It is a simple idea.

That's called capitalism, not the meaning of life.

Capitalism is the only economic system that actually embraces human nature: greed and ambition. That's why it's so successful.

Selfishness isn't human nature.

I'm not even going to argue with an objectively wrong statement.

Na. While money can bring you a lot of material things, there's a cost. There's always a cost. In order to climb so far up the ladder, your life has to be devoted to it. Your time, your mind, everything, must live and breath money. How much are you making? How much will you lose to gain more? How much will you gamble on things?

And when you're a crumbling old man, your life will suddenly revisit you. The years spent as your kids slipped by. Divorces with people who never really loved you. The strain of all those years, fighting day in and day out to stay at the top. And then, you realize it. You're going to die. You're going to die, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. No money in the world will allow you to cheat fate.

And suddenly, you begin to wonder, what if? What if you had gone out and done that one thing you always wanted to learn? What if you paid attention to your kids so they weren't spoiled brats that couldn't give a fuck about you because you were never there? What if, you had taken a simpler way instead?

I've seen it happen. I see it on their faces, on their bodies. They grow old, and miserable. They twist themselves out of shape and let their bodies go to ruin. Their family is practically non existent. But hey, at least they have money right?

No.

From the day we created it, money has been a cancer. The lives wasted in pursuit of a meaningless number, something that never did, and never will hold any true value. Give me a hundred thousand dollars and drop me off in the middle of the woods, in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't even start a fire with it because it's not even fucking paper anymore.

Take the land I grew up on. It's still in my family. But I, nor would anybody else ever sell it, for any price. The memories made there, are priceless, both good and bad. We buried our dead there. The work, the achievements, the simple act of shaping the land to be what we wanted it to be outweighs anything any of the billionaires ever made for themselves.

Money, is a necessity in today's world. But it's not the answer. Nor is it a solution to all your problems, only those that require money. And even then, what you can achieve with money, you can achieve with your own two hands by yourself.

Money, while it can be fun to spend, the sole purpose it was made for, comes with a cost. And the cost is your life. Your time and effort, the years spent in the state required to spend, grow, and consume, more and more until you reach the top.

To me, that's worthless. I would rather spend 10 years crafting a boat by hand, by myself, then working 10 years in that trap, and buying a multi million dollar boat with the snap of a finger. Because what I would gain and experience in those 10 years of working and shaping my own boat, my own dream, will always be infinitely better than what that money could ever provide.

Sandtrap.... That was a glorious thing to read, Class posted a video of this guy in a movie being this jackass and ranting about what Class is talking about.
That was nothing in comparison to what you wrote. 100/10 would read again.

Even though he didn't address the point of this thread whatsoever...

I don't give a shit.
That was the best damn thing I've read in weeks.

And here's the cherry on top. Society means nothing. What am I bringing to society? Nothing. Because society doesn't care. Society is simply the product of numbers. Society was Humans banding together to do what they couldn't do alone. Essentially, the weak using their numbers to become strong. And it shows. Scientifically proven that the larger our numbers become in an area, the lower the intelligence of the entire group becomes.

And this is why we have wars, and religion, and a capitalistic society. Because at the top of the board, are people pulling the strings. And they can lead everybody around as they please. They could run everyone to their deaths and the crowd wouldn't even see it.

You know who really got things done? The thinkers. The outcasts. The people alone in their intelligence who were shunned in their age,  scoffed at and mocked. And, years later, long after they were gone, suddenly, they were right. The crowds finally caught up, like that one fat kid in gym class.

Society does not care about what you can bring to the table, and it never did, and it never will. Society, as a whole, will never return what you give. All it ever accomplished was two things.

1. It allowed those who couldn't do things on their own to flourish, contributing to the great effect that we know as mob mentality, dulling and diluting the intelligence of people so much that today, there's almost a line, a barrier, a class. Those at the bottom who turn the gears williingly, and those at the top who give the orders and control everything.

2. Make a bigger target for trouble. The bigger the footprint, the easier you are to spot. Every great empire we've ever made fell for one sole reason. It was too big in someone's eyes. What's the first thing any of our nukes target if they're launched? Population centers.

Society has little to give in return but in favor asks for your life and more. No sir, you've always been worth little to society, because society was founded off the numbers of people who couldn't do anything.

Of course people at the top are pulling the strings. And they're at the top for a reason. Because they worked within the confines of the system. They provided society with what it needed, each in their own way. And contrary to your contention, society did give back. That's the whole purpose of currency, of promotions. You may say that titles and money are worthless, and I would be inclined to agree, if not for the one thing they both garner: power. I've already said that human nature is greed and ambition, and there's a reason for that: no matter how much people love denying it, power is every human's greatest desire. And power is exactly what playing the system, bringing something to society's table, earns you.

I agree that it's often the outcasts of society who make the biggest philosophical or technological breakthrough, but like you said, "long after they were gone, suddenly, they were right." If they weren't right until they were dead, that means that their life was a failure. Legacy means nothing. When you're dead, you won't know you're being honored. All that matters is power and respect while you're alive. In business, in life, and even in love, all that's important is what you're bringing. People only care who you are in relation to how it affects them. And that's how it should be.

Of course people at the top are pulling the strings. And they're at the top for a reason. Because they worked within the confines of the system. They provided society with what it needed, each in their own way. And contrary to your contention, society did give back. That's the whole purpose of currency, of promotions. You may say that titles and money are worthless, and I would be inclined to agree, if not for the one thing they both garner: power. I've already said that human nature is greed and ambition, and there's a reason for that: no matter how much people love denying it, power is every human's greatest desire. And power is exactly what playing the system, bringing something to society's table, earns you.

I agree that it's often the outcasts of society who make the biggest philosophical or technological breakthrough, but like you said, "long after they were gone, suddenly, they were right." If they weren't right until they were dead, that means that their life was a failure. Legacy means nothing. When you're dead, you won't know you're being honored. All that matters is power and respect while you're alive. In business, in life, and even in love, all that's important is what you're bringing. People only care who you are in relation to how it affects them. And that's how it should be.

Then in that case, we're still primitive as fucking rocks. Call me after around 10,000 years of evolution or so.

There are flaws in that theory. Plenty of people live without society.

Sure, maybe .001% of people do. But the overwhelming majority of people don't. Do you wonder why that is?

If even one person can live without society then you're argument is automatically flawed.

How so? Only a fraction of people find the meaning of life. Most people never find it. People who live out in the woods by themselves definitely haven't.

Less the meaning of life and more so the meaning of economics. Not to shit on economics, because people who don't appreciate its sheer relevance are fucking lunatics.

It's pretty much the pocket guide for surviving in a capitalist market. Which is useful because that just happens, along with feminism, to be the thing that's given 1% of human history 99% of the wealth which has ever existed.

You'd be surprised how aptly the principles of capitalism relate to all aspects of human existence. We're naturally greedy, and our relation to others is directly tied to what they can do for us.