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"The people who tend to say capitalism is flawed are the poor or the extremely rich. It's an interesting dynamic. There is no perfect system. However, capitalism is the best system we've got that advances technology, increases productivity and efficiency, and gives people a chance to improve their financial situation. Capitalism provides people the most hope to get ahead based on hard work. Therefore, I believe capitalism will remain the system going forward," financial expert Sam shared his thoughts with Bored Panda. However, that's not to say that capitalism isn't without its flaws.
"The biggest flaw to capitalism is nepotism and family dynasties. This happens when the extraordinarily wealthy hoard their wealth and provide favors to their friends and children. This helps ensure the rich get richer and the powerful to stay powerful. Nepotism doesn't mean the rest of us can't get ahead as well. It just means that certain people will have a much easier time getting ahead than others," he said.
"To hoard billions of dollars while there are so many people suffering in your very city doesn't sit right with most people. However, evolution has made humans naturally greedy to increase our chances for survival. Even elite private universities in the United States continue to provide huge advantages for wealthy legacy families. At the end of the day, we tend to take care of people who are most like ourselves," Sam pointed out that, unfortunately, real-life isn't perfectly fair or just.
Bored Panda wanted to understand why some executives earn huge sums of money while their employees might be left living from paycheck to paycheck. Author and financial expert Sam explained it all to us.
"Compensation is tied towards how much economic value you can produce or at least, appear to produce. Hence, if you want to make millions a year and be a top 0.01% income earner, then you've got to generate a lot of profits and shareholder value," he told us.
"But let's be frank about CEO compensation for some publicly-traded companies. Their compensation packages in the hundreds of millions is a joke. There are plenty of people who can conduct meetings and tell people what to do for way less compensation."
He continued: "The biggest reason these CEOs get paid so much is because they work for companies with tremendous market capitalizations, e.g. Apple, Google, etc. If you're the founder of the company, getting paid a lot is one thing. But if you're just an operator, some of the CEO compensation today is egregious and embarrassing."
Corey has been making ‘Existential Comics’ about philosophy and “the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world” since December of 2013.
The software engineer from Portland in Oregon took an amateur interest in philosophy and decided to make it a more popular, approachable subject through the skillful use of comedy. The comic is educational, fun, and it’s something that we’ve been sneakily reading for years and years.
If you’d like to see some of Corey’s latest webcomics, you should definitely check out his website or social media. Or you could take a peek at the ones Bored Panda featured in a recent article right over here.
Way back in 2014, Corey told ‘Critical Theory’ that he first learned to draw by practicing drawing his ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ character in high school.
“Some time in college I pretty much left it behind, and I never used any kind of comic style to begin with (the first comic is roughly how my high school art looked). So it was a lot of learning and rough patches at first as I learned how to draw in a comic style, as well as drawing digitally for the first time,” he shared some insights into his interest in art.
“Essentially I wanted to write or do something, and I took a look around the internet and realized that if you want to be popular online you have to draw some [bad] cartoons next to what you write. I figured I had enough drawing skill to pull it off, so I might as well start a webcomic,” he explained how he first got started with ‘Existential Comics.’
“I got my tablet and started practicing and writing, but it took me about a year and a half before I published my first comic. The first serious comics took a long time to produce, but I’ve gotten much more efficient now, and the art generally looks much nicer now. It was originally intended to be mostly serious comics with a few jokes thrown in, but it turns out jokes are much easier and more fun to make, so it ended up being the reverse.”
Earlier, Bored Panda spoke about the benefits and drawbacks of capitalism with a couple of financial experts. According to finance writer and financial independence expert Rick Orford, the main issues arise when capitalism is taken to the extreme. Both extreme greed and extreme capitalism thrive when a large enough part of the population is willing to take risks.
"Remember though, greed is widely accepted to be the reason for the two largest financial crises in the last century; namely 1929 and 2008. It also creates the income inequality that’s largely seen in the United States. Indeed, while everyone, in theory, has an equal opportunity to flourish, the scales seem to tip to those with the most money," Rick explained to us during a previous interview.
"[Capitalism] allows folks like you and me to succeed by creating or investing in businesses. Indeed, one looking to borrow money from the banks today won’t have to pay much for the loan. As such, it encourages growth. However, extreme capitalism creates a scenario where greed overtakes reason, and it risks the financial system," he suggested that capitalism isn’t ‘bad’ in and of itself.
