaners".

There should be a law against uglification like that.

Why couldn't the same company just have a nice looking, neutral facade with a sign large enough to get noticed, but not intrusive, saying: " Our vacuumcleaners really suck". It is subtly clever and would be more in the spirit of the culture here.

The most irritating ads are from insurance companies, banks, leading supermarkets and private health funds - the ones that actually have a lot of power over people, as everyone need their services. They exploit people who are more vulnerable, are often patronising and sly as fuck, and the people in the ads are portrayed as retards - as if the target audience are supposed to identify with being retarded.

...although

I don't think there is anything wrong with profit seeking, as long as it follows ethical guidelines. Companies need to at least not run at a loss so that people can keep their jobs (dhuh) and rich company directors/owners - whatever, good for them, I don't have a problem with other people's wealth. Like someone said, it is the wealthy that contribute an enormous amount to charities, and often these remain anonymous so we don't even know who is doing what, and to what extent.

And most companies do have ethical policies, the problem is that these policies can become perfect smokescreens for those who are less ethically inclined - and ethics usually take low priority when a company is pressured for short-term profit, and shareholders become more important. This seems to be the issue when a company goes from small to large too quickly, which means jobs are often cut back, which again leads to poor individual performance, unhappiness and diminished quality output. The company is forced to outsource as the competition grows, prices driven down and local labour is too expensive, and there is loss of control over manufacturing, etc. Suddenly you are buying crap from a company that once had great quality products. And the reason? Consumers don't want to pay for what the product is actually worth. We, as consumers are controlling it.

The temptation is too great, and breach of ethics is easy when you cannot determine or quantify immediate or obvious damage. Hence, the enormous problems with obesity, diabetes, alcoholism, etc...things that slowly creep up on society, and will become a major problem when we run out of human resources to deal with it.

The image of a depressed, fat person in an ugly suburb is just the perfect representation for the insidious cumulative effect of a society that has become too convenient. It is the bastardisation of everything that could be amazing in human potential in a society where materialism is the new religion, and individuals don't matter.

/ depressing, over-edited rant