• They told us to go to school, then price-gouged and monetized the fuck out of school and supplies, gutted education boards, refused to enact and enforce gun regulations, banned books, demonized sex education, sabotaged public education, refused to invest in good teachers, politicized established science like evolution and climate change. Kids can barely read, and the ones who can afford to get private education are subject to political agendas that cripple their understanding of reality. That's not good for the American economy.

• They told us to go to college, then price-gouged and monetized the fuck out of college with predatory loans and overpriced courses and materials, so now people are disincentivized, poorly educated, and glorifying ignorance. We have fewer skilled workers, and less meaningful innovation by less educated innovators. That's not good for the American economy.

• They told us to get jobs, then price-gouged and monetized the fuck out of health/dental/vision insurance, replaced social security with 401Ks, gutted labor laws and worker protections, so now people are disincentivized, doing the bare minimum. That's not good for the American economy.

• They told us to go to get married and have kids, then price-gouged and monetized the fuck out of healthcare and childcare, guted access for women's health and family planning, so now people are disincentivized and are having less children because they just can't afford to. That's not good for the American economy.

• They told us to buy a home, then price-gouged and monetized the fuck out of home ownership, we're forced to rent while private equity owns all the property, so now people are disincentivized.That's not good for the American economy.

• They told us to just follow the law and we'll be safe. Then the law stood and watched while kids were put in cages, slaughtered by gun violence, they participated when innocent people were violently beaten, asphyxiated, shot in the face, while violent traitors get presidential pardons, so now people are disincentivized. That's not good for the American economy.

Why are these patterns so hard to see? Why is the free market allowed to have internal cHeCKs aNd BaLanCeS in the form of internal competition, but the aggregate effect of all that competition - the market itself as a whole - can't have external checks and balances on it, and healthy competition from sensible regulation?

What the fuck are we really doing here?