Well, my friend, he’s kinda poor he can’t afford some books and some streaming services, so he pirates. He pirate books, audiobook and videos and other stuff. Sometimes he buys books he likes a lot out of loyalty to the author (yeah, I don’t understand it either), he likes to read physical books, but yeah, if he hates the author or just wants to skim through it, he will download the book.
He usually doesn’t like to pirate from small companies or professors who are trying to make a living by selling books, but from millionaires & plenty of mega corps which already have loads of money, he feels like it’s the right move to pirate
Also, have you ever noticed that you have felt that the value of a product has decreased just because you didn’t pay for it, thus you are less interested to read it? i.e., had you paid for the book, you would have more likely read that book.
He says he will buy stuff when his time is more valuable than money, let’s all hope that day is soon.
What are your piracy habits?
That might be true in many cases but do you actually believe that things requiring immense investments and years of work like AAA games and high budget blockbuster movies would be created in any system?
Of course they could. Why not? You’re still thinking in terms of capitalism, which is the problem. Only in a capitalist system do these things require large amounts of investment.
Films are created by teams of people. Under capitalism, they need to be paid, and handsomely, because they need money to survive. What about a system that already provides basic needs? One that directly invests in its community? One that doesn’t even need money, because it becomes redundant once goods are provided freely?
In such a system, people work on what they want, when they want, and provide for society because it’s their true desire. Such a system not only would still create art, it would create vastly more art, because literally anyone could make it.
I find it kinda hard to believe that people would be able to achieve the level of organization and would be willing to put in the effort required just by doing what they want when they want, without any outside incentive. I’m not talking about a painting or a book, that’s why I specifically mentioned things requiring large investments. And by investment I didn’t mean just money but time and effort in general.
Why?
I just don’t think the majority of people are motivated enough. I have met many people who have no hobbies and no ambitions and just don’t want to do anything productive. They would like to spend their entire lives playing video games or partying or something similar.
And this is just about the lack of motivation, but what about malicious actors? People who would sabotage other’s efforts or try to profit in an unfair way? How would you ensure this won’t happen?
What about shitty and unpleasant but necessary jobs no one wants to do?
The idea that once you remove the money everyone will suddenly feel the desire to serve the society is bonkers. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love capitalism. I want to believe the world like that is possible, I really do, but I just can’t see it working. I live in a society where I have to use a 3 kg bike lock in order not to lose my bike and even then I have to detach the $10 light and take it with me because otherwise it won’t be there when I come back. I have zero trust and belief that such society can magically self organize and work together towards a common happiness.
Call this cope if you want, but I think that’s largely down to their material conditions. For most people, options really aren’t that great for truly succeeding, or even living a decent life. Not that this makes their decision logical, but it does make it understandable. A society that sees to their basic needs and has completely open career opportunities presents so much more choice. Imagine the difference in mentality it would engender if you never grew up needing to worry about your next meal. If you never saw any indication that your parents were struggling, or anyone else’s. If everyone seemed to be doing what they wanted in their lives. You would grow up with a mentality that you could learn anything you wanted, and the knowledge that you could actually do it, and society would support you in your ambition. And, even if you had no genuine long-term ambition or hobbies - people just get bored. Imagine if, when you got bored, you had the option to help run a coffee shop, or to help someone harvest their farm, without needing to take it on as a full-time job, but just for something to do that afternoon?
Compare that to how people are socialised today - the vast majority of people will grow up in a family that is divided in some way or other, and in the majority of cases, financial reasons can be easily discerned. One of the partners perhaps isn’t contributing to the finances, or is spending frivolously. One perhaps won’t get a job even though a single income is not covering expenses. Or both are working and even that isn’t enough, leading to extremes of stress. Or maybe one has a much better paying job than the other, leading to resentment due to dependence. Growing up with such a family would show a child that working is a world of stress, and that money controls everything. These formative years can entirely shape a person’s worldview for life. And entering the competitive world of schooling, then later entering the working world itself, will only confirm those feelings, because everything in our lives is constant competition, constant grind and pressure to always be trying to get the most value out of everything. That can just wear a person down to the point that doing anything seems like too much effort and too much time, when so little time is available.
No one can ever ensure people won’t act maliciously. Even in the perhaps utopian world I described, people can still simply be rotten, or be made rotten in some way due to other rotten people. What we can do is, between us, try to create the type of world thus described. The truly malevolent may not be stamped out, but they can be vastly reduced (in the cases where they were made to be so because of society failing them), and the people who were driven to desperation due to need (the vast majority of what we could call ‘crime’) would no longer exist as a category.
That is a loaded question. There truly is no job that “no one wants to do”. For one thing, volunteer work, open source projects, and internet moderation proves that people will work for free. And people who, even under capitalism, perform demanding, demeaning, disgusting and thankless jobs who nonetheless sincerely love their jobs (though usually not the conditions or the pay), proves that people can find joy in any kind of work.
Why do you say that? People worked and had functioning societies loooong before money was invented. Before property was invented. There’s evidence for thriving, culturally advanced, diverse, egalitarian societies throughout prehistory, with no state or hierarchy. The Indus Valley civilisation is one example. Attempts to create such egalitarian societies in the modern era have failed not because it isn’t possible, but because outside forces - most often the US, particularly the CIA - have either fully invaded or sabotaged the project covertly. Revolutionary Catalonia would have thrived if it weren’t for Franco’s Fascist Spain. The Communards managed to establish working class rule in Paris until they were crushed by the French Army. Chile elected a socialist, Allende, and the CIA wasted absolutely no time invading to coup his ass and install a dictator. Check other South American countries for similar stories.
It doesn’t fail because it doesn’t work. It is sabotaged. Every single time.
I want you to consider this this worldview only exists because of the society we exist in.
Consider this: how much of a concern would that be if bikes were free?
Please afford me the common respect of not assuming I believe in magic, or, that I metaphorically believe this would happen as if by magic, easily, instantly, with zero effort involved. I have no illusions that this could happen without a complete revolution of society, with the working class revolting completely of their own accord, in unison and common effort, toward the goal of rebuilding society with themselves in control, and dethroning the elite, demolishing their structures and ravaging all they have built.
It will not be easy. It will not be pretty. There will be terror. There will perhaps be beheadings of billionaires in town squares. There may be invasions of mansions to burn them down and kidnap their occupants.
And there also may not be. Revolutions have happened that could be descibed in such a way. They also have happened more peacefully - with violence, of course, but not terror. Military tactics and organised citizenry simply demanding their rights en masse, with only the threat of their numbers being necessary. But more often, there is a mixture of such things.
So no, it will not happen magically. Even as metaphor, that is not what I imagine. Unless you consider the human spirit wishing for its true freedom to be a form of magic, and the co-operation of people truly wishing each other the best to be magic also, then in case, maybe so. But we have evidence enough that these things exist. And magic is only deserved as a description of things fantastical with no precedent or reasonable basis.
Absolutely.
Give me 5 years without worrying about the money, and I’ll build a game bigger and fancier than any AAA title (assuming someone else will do the art and story)
I’d build worlds just because I like to feel godlike - I’d write the rules to generate world after world just because that’s what I am, and without worrying about finances I’d hand it off to others to do what they love with it. Other people love writing engines or handcrafting experiences - I love building the tools
I think you’re looking at it the wrong way – AAA stuff isn’t good because of a profit motive, it’s this bad because everyone is trying to minimize the work put in and maximize the profits. If everyone working on games collaborated on a few engines and shared work freely between each other, we’d have way better games