Fear is the most profitable product capitalism ever made
Have you ever noticed how every commercial, every news headline, and every political campaign basically runs on fear?
They’ve convinced people that their homes are under siege, that every stranger is a threat, and that you’re one deadbolt away from chaos. Meanwhile, burglary rates are at historic lows but fear sells, and security systems, guns, insurance policies, and “smart locks” are the new gold rush.
It’s not safety they’re selling. It’s anxiety. A constant drip of “you’re not safe without us.”
Nobody I know has ever had their house broken into, but everyone I know has been sold fear in some form fear of crime, fear of poverty, fear of illness, fear of each other.
Late-stage capitalism doesn’t need you to believe in hope. It just needs you to stay scared enough to keep spending.
https://redd.it/1o47mht
@r_latestagecapitalism
Have you ever noticed how every commercial, every news headline, and every political campaign basically runs on fear?
They’ve convinced people that their homes are under siege, that every stranger is a threat, and that you’re one deadbolt away from chaos. Meanwhile, burglary rates are at historic lows but fear sells, and security systems, guns, insurance policies, and “smart locks” are the new gold rush.
It’s not safety they’re selling. It’s anxiety. A constant drip of “you’re not safe without us.”
Nobody I know has ever had their house broken into, but everyone I know has been sold fear in some form fear of crime, fear of poverty, fear of illness, fear of each other.
Late-stage capitalism doesn’t need you to believe in hope. It just needs you to stay scared enough to keep spending.
https://redd.it/1o47mht
@r_latestagecapitalism
Reddit
From the LateStageCapitalism community on Reddit
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If the US set maximum household wealth at $20M and divided up the excess, every American household would get $210k. What would you do with the money?
Capitalism is a game, but at the moment, its not fun for 80% of the players. Its like an unending monopoly game, but one guy has all the property and the rest us are just miserably going around and around.
We can restart the game and create a new society with more equal wealth and opportunities for all.
I set $20M as max wealth as its 100x time median family wealth. Plus $20M seems like plenty of money to buy a house, cars, boat etc.
The top 1% of households in the US have over $18M household wealth, so this would only tax the 1%.
Math:
top 1% of hh own $53T of wealth **https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WFRBLT01026?utm\_source=chatgpt.com**
there are about 130M hh in the US
1% is 1.3M HH - this is who we are taxing
Let the 1% keep $20M each = $20M x 1.3M = $26T stays with the rich
$53T - $26T = $27T excess wealth to go to the 99%
$27T / 129M households = about $210k per household
https://redd.it/1o41uzt
@r_latestagecapitalism
Capitalism is a game, but at the moment, its not fun for 80% of the players. Its like an unending monopoly game, but one guy has all the property and the rest us are just miserably going around and around.
We can restart the game and create a new society with more equal wealth and opportunities for all.
I set $20M as max wealth as its 100x time median family wealth. Plus $20M seems like plenty of money to buy a house, cars, boat etc.
The top 1% of households in the US have over $18M household wealth, so this would only tax the 1%.
Math:
top 1% of hh own $53T of wealth **https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WFRBLT01026?utm\_source=chatgpt.com**
there are about 130M hh in the US
1% is 1.3M HH - this is who we are taxing
Let the 1% keep $20M each = $20M x 1.3M = $26T stays with the rich
$53T - $26T = $27T excess wealth to go to the 99%
$27T / 129M households = about $210k per household
https://redd.it/1o41uzt
@r_latestagecapitalism
fred.stlouisfed.org
FRED Economic Data
Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles)
Trump’s Argentina Bailout Enriches One Well-Connected US Billionaire | A $20 billion US rescue package is a gift for a hedge fund manager with ties to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/trump-argentina-bailout-hedge-fund-billionaire-rob-citrone-scott-bessent/
https://redd.it/1o4b2rd
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/trump-argentina-bailout-hedge-fund-billionaire-rob-citrone-scott-bessent/
https://redd.it/1o4b2rd
@r_latestagecapitalism
Mother Jones
Trump’s Argentina bailout enriches one well-connected US billionaire
A $20 billion US rescue package is a gift for a hedge fund manager with ties to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The AI Manhattan Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77oSBNvfpr4
https://redd.it/1o480nv
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77oSBNvfpr4
https://redd.it/1o480nv
@r_latestagecapitalism
YouTube
The AI Manhattan Project
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Government spent billions relocating farmers into 'better' housing. Now they're more economically vulnerable than before.
Chinese Communist Party rules China, but for all practical purposes China is as cutthroat capitalist as any other country. Look at their recent experiment, something eerily dark about it, taking people who are poor but self sufficient and moving them into supposedly better infrastructure and in process making them completely dependent on cash economy. The result is a surprised pikachu face when these people can't afford to live.
Jiangsu Province in China did this with 88,000 families where government spent 17.5 billion yuan (2.45 Billion USD) over five years to build new rural apartment complexes. Farmers gave up their old scattered homesteads and moved into clean modern communities.
Now in the old system, these farmers had large spacious houses with vacant land. They grew vegetables and were near the fields. They had basically zero living costs beyond what they chose to spend. Low cash income but who cares, when there is no rent and almost zero food expense.
Now they are shifted and have to live in an apartment with no space to grow vegetables. Fields are at such far away distance that it is not practical for them to farm anymore. They have to buy food and now there are property management fees.
To make thins worse, they can't even sell this apartment as it is still legally classified as rural land, so no market transactions. They are locked in, can't liquidate, can't move for work and have been given an asset that has no exchange value.
Icing on the cake is the government funded construction but made zero commitment to ongoing maintenance. So in 10 years when things start breaking down, who will pay, farmers who already are struggling to just live?
A recent study tracked these communities and found massive variation in outcomes. Some are thriving because they're near towns with actual job and others have become sort of ghost twons. Only 8 out of 12 they visited even finished their public facilities and only 4 were actually operating those facilities.
The researchers analyzed this using SWOT and basically concluded this only works if you solve the livelihood problem. But solving livelihood wasn't even the main agenda, the point was to reclaim land for large scale agricultural operations and make rural areas look more modern, damn the inhabitants and their traditional living style.
So, in effect the government successfully turned independent subsistence farmers into a precarious service class with no safety net. The land that used to provide social security is gone. and they're now fully exposed to market forces but with less human capital (education, job skills) than urban workers.
When the next economic crisis hits, these families are going to be devastated and before they could fall back on subsistence but now that option is gone as well. The worst part is this probably won't even fail politically because it already succeeded at its real goal. The land is reclaimed and is available for large scale farming or development. The fact that the people are now economically precarious is just an externality.
The researchers (Han et al, Ecological Indicators 2024) were pretty frank about it for an academic paper. They said without addressing production and livelihoods, this becomes a "short lived political project." You can read people here, if interested, makes for an interesting capitalistic study in the communist lands.
https://redd.it/1o4gyov
@r_latestagecapitalism
Chinese Communist Party rules China, but for all practical purposes China is as cutthroat capitalist as any other country. Look at their recent experiment, something eerily dark about it, taking people who are poor but self sufficient and moving them into supposedly better infrastructure and in process making them completely dependent on cash economy. The result is a surprised pikachu face when these people can't afford to live.
Jiangsu Province in China did this with 88,000 families where government spent 17.5 billion yuan (2.45 Billion USD) over five years to build new rural apartment complexes. Farmers gave up their old scattered homesteads and moved into clean modern communities.
Now in the old system, these farmers had large spacious houses with vacant land. They grew vegetables and were near the fields. They had basically zero living costs beyond what they chose to spend. Low cash income but who cares, when there is no rent and almost zero food expense.
Now they are shifted and have to live in an apartment with no space to grow vegetables. Fields are at such far away distance that it is not practical for them to farm anymore. They have to buy food and now there are property management fees.
To make thins worse, they can't even sell this apartment as it is still legally classified as rural land, so no market transactions. They are locked in, can't liquidate, can't move for work and have been given an asset that has no exchange value.
Icing on the cake is the government funded construction but made zero commitment to ongoing maintenance. So in 10 years when things start breaking down, who will pay, farmers who already are struggling to just live?
A recent study tracked these communities and found massive variation in outcomes. Some are thriving because they're near towns with actual job and others have become sort of ghost twons. Only 8 out of 12 they visited even finished their public facilities and only 4 were actually operating those facilities.
The researchers analyzed this using SWOT and basically concluded this only works if you solve the livelihood problem. But solving livelihood wasn't even the main agenda, the point was to reclaim land for large scale agricultural operations and make rural areas look more modern, damn the inhabitants and their traditional living style.
So, in effect the government successfully turned independent subsistence farmers into a precarious service class with no safety net. The land that used to provide social security is gone. and they're now fully exposed to market forces but with less human capital (education, job skills) than urban workers.
When the next economic crisis hits, these families are going to be devastated and before they could fall back on subsistence but now that option is gone as well. The worst part is this probably won't even fail politically because it already succeeded at its real goal. The land is reclaimed and is available for large scale farming or development. The fact that the people are now economically precarious is just an externality.
The researchers (Han et al, Ecological Indicators 2024) were pretty frank about it for an academic paper. They said without addressing production and livelihoods, this becomes a "short lived political project." You can read people here, if interested, makes for an interesting capitalistic study in the communist lands.
https://redd.it/1o4gyov
@r_latestagecapitalism
"CDC is over": RFK Jr. lays off over 1,000 employees in Friday night massacre | Amid the ongoing shutdown, the HHS secretary wiped out entire offices that investigate disease outbreaks, manage infectious disease responses and collect data.
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/cdc-rfk-jr-shutdown-layoffs-goal-rcna237035
https://redd.it/1o4pz8q
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/cdc-rfk-jr-shutdown-layoffs-goal-rcna237035
https://redd.it/1o4pz8q
@r_latestagecapitalism
MSNBC
'CDC is over': RFK Jr. lays off over 1,000 employees in Friday night massacre
Amid the ongoing shutdown, the HHS secretary wiped out entire offices that investigate disease outbreaks, manage infectious disease responses and collect data.
US moves to cancel one of the world’s largest solar farms | Trump administration scraps approval for 6.2 gigawatt Nevada project
https://www.ft.com/content/7a3cd922-88ed-4188-86ab-ba09fbe24d42
https://redd.it/1o4r41i
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://www.ft.com/content/7a3cd922-88ed-4188-86ab-ba09fbe24d42
https://redd.it/1o4r41i
@r_latestagecapitalism
Ft
US moves to cancel one of the world’s largest solar farms
Trump administration scraps approval for 6.2 gigawatt Nevada project
Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says | The agency cut nearly everyone who works to administer federal funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, one staffer said.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2025/10/11/education-department-special-ed-office-layoffs-shutdown/86646104007/
https://redd.it/1o4q4bc
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2025/10/11/education-department-special-ed-office-layoffs-shutdown/86646104007/
https://redd.it/1o4q4bc
@r_latestagecapitalism
USA TODAY
Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says
The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
Major IQ differences in identical twins linked to schooling, challenging decades of research
https://www.psypost.org/major-iq-differences-in-identical-twins-linked-to-schooling-challenging-decades-of-research/
https://redd.it/1o4su3d
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://www.psypost.org/major-iq-differences-in-identical-twins-linked-to-schooling-challenging-decades-of-research/
https://redd.it/1o4su3d
@r_latestagecapitalism
PsyPost
Major IQ differences in identical twins linked to schooling, challenging decades of research
A new study in Acta Psychologica reveals that schooling largely explains IQ differences in identical twins raised apart. When their educations are very dissimilar, their IQ scores can be as different as those between complete strangers.
Trump axes, then scrambles to rehire, critical CDC workers amid shutdown job cuts | Hundreds of the fired CDC workers may be brought back, but it’s unclear when they’ll return to work
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-fired-cdc-workers-rehire-shutdown-b2843831.html
https://redd.it/1o4tkge
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-fired-cdc-workers-rehire-shutdown-b2843831.html
https://redd.it/1o4tkge
@r_latestagecapitalism
The Independent
Trump axes, then scrambles to rehire, critical CDC workers amid shutdown job cuts
Hundreds of the fired CDC workers may be brought back, but it’s unclear when they’ll return to work
Most people would rather rule in misery than share in progress.
This is what humanity comes down to in the end... centuries of progress undone by the same old hatreds. No one wants to confront their contempt for the poor, for those who look different, love differently, live outside their comfort, or the rich disdain for the middle class,People cling to hierarchy and fear instead of compassion and understanding.
A species that built wonders, crossed oceans, and reached the stars, only to collapse under its own pettiness. Humans transforming themselves into a cattle species to serve the ultimate master, money. No morality, no purpose, only moving to places or doing things because capital said so. It’s sad to see centuries of progress amount to nothing because in the end we are still in the same place, but even more dangerous. Not progressing human behavior while intensifying technology leaps is another dangerous things no one is talking about, we could be dealing with tons of Mini-Hitlers in the future.
Humans are acting very immature as we head into an uncertain future, you know climate change, no big deal I guess! Just something that will exacerbate our unaddressed past and present problems and cause absolute mayhem socially(refugee crisis, but on steroids as parts of the planet become hostile to live in) and economically. Inequality during climate change and resources being depleted to feed people who will never be satisfied even if they had 100 million trillion dollars and their companies worth 100 billion trillion. They'd still be figuring out ways of control and dominate the humans they believe they rule over, it's an extremely sick addiction that gets more people killed than battles with guns and canons..
It will never end, America has tons of unaddressed problems, and we see how they keep on reappearing because we never actually fixed anything, it's a very bloated system. I'm still sitting here in disbelief at the amount of damage Donald Trump has done in like 6 months. It's pretty significant, by the end of 4 years, good luck, i honestly don't even know if democrats are strong enough to actually fight and change things if they were to ever regain control. They are very status quo and maintaining the damage done. Should have ran with Bernie Sanders the first time he ran.
What's harder to believe Capitalism falling or Bernie Sanders being president? Both sound outlandish to me now in 2025. The people are so cooked that it feels like a dream. Literally cooked from the future of climate change down to their brain. That's like well-done cooked. Not medium rare...
https://redd.it/1o4um93
@r_latestagecapitalism
This is what humanity comes down to in the end... centuries of progress undone by the same old hatreds. No one wants to confront their contempt for the poor, for those who look different, love differently, live outside their comfort, or the rich disdain for the middle class,People cling to hierarchy and fear instead of compassion and understanding.
A species that built wonders, crossed oceans, and reached the stars, only to collapse under its own pettiness. Humans transforming themselves into a cattle species to serve the ultimate master, money. No morality, no purpose, only moving to places or doing things because capital said so. It’s sad to see centuries of progress amount to nothing because in the end we are still in the same place, but even more dangerous. Not progressing human behavior while intensifying technology leaps is another dangerous things no one is talking about, we could be dealing with tons of Mini-Hitlers in the future.
Humans are acting very immature as we head into an uncertain future, you know climate change, no big deal I guess! Just something that will exacerbate our unaddressed past and present problems and cause absolute mayhem socially(refugee crisis, but on steroids as parts of the planet become hostile to live in) and economically. Inequality during climate change and resources being depleted to feed people who will never be satisfied even if they had 100 million trillion dollars and their companies worth 100 billion trillion. They'd still be figuring out ways of control and dominate the humans they believe they rule over, it's an extremely sick addiction that gets more people killed than battles with guns and canons..
It will never end, America has tons of unaddressed problems, and we see how they keep on reappearing because we never actually fixed anything, it's a very bloated system. I'm still sitting here in disbelief at the amount of damage Donald Trump has done in like 6 months. It's pretty significant, by the end of 4 years, good luck, i honestly don't even know if democrats are strong enough to actually fight and change things if they were to ever regain control. They are very status quo and maintaining the damage done. Should have ran with Bernie Sanders the first time he ran.
What's harder to believe Capitalism falling or Bernie Sanders being president? Both sound outlandish to me now in 2025. The people are so cooked that it feels like a dream. Literally cooked from the future of climate change down to their brain. That's like well-done cooked. Not medium rare...
https://redd.it/1o4um93
@r_latestagecapitalism
Reddit
From the LateStageCapitalism community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the LateStageCapitalism community
Israel's theft of Palestinian land in Gaza encompasses the 'absolute majority of its agricultural areas on the fertile soils in the east'.
https://redd.it/1o4zraj
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://redd.it/1o4zraj
@r_latestagecapitalism
OpenAI, Nvidia Fuel $1 Trillion AI Market With Web of Circular Deals | A wave of deals and partnerships are escalating concerns that the trillion-dollar AI boom is being propped up by interconnected business transactions.
https://redd.it/1o547b7
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://redd.it/1o547b7
@r_latestagecapitalism
Pharmaceutical commercials I’ve seen in the last 1.5 months
https://redd.it/1o53vrw
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://redd.it/1o53vrw
@r_latestagecapitalism
Why Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified | Robotics has catapulted Beijing into a dominant position in many industries
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/12/why-western-executives-visit-china-coming-back-terrified/
https://redd.it/1o56vlw
@r_latestagecapitalism
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/12/why-western-executives-visit-china-coming-back-terrified/
https://redd.it/1o56vlw
@r_latestagecapitalism
The Telegraph
Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified
Robotics has catapulted Beijing into a dominant position in many industries