We shouldn't have to min-max our lives. As I've gotten older I find that to be an increasingly shit way to play games and I similarly find it to be a similarly shit way to live. 

So much of the "capitalism works for me" takes are based in how much money that person has and not how much fulfillment they get from their life. Pretty depressing imo...

Yikes.

Yikes.

Yikes.

>There is a reason most innovations come from the same few countries over and over.

Despite the fact that every country has capitalism?

And it's just a coincidence that those countries you're thinking of, are all countries with centuries of history taking advantage of other countries?  

There are two issues at play. 

First there are no points of comparison.

We don't have any real idea of how things could be different. All of our experiences are based in this world and not some other world. 

Many of the people that say they like Capitalism are basing that not on any understanding on what Capitalism is, but based on other things like being afraid of change or being relatively content with their lives as it is. Even if their lives would be better under another system.  

The second issue is that the people who have the most power in this system, have the most incentive to fight any kind of change. 

So Capitalism isn't a meritocracy, and people are being punished for making the "wrong" choices...  Sounds like a great thing to build a civilization on. 

Here people are given freedoms to pursue their dreams.  How people leverage said freedoms are their choice.  But somebody who leverages their skillset to make a good living shouldn't feel guilty because somebody else wants entitlements for doing a lot less.  

I love fishing but I didn't pursue being a charter captain.....  not my fault if others picked hobbies expecting a big pay off.

I've benefited greatly from capitalism, still think the system sucks. Sure I've worked hard, or rather was even addicted to my work and software engineering is what I always wanted to do and was very good at. But I'm not going to say that someone that works just as hard or even much harder should have chosen a more profitable career when they can't even afford their home.

I'm very aware of how lucky I am, to have found a good job, kept it and reaped the benefits of being in the right place at the right time.

Capitalism thrives on inequality. It's a fundamental problem of capitalism which needs lots of checks and balances to keep it somewhat from spiraling out of control. It feels like we're losing that battle more and more as big corporations are taking over the world.

Its ok to be angry about anything...as long as you dont hurt anyone in any way over it.

This.

Freedom to pursue their dreams, yeah.

There are people who don't have access to good education, because their parents can't afford it. They don't have access to decent healthcare, they've probably seen relatives die because of that. By the time they reach adulthood, they better get any job they can because that's the only way their family can sustain themselves. What are the jobs someone like this can get? Cleaning rich people's homes... working at a supermarket... fishing, like you say, maybe not even that though. Theft is an alternative too. Without a job, they're getting kicked out and will have to live on the street, so they'll take anything they get and these are the options. They don't have "freedom" to get into a university or chase after some fancy career. I wonder what kinds of dreams these people pursue.

And this isn't some random minority of people. It's closer to being a majority, actually. So be thankful you had the privilege to choose what to do with your life, because billions of people don't.

"Freedom" is a meaningless word by itself. Every freedom gets juxtaposed against another freedom. 

The freedom of not having to worry about healthcare in a universal healthcare system is juxtaposed against the freedom of having the choice of not having healthcare. 

>But somebody who leverages their skillset to make a good living shouldn't feel guilty because somebody else wants entitlements for doing a lot less.  

This is dishonest framing.

1.) You're not being asked to feel guilty. 

2.) Plenty of people who do more, get less. 

More and more people are being punished for career choices that would've been good-enough choices 20 years ago.  

The market is becoming increasingly competitive and one has to be on top of their game all the time to own house and have acceptable living standards, life shouldn't be a rat race, we are not slaves. 

Living standards are dropping everywhere in the modern world for increasingly bigger subset of the society. It used to be possible to own a house anywhere working most full time jobs, in Europe, the full time jobs you have to land to be comfortable to own a house are shrinking and the number of people who are already priced out of the market is alarming, and then we wonder why birth rates are falling...

Thankfully, I am not worried about my own future (or my present, I don't even work full time anymore), but when I look at people of my age, younger or older, it's a depressing state of affairs. The game is truly rigged. 

Not to mention, we're meant to progress as modern societies, live more comfortably, raise our living standards and reject modern slavery. All of the older people I know think the younger generation have it much times harder, and despite the increase productivity of the average worker across all industries, the money paid is getting those workers less than what the less-productive generation had. We are not even stagnating.