Welcome to the Pyramid of โMaybe Donโt Examine the Incentives Too Closelyโ:
โ๏ธ Religion โ For most people, the religion they first regard as โthe truthโ is strongly correlated with the country, culture, and family they happened to be born into. Apparently eternal truth has surprisingly strong geography.
๐บ Media โ Large corporations compete for attention, advertising revenue, access, and influence while helping millions of people decide what deserves outrage this week. No secret meeting required; incentives do plenty of work on their own.
๐๏ธ Government โ Taxes current income, issues debt against future tax revenue, routinely spends beyond current receipts, and then lectures households about living within their means. Different accounting rules when you own the printer, apparently.
๐ Big Pharma โ Pharmaceutical companies have produced genuinely lifesaving drugs. They are also businesses operating in a system where recurring treatment can generate recurring revenue. You donโt need a conspiracy to notice that โcustomer cured permanentlyโ and โcustomer for 30 yearsโ have different economics.
๐ต Fiat money โ You exchange limited hours of your life for units of currency whose supply can be expanded by institutions you donโt control. Creating currency is easy. Creating the goods and labor that currency claims on remains annoyingly difficult.
๐ฆ The system โ Youโre born into a legal system you didnโt design, a monetary system you didnโt choose, borders you didnโt draw, debts accumulated before you could speak, and social expectations already waiting for you.
None of that means civilization is useless.
It just means โthis is how things areโ is not the same argument as โthis is how things should be.โ
But relax. Youโre completely free.
Your alarm goes off at 6:30, taxes are automatically withheld, your mortgage is due on the 1st, and HR would like to remind you that your freedom request requires two weeksโ notice. ๐