Is being a capitalist a game?

[Drace]

I do not understand why a capitalist would need so much money. Whats even more puzzling is the thought of what drives them to have more wealth.

I could barely say what I would spend $10 million on that would better my life.

What would have a capitalist continuously exploit for wealth he does not need?
Is it just the mere satisfaction of having his wealth increase? This has me think that being a capitalist is just a hobby. In which he becomes so interested in wealth that the amount of it lets it rule his emotions.

If you played an online game, you can see the relevance I am making.

If it is not this interpretation that is true, it leads me to believe that capitalists are not the greedy hungry bastards that are always in search of wealth that they are sometimes made out to be.

[CELMX]

capitalism is a casino.
and yes, capitalists are greedy bastards that are addicted to gambling
and money=power for them, so they are striving for power with these billions of dollars

money is their life, not just a mere hobby. they are always striving for more profits, more exploitation, more $$$

[Drace]

money is their life, not just a mere hobby. they are always striving for more profits, more exploitation, more $$$

My curiosity is why they care about acquiring more money.

[CELMX]

power

[CELMX]

you cannot acquire power from online games
so...capitalism is twice as horrible
not only is gambling addicting, it is also a carrot of power that capitalists strive to get

[Rusty Shackleford]

It pretty much is. money is like a score.

there are always these rankings of who is wealthiest and most powerful in the world. the only thing it amounts to is how much more they can control other people. this "incites" others to try to become as powerful thus making people work harder not for social benefit but for personal benefit. society is a second for capitalists.

it is a clever way to make egoism sound good because with this there is still a byproduct of technological and social advances. the downside is it leads to exploitation for ones personal benefit and though it advances society, it does so in a radically uneven and inefficient way.

you can play the game or you can burn the game and make a better one.

[RadioRaheem84]

What I would like to know and I am wondering if anyone else noticed is why they tend to be rather wasteful with it?

Let me explain. A friend of mine is an Investment Banker and he is always talking about dining with clients at expensive dinners on the company dime when they could just meet with them at the office, how they serve water that's imported from Vermont; Poland Springs to give the place a "New England, old money" feel. Basically the company spends all of this money to make it obvious to clients how wealthy it is. The company could save all of this money if they would eliminate their quest to appear elite.

It dawned on me when I visited his office that the rich are very inefficient with their money. It would have to take millions in revenue for them to continue to be in business.

[Rusty Shackleford]

with the rich, its all about prestige, power, and wooing your business partners and the public.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Well I think there's a difference between individual rich people's quest for money and the need for more money for the bourgeois. For capitalists in general, you need to keep making profits because a company that doesn't will be run over by the competitive nature of capitalism. Mac, for example can't just say, "Hey we produce the ipod and iphone, let's take a break because people like them" - they have to keep reinventing the wheel and keep putting out updates because when Android or some other smart phone comes out, there is a "falling rate of profit" effect.

Individual rich people, on the other hand, can be greedy; retire after they make a few million and leave the game completely; or be a philanthropist or an adventurer traveling the world in a hot-air balloon! I don't know why some of them would want multiple millions, but money is power and freedom in capitalist societies, and if you don't believe any other kind of life is possible, I can see wanting more money than you need in terms of a means to more personal freedom and respect.

[ZeroNowhere]

They can be greedy, they can want a good life for their children, they can want to have it easy themselves after they step down, just in case they need it, because money is pretty useful under capitalism, so that they can give it away, and so on. Of course, this assuming that we're excluding competition, and such.

[NecroCommie]

There was a study by Helsinki university a couple years ago that stated you don't increase your happiness by earning more than about 2100 euros per month. It was done by polling people about their income and oppinions on their own lives. It appears that income stopped correlating with happiness once it hit 2100 euros per month, which is somewhat low income around here with finland being one of the most expensive countries to live in.

It was so entertaining to hear the futile objections of the rich folk. :lol: "Surely you must be happier if you have a 20000 euro yacht!", "Sorry dude, you have been proven wrong in most cases..." I just thought that with this in mind it pretty much has to be about a game from there on forwards.

[KC]

Edit

[ZeroNowhere]

Polls involving asking people about their happiness have the unhappy tendency of not being able to prove anything.

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Money is like a drug to the rich. Once they have some they want more and more and become completely tainted by the power and wealth they have.

[cyu]

- "What is it that a man may call the greatest things in life?"
- "Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper."
-- Cohen the Barbarian in conversation with Discworld nomads
(Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic)

As far as greed goes, I think it can be summed up in one word: advertising. Those with more susceptible minds are easier targets for marketers. The more money you have, the more marketers target you with advertising, since they want some of that cash falling out of your pockets too. There are few people more brainwashed than the wealthy.

[Yazman]

"If you show me the cash
Then I will take it
If you tell me to cry
Then I will fake it
If you give me a hand
Then I will shake it"

"You do anything for money...
Anything for money
Would lie for you
Would die for you
Even sell my soul to the devil"
-Michael Jackson, in his song "Money"

To hell with them! Capitalists and their money, they are obsessed with it, they will do ANYTHING for it. Lie, die, kill, do anything for it. Anything.

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

I want to be rich so I can own proffesional sports teams.

[NecroCommie]

Polls involving asking people about their happiness have the unhappy tendency of not being able to prove anything.
...accurately.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I want to be rich so I can own proffesional sports teams.Hey, that's the same reason I want to become a nationally syndicated conservative radio star and loudmouth bigot:lol:.

Go Rams!

[The Ungovernable Farce]

I think Gravedigger and KC make the most useful contributions here. Capitalism isn't a matter of individual capitalists being nasty, which we could just get rid of if they were nicer; it's a system with a logic of its own, which is completely out of control. The current economic crisis shows how not even the capitalists can predict what's going to happen next. A company that is not continually making more profits and investing back into its operation will fail to compete with other companies that are investing more into their operations, so it will eventually go bankrupt; the whole thing's set up so that only the most ruthless survive. This is also why capitalism is so environmentally destructive, in that business that allow ecological concerns to get in the way of making money will fail to keep up with more cynical ones. But yeah, the problem's with the system, not with individual greed.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

To the political class and to the economic elites, yes, capitalism is a 'game' where power and money (Respectively) are sought, even beyond their useful level.

I find it ridiculous that when people across the world are dying of disease, in war or through famine, people feel it is necessary to stockpile millions or even billions in bank accounts that will not be touched for generations. It is the heigh of individualism, disgusting.