I wish they’d have the guts to mention capitalism explicitly about it. Because that’s where my mind goes back to. If we were talking about a socialist state trying to phase out physical excess/waste while making sure physical/historical is still maintained, I’d probably be all for it. But that’s not even close to what we’re talking about. Instead, we’re talking about capitalists once again looking at the dynamics of power and going, “Here’s an opportunity to make the customer even more dependent on us. Here’s an opportunity to reduce individual ownership of anything, so that we can gradually turn the economy into renting everything.”

Like every exploiting class, the capitalists gravitate toward absolute power. They accuse socialists/communists of having controlling, samey societies, yet it’s they, the capitalists, who work to alienate people more and more over time. Who want a populace who is as ignorant and powerless as possible, and, in capitalism’s case, a populace that is just capable enough to press BUY and blow what little funds they have from overworked labor to make another capitalist more powerful. Meanwhile, they act shocked when China bests them competitively on something. How stunning that treating workers like human beings, prioritizing their needs, and empowering them as a class through a vanguard party, can result in a more effective society than one that’s focused on parasitically draining anyone and everyone of every bit of labor value they can provide.