A problem that arises in any capitalist system is lack of clarity as to what is valuable. In our society today, it is not so far fetched to imagine a

Coomer Capitalism - by Karthik Bala - thought currents

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2024-12-03 16:00:04

A problem that arises in any capitalist system is lack of clarity as to what is valuable. In our society today, it is not so far fetched to imagine a man living with his parents who does not appreciate his mom cooking all his meals, but is para-socially obsessed with an OnlyFans model who is just exploiting his lower nature for a chunk of his disposable income.

You might say OnlyFans does not deserve this much attention. $6.6B is really only .03% of total 2023 household expenditure, so who cares? But it’s a symbol of a larger issue!

Mis-valuing goods and services out of ignorance is expressed in larger, more destabilizing ways as financial bubbles, where investments are put into empty facades, or literal illusions and temptations (Theranos, Dot Com, etc.).

The die-hard economics worshipper, with no moral intuitions 1 other than what is economically efficient, might say it is because the OnlyFans model is able to meet some need that his mom cannot meet, and so this is rational behavior. But anyone who looks a bit deeper will see that what is rational is often not what is truly good. Because it is rational reasoning only from false premises that arise from a misunderstanding of one’s self and the environment.