Capitalism, Democracy, and OOOH SHINEY

My firm belief is that eventually people will talk about how Capitalism and Democracy look really good on paper but are really bad in practise. Even if the systems don't go away perhaps we can stop LYING about them.First big lie: Rule by the people.
NO: Both of them are timocracies. Capitalism is the most natural extension of a system. I mean - seriously - it's simply the barter system on steroids. And ya know what - that's cool. BUT it means that the best liar wins. If we want capitalism to work we need to ban advertising. Everything will be sold in a package of a uniform colour with a fontset that is the same and a standard set of names for ingredent lists and so on. Computers would not come preloaded with ANY software unless you specifically ASKED for it to be put on - and gave the person the CD.

If we don't do this then the person with the best marketing team wins. And that's not CAPITALISM that's "Marketalism?" or somesuch. It's a rule by "the guy with the shiniest box". Or the guy who made the first good deal. Or whatever. In the end it's all NOT a system that gives people all an equal chance. It's a classist system which can only allow advancement through the ability to market. Which means we get well marketed suboptimal products and badly marketed optimal products. And people buy the suboptimal ones - and the small minority ATTEMPTING to buy the optimal ones are attacked by the people with the money from selling the suboptimal ones. (I am thinking Windows, Gasoline cars, and a few other things here).

Democracy is the capitalist system applied to politics when it comes to this lie. It's not the smartest politician buy the guy with the prettiest face and who can kiss the most babies and tell the best lies and make the most commercials. Maybe it sounds like a good idea to make your politicians people persons. But at least ban: smear campaigns (mentioning opposing political parties or candidates should be banned), comercials, misrepresentation of fact (blatant). Also - all campaign info should show both sides of every issue - not to help the candidate - to help the voter. This system should be about informing the voter - not getting an ignorant non-voter to vote.

The second big lie: The System Is Self Correcting
NO: Adam Smith thought so - but I don't care. People like shinies. They like pretty things. The system by definition DOESN'T self correct as the rich get richer. People are only fed the information of the most powerful group. And sure the internet is helping change this - but I mean I could get a bunch of people to Troll Wikipedia to diss Windows and call anything that's pro-Windows vandalism. And Microsoft could pay off an ADMIN (the wikipedia admins are voted in by jove - they could MAKE one with a few thousand) to screw over Linux. Needless to say the internet doesn't fix MUCH. And the system fixes NOTHING since using the system properly breaks it.


These things mean that we create consumer apathy and misinformation not due to any malice on the part of the prolematic people - instead it's due to the fact that it's the best way to work the system.

Ever played a game with an economy? Notice how it's the optimal play to mistreat people unless there's an artifical moral system thrown in? It's because that's how it is. It's optimal to mistreat people in a democracy or capitalism you just need them not to NOTICE it.

I once watched a cartoon in which someone made commercials to hypnotize people to shop at his store - is this so unlike modern commercials?