Hyper capitalist societies aren’t intended to recognize these differences. Only people who can think outside the bubble will even think it… as simple as that is.

When all necessities of life (taking the US as the worst example of first world capitalism) are commodities and not guaranteed, one is forced to work. This is step 0 that every single liberal and conservative stumbles over. Ask a conservative and they’ll say “no one makes you work! you choose to work where you want and are compensated based on ability!” and other such dog vomit. Obviously the choice to work is a non choice if the alternative is death. Liberals will say “maybe they can learn new skills? like coding? and also we have programs like WIC and SNAP and Medicaid!” of course it costs money (leaving aside time) to learn skills because they have to be properly creditialed ie a degree or certification of some sort. And neoliberals have spent like 50 years dismantling all of the programs (the few that existed) that were around to help people out who couldn’t work at all or worked less or whatever the case may be. Good fucking luck qualifying for SNAP benefits if you work basically at all. Or Medicaid.

The entire system is set up in a way to pit workers against each other. People will literally say, with no sarcasm, that if you do not work or can’t work then you are your family’s responsibility. And if you have no family? They don’t care. You should just die. Which is, holy fuck I get tired of typing this over the years, a literal Nazi talking point. “worthless eaters” they called disabled people. Whether that was elderly, mentally, physically, whatever was going on, if you couldn’t do “fair work” or whatever then you’re not contributing and thus worthless. The exact opposite of the Communist mantra of course which holds that someone able to work should work, and one unable to work should also receive the basic necessities of life. Worth remembering when dipshits try to cry that the USSR was the same 🤦‍♂️

So if you set up society to hold a gun to people’s heads and force them to work to survive, and over the decades their compensation for work goes down and down (as it goes up and up for the owners) so they go from maybe being able to prop up a cousin, or uncle, or whatever because everyone has plenty. And now they have just enough. But some people still can’t work the jobs corporations force them to choose from. Those people, who should be supported by the state, are tossed aside. But first they’re ridiculed. Maybe someone has a degenerative disease such as MS and begins their work career able to work “normally” but over time their ability to work goes down and down and eventually they’re forced, at a young age, to stop going altogether. “Well, can’t you do something” is probably the unspoken question from their family. But it doesn’t need to be spoken. Society, capitalism, has made this person, already suffering tremendously due to medical conditions obviously outside their or anyone’s control, a burden on their family. In absolute terms anyway. Their family has to work more or seek out higher paying positions, whatever, if they value their family member not dying. In this situation it’s purely a rational thought to have “this person is weighing me down!” Now, sure, empathetic and educated people will understand it isn’t their fault and instead it’s the fault of Capitalists/the government they control. But that doesn’t change the immediate reality. And so the thought or maybe spoken words come “why can’t you just work a normal job?” A question the person who has become a burden, I’m sure, asks themselves every day. And things can get rather bleak from there.

So in the end, the well-meaning liberal or callous conservative arrive at the same thought “they should just work! this isn’t my problem!” and when the decision for that person’s life to be the “problem” of society at large has already been made for them, and it has chosen “not our problem either!” the end result is always a circle of “just be normal. just go to work. everyone else does it. just do it.” around and around.

This applies to someone who can work, but for whatever legitimate reasons, has trouble with the 9-5 grind. the total hours or the time range. if you work less, someone else will see you as eating from their pie.

This system sucks so fucking bad, and yet so many people have gobbled up propaganda and become totally wedded to the absurd idea that this is how it always was and must always be. It’s dissolving the bonds between people, families, all in the pursuit of more profit for a capitalist somewhere. All this suffering so that somebody born into privilege (usually) can continue their privileged life.