Every good pyramid scheme needs three things: an endless recruitment cycle, a promise of prosperity that mostly benefits those at the top, and a system that collapses if new recruits stop joining. Birth checks every box.

From the moment you’re born, you’re not just a person, you’re a worker-in-training, a future taxpayer, a consumer, and eventually an unpaid caretaker for the previous generation. The system dangles promises of fulfillment, legacy, and meaning, but in reality, you’re just another cog keeping the machine running. Your parents were convinced to recruit you, just as their parents were convinced to recruit them. And now? Society pressures you to do the same, because if people stop having children, the whole thing crumbles.

Governments panic over declining birth rates, not because they care about individual happiness, but because they need fresh labor to keep the economy running, new soldiers to fight wars, and more workers to fund the pensions of the aging elite. It’s all a rigged game where those born first reap the benefits, and those born later inherit all the problems.

And, like any good pyramid scheme, there’s no way to cash out. You didn’t sign up for this, but you’re stuck playing. The only ethical choice? Stop recruiting. Let the scheme collapse.

I’ve been on social security disability for nine years. I worked my ass off until I couldn’t anymore. My physical and mental health both went to shit and I had no other choice but to file for disability. Social security is money that people earn through working. People with disabilities and people who are retired earn that money and we need it to get us through the rest of our lives.

Then someone like Elon Musk (Apartheid Clyde) comes along and says, “I don’t think you deserve it anymore.” Why is that though? What does he have against those of us who are retired or disabled getting the benefits we earned through working our whole lives sometimes under shitty circumstances?

Apartheid Clyde and most billionaires hate social security or the same reason: it represents a system where wealth is redistributed to help people rather than being hoarded by the ultra-rich. Social security is a direct challenge to the capitalist ideal that people should “earn their keep” through endless labor, while billionaires like Apartheid Clyde accumulate wealth passively through exploitation.

Apartheid Clyde has openly criticized Social Security, calling it a “Ponzi scheme,” which is ironic given that his entire empire is built on government subsidies, taxpayer-funded bailouts, and stock market hype. He doesn’t like the idea of government using tax revenue to provide a safety net for regular people, but he’s perfectly fine with it when it benefits him.

At the core, billionaires hate Social Security because it proves society can function when wealth is shared, which threatens their grip on power. If people weren’t forced to work until the day they die, they’d have more freedom to resist the system that makes people like Musk so obscenely rich.

Leonard’s 75th birthday was a quiet affair. A single candle flickered in a store-bought cupcake, its wax dripping onto the frosting as he sat alone in his kitchen. There were no calls, no visitors, just hte faint hum of the refrigerator and hte distant sound of traffic outside.

He had spent his life watching generations come and go, the cycle of birth and death spinning endlessly like a wheel no one could step off of. His own parents had long since passed, his siblings too, and his one brief attempt at a family — a marriage that dissolved before his 30th birthday — had left him with no children. He used to wonder if he’d regret that decision, but regret never came. Only relief.

Outside, the world groaned under its own weight. Another record-breaking heatwave, another war in a country no one bothered to understand, another scandal, another disaster. The news had become an endless loop of suffering. Leonard saw no reason to pretend it would ever get better. People were born, they struggled, the suffered, and then they died, only to be replaced by more of the same.

He had spent years trying to articulate this to others, but no one wanted to hear it. “That’s just life,” they’d say, as if that were an answer. As if that justified the whole cruel experiment. He had given up on trying to explain. The breeders had already won. There were billions of human crawling over a dying planet, convinced their existence was a gift rather than a burden.

Leonard leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath. The candle’s flame flickered, then went out on its own. He hadn’t even bothered to make a wish.

Socialism and Communism are dirty words in the U.S., but why? A lot of it has to do with a mixture of historical, political, and economic factors.

1. The Cold War Legacy which involved decades of anti-communist propaganda which painted socialism and communism as existential threats, linking them to authoritarianism and repression such as the USSR and China, but true socialism and communism are not authoritarian at all. The means of production are in the hands of the workers.
2. Capitalist interests: The U.S. economic system is built on Capitalism and the ruling class such as billionaires, corporations, and politicians … all who have a vested interest in maintaining it. Socialism and communism challenge the private wealth accumulation so there’s a strong incentive to demonize them.
3. Misinformation: Most Americans don’t actually know what socialism or communism are, thanks to decades of education and media framing them as inherently oppressive rather than economic and political systems with various interpretations.
4. Republicans and many Democrats use “socialism” as a scare tactic to rally voters. Anything that threatens corporate control or wealth concentration gets labeled as “socialist” to shut down discussion.
5. The military-industrial complex would be challenged by a socialist-leaning government. It would challenge the defense budget and imperialist interventions, threatening the profits of the defense industry and its political allies.

A lot of the American opposition to Socialism and Communism is rooted in elite interests rather than genuine ideological differences. Capitalism’s defenders know that socialism could work too well for the average person and not for the billionaires.

Republicans push for higher birth rates for a few reasons, mostly tied to power, economics, and ideology:

1. Maintain Political and Cultural Dominance
   • Many conservatives see declining birth rates as a threat to their long-term influence. They want more people raised with “traditional” values, which often align with their political and religious beliefs.
2. Workforce and Economic Growth
   • Capitalism depends on a steady supply of workers and consumers. More births mean more future workers, taxpayers, and economic growth. Many Republican policies favor business interests, which benefit from a growing labor pool — especially one desperate enough to accept low wages.
3. Religious Influence
   • The Republican Party has deep ties to Christian fundamentalists, who often see having children as a moral or religious duty. Many believe that birth control, abortion, and even declining birth rates are threats to their faith and society.
4. Anti-Immigration Fears
   • Some Republicans worry about demographic changes, particularly the declining white birth rate in the U.S. This fuels their push for more births among their base while opposing immigration as a solution to population decline.
5. Social Control
   • Encouraging childbirth while restricting abortion and contraception keeps people — especially women — economically dependent and less able to challenge the system. More children mean more financial burdens, making it harder for people to organize, resist exploitation, or take risks.

Ultimately, it’s about preserving their power whether through political dominance, economic benefits, or social control. They don’t actually care about “family values” so much as keeping people in a system that benefits them.

Capitalism perpetuates inequality, and the consequences of that are deadly. Poverty, lack of access to healthcare, homelessness, and food insecurity are all byproducts of a system that prioritizes profit over human needs.

The World Health Organization and various human rights groups point out that millions die every year because of preventable diseases, lack of healthcare, and starvation, all of which are exacerbated by capitalist policies. For example, in the U.S. the lack of universal healthcare results in tens of thousands of deaths annually due to people being unable to afford treatment.

A study from the American Journal of Public Health estimated that 45,000 deaths occurred in 2009 alone due to lack of health insurance. The poor are disproportionately affected by these systems of exploitation, showing how capitalism’s refusal to provide for the basic needs of everyone leads to death. And that’s just one example. It’s also worth noting that capitalism doesn’t just kill through neglect.

The pursuit of profit often leads to direct harm–exploitation of workers, environmental degradation, and wars fought over resources–leading to untold suffering and loss of life. The damage isn’t just in terms of mortality, but also in the lives destroyed by the system’s inherent inequality and disregard for human dignity.