Surviving American Capitalism

There are many evidences strongly suggesting that a great deal of American capitalism is tainted by utter selfishness and desperation.  Corporate leaders who only care about making working conditions easier to live with for the sake of maximizing employee morale and thus company productivity rather than the wellbeing of others betray this in several ways.  When a company only improves the standing of employees when it benefits the leadership, even if they can afford to grant better pay and benefits anyway while still making massive profits, its leaders are apathetic, intentionally blind, lazy, or outright egoistic, all of which spring from irrationality.

Capitalism and socialism alike do not have to be implemented in any single way, so the moral and broader philosophical stupidity of the American status quo are not merely a product of basic capitalism.  Yes, many people objecting to the current state of the American economic/corporate system are only against it because of emotion or personal preferences, but this is also the case when it comes to those in favor of the American style of capitalism.  How can those with little financial and social power survive low pay, benefits denied to them behind the condition of full time employment that is never extended to them, and the uncertainty of human life as it pertains to job security and wealth acquisition?  While concerned people try to bring change to key areas of the country's economy, people must survive in the meantime.

Slowly save money, refrain from spending enormous amounts of money gratuitously (though sometimes spending money even on unecessary things can help calm the desire to spend), and take advantage of random opportunities to spend money on necessities when they are cheaper, and it is still possible, even with relatively small annual pay, to eventually reach the point of having a great deal of financial and non-financial resources.  However, anything from repeated car problems to health issues, ranging from preexisting conditions to short health scares, to some emergency could quickly undo months or years of progress for some people.  The issue is not that American capitalism cannot be survived, for it most certainly can.  The issue is that it is survivable in spite of the many gratuitous or unjust obstacles, many of them the result of false beliefs about money or poverty, to financial security in modern America.

Again, basic capitalism itself is not predatory or extraordinarily difficult to navigate by default, so the aforementioned obstacles to financial wellbeing under American capitalism are not logically necessary components of all capitalistic systems.  Still, there are numerous examples of just how greed-drenched America's version of capitalism is.  The trends of concealing wages from potential employees, discouraging transparency among employees about their pay, charging people more with insurance than they would pay for certain services with a cash price, and more all would not be present if the American corporate culture was not for the most part built on some people acquiring money at the expense of practically all else.

Surviving in this kind of society can be done for those who through birth or life circumstances were unable to have the best opportunities available to them, not to mention those who simply (and rightly) have other priorities that stop them from pretending like a career is the most important part of life.  It just takes rationality, patience, luck, assistance from others, or all four together to make the most of the more limited chances for economic progression and stability that the lower class faces.  In many cases, it will just not be a quick ascension from poverty.  Minimal spontaneous expenses and a general commitment to emphasizing future stability over immediate spending, where possible, might be some of the requirements, but not all of this is even within a person's control.