capitalism
my entire life I've grown up in it and
I've witnessed its continued
acceleration let's imagine for a second
that capitalism is like a train I spent
my entire life on that train it would be
way too simple for me to blame all of my
problems on capitalism it's too simple
to say capitalism equals bad but there's
something that really isn't working
quite right about this train I think
most of us would agree that it feels
like it's rolling faster and faster and
there are worrying signs that we can't
seem to slow down get off or even
control where it's going even though the
world is confusing and chaotic I don't
see any purpose in falling in Despair
and so I find myself in a constant
pursuit of answers for Humanity I do
this for myself I do this as a way to
try to make sense of the world that I'm
living in I'm not willing to Simply live
in a system that I don't believe in and
while I do not pretend to have any of
the answers I have been delving deeper
and deeper into economics over the last
few years and it has contributed to a
totally new perspective on how things
operate and what might be possible so I
want to share with you a vision of a
world that I believe we can live in as
well as how I plan to navigate the crazy
world we live in right now and I want to
do this in three parts
first the problem what is happening
around us next I want to share the ideas
of a man known as the father of
economics and how they apply to today
and finally I want to build on his ideas
and share my thoughts on meaning and how
to find it again this isn't a hit piece
on capitalism Believe It or Not although
I know that some people are going to see
this and label me as whatever they want
that's okay I don't care capitalism is
too big of a topic to explore in its
entirety so I'm going to focus on what I
perceive to be one of its major flaws
the way that it robs us of meaning in
our lives but to do that I need to back
up a little bit
I think I first need to point out the
fact that I mean massive beneficiary of
capitalism in many ways and I would
argue that so are many of you I mean
you're watching this for free aren't you
and that's because this is funded by
advertisements and sponsorships and more
importantly a system that's in place
that makes all this possible and that
allows me to not ask for a whole lot
directly from all of you in what ways
has capitalism been good to us and I
know that's kind of a dirty question to
ask in this day and age well we have far
easier and more immediate access to many
things than our ancestors and boy is it
easy for us to forget that the truth is
I think many of us would really struggle
to give up the Comforts that we have
access to today I think about the
incredible tools that I have access to
that allow me to make things and then
share them with the world and get paid
to do it simply put the life that I lead
now would have been in utter
impossibility in the past and so it
would be ironic at best for me not to
acknowledge that so what about
capitalism is worrying me well I see it
as mainly two things the excesses that
capitalism lends itself to and the kind
of behavior that it incentivizes because
the rules of the game are to increase
consumption and when consumption is the
most important thing invisible things
that you can't measure get pushed to the
side consumption is the new religion and
that's where meaning is lost because I
think those invisible things are so much
more important than we realize it's just
a little example I think there are
examples that are visible in all
Industries but there are plenty of
incentives in place for me to increase
my output a lot of benefits monetarily
speaking come about if I were to make
more videos and do them in a format that
attracts more people I'm in many ways
disincentivized from taking risks and
doing original things and being
inconsistent in my creation but that's
kind of how creativity works it feels
like the algorithms that rule our lives
right now are oriented towards
maximizing reaching more people more
engagement because all of that generates
money I'm not sure I always want to do
that I'm not sure I want to always
optimize I don't want to always be
competing I want to make original things
I want to make art I want everything
that I make to be thoughtfully produced
so in some ways it feels like my
commitment to be an artist and to do
things in this way pits me in combat in
conflict with the incentives that are in
place to do things in a different way in
a more manufactured optimized way I'll
put the problem as I see it in simpler
terms we are tricked into thinking that
the things that matter are the things
that we can measure your net worth your
income your age your number of followers
and this I think is a natural
consequence of living in a system that
is obsessed with measurements of all
kinds a world that is obsessed with
growth output and GDP the health of the
economy is literally measured by
production and consumption and I had to
come up with a name for this so I like
to call it the tyranny of numbers
because we subject ourselves to a life
where our value as human beings are
tired these numbers and then it's not so
hard then to see how when the numbers
fall so does our value then you can lose
your value as you get older or if your
net worth decreases or if you lose
followers to reduce The Human Experience
to measurements in this way it's to me
dehumanizing
in an attempt to answer some of these
questions I need to go back several
hundred years Adam Smith was a Scottish
Economist from the 18th century that was
known as the father of capitalism that's
a hell of a title but what's interesting
is that he had kind of a bit of a
different perspective on things than
what we associate with now what I find
really interesting about him is that he
really tried to understand money systems
as a means of better understanding human
beings he was trying to figure out how
we can live better in the world that we
live in for the record I definitely
don't agree with everything he said and
he lived in a very different time in
human history so take everything I say
here with a grain of salt to give you a
little more context as to the kind of
guy that he was he actually wrote a book
on the importance of sympathy here are
three ideas from him that really made me
think
Adam Smith lived during a very
interesting time he witnessed the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution
and that had an impact on how he viewed
things watching people transition to
more and more specialized jobs he
identified a major source of the problem
first let me quickly explain what
specialization is although I think it's
pretty easy to understand it's basically
you have more people doing a specific
task each person think like a factory so
instead of having people do a variety of
different things they're just focusing
on one thing I think it's very
interesting that he observed this in the
time that he lived because that's a
major facet of the world that we live in
today you know my entire life I've been
encouraged to focus on one specific
thing and get really specialized in that
so Smith observable was happening and
had a theory on specialization and its
impact he saw that it was doing two
really consequential things the first I
I guess you could say is positive he saw
that it had the potential to massively
increase The Wealth of Nations because
it increased productivity but the second
consequence was not so good and that is
that it robbed people of meaning in
their lives why because now all of a
sudden you're a tiny piece of a very
large machine when you're part of a
small community you have a much clearer
view of the impact that you have on
other people when you're a tiny ant in a
giant ant hill you don't have that it's
way harder to see the impact that you're
having on other people you feel
replaceable in part because you are made
to be replaceable it's incredible to me
that he was saying this way back in the
1700s because lo and behold that's like
a giant piece of how the world works
today and I do think about movies like
Fight Club for example that are a
brilliant critique of the consumerism
that we're just engulfed in things you
own end up owning you there's just this
feeling of emptiness that comes with it
and I really think that a lot of this
emptiness this feeling that is so hard
to pinpoint comes from the fact that
we're disconnected from the world around
us we don't know where the things that
we buy or consume come from and we don't
know where the things that we create go
to solve the problem we must go to the
source and Adam Smith had a very
interesting Theory and I guess you could
say perspective on all this that while I
may not entirely agree I think it makes
for really interesting food for thought
he didn't blame corporations for all of
the worst impacts of capitalism and I
think that in this day and age that's
the most commonly held belief we like to
point at Giant corporations that are
destroying the planet instead he pointed
at an invisible force that influenced
these corporations our taste what we
want as consumers you see in his View
and it's not hard to understand how this
could work corporations adapt what they
create based off of what demand exists
now I do think I have a little bit of
pushback against this idea right because
what is marketing if not a means to
convince people to consume something
that they didn't think they needed and
that is where things get a little bit
tricky and so in this way I do think
that responsibility is shared it's you
can't just point at one single thing but
what I like about this idea is that it's
it's a bit of a different perspective
right right it invites you to kind of
consider your responsibility as a
consumer as a piece of this system he's
basically saying that we as individuals
hold
some degree of responsibility we can
place the blame on corporations but in a
sense if there was no demand for the
things that they created would they
exist and I think this is a powerful
idea as a way of supporting the
development of the world in a direction
that you believe in when I've stumbled
upon this idea from Adam Smith it did
make me think about something that I was
taught as a kid I was told that you vote
three times a day with what you eat or
what you choose to eat I should say are
you choosing to eat something that was
mass produced and made with low quality
materials or something that was made
with love and care whether you realize
it or not you were essentially choosing
the kind of world that you live in every
single time here's another application
of that exact idea okay I'm able to do
the work that I do making these videos
because of the support that I get that
support your choice to watch this
instead of something else allows me to
get sponsors that can fund these
projects your consumption if you will of
the things that I'm making has led to
the creation of career I mean I didn't
have this possibility before you can see
where this is going yeah I'd kind of
like to think that this what I'm doing
my life is one of the best examples of
what Adam Smith is talking about the
power of individuals to create something
I'm not talking about me actually I'm
talking about all of you choosing to
support the things that I'm doing and
making it a possibility so I can think
of no better time to thank both the
sponsor of this video and all of you for
your support because without that this
wouldn't exist I'm very fortunate to
work exclusively with brands that I both
like and use I started using nordvpn
five years ago actually when I saw it
they were sponsoring a video by Casey
neistat believe it or not nordvpn
completely unlocked a whole new world
for me because with a VPN you can access
content that you don't have access to in
different countries based off of
different catalogs that are available a
perfect example is streaming platforms
where you're going to find different
movies and TV shows based off of what
country you're in I'm in a coffee house
in Austria right now but let's say I
want to watch a show that's only
available in the United States well they
make it super easy and it runs extremely
smoothly I've never had any problems
bonus perk using a VPN actually hides
your IP address which is attached to a
network and it basically reveals where
you are in the world and so hiding that
is like an extra level of security and
it's useful if you're in a place like a
coffee house where there's public Wi-Fi
they've also recently added a new
anti-malware feature called fret
protection that's integrated into VPN
and that prevents you from accidentally
visiting malicious websites if you're
interested I'm going to leave a link in
the description below and you can use
that to get a big discount when signing
up doing that really helps fund my work
so thank you again to nordvpn and to all
of you for your support there's one more
idea that I want to share that comes
from Adam Smith and I find this idea so
powerful the father of capitalism
himself recognized that human beings
have higher needs outside of the
capitalistic system things like our need
for emotional education Beauty
connection this was centuries ago so at
the time capitalism didn't yet do these
things but he held out the hope that it
could be elevated as a system to help us
find the meaning we lack but I'm not
sure capitalism has done that in the
last 250 years this is my opinion and
this is where I disagree with Adam Smith
but I think many of these things have
remained and will remain outside the
capitalistic system capitalism is very
capable at certain things but it can't
do everything capitalism itself is not
going to provide the meaning in our
lives it can solve many of our external
material problems but it's not going to
do very much for our internal needs and
you can never turn towards the external
to answer what's going on internally
[Music]
I turned 25 while making this that's a
quarter of a century and it's making me
think a lot about how I've lived my life
so far and where I'd like it to go you
know if I'm lucky enough to have another
quarter of a century what is the life
that I want to live and I'm actually
taking it a step further what is the
world that I want to live in I think
this is sparked by the idea that I
believe we must be the architects of the
meaning of Our Lives it's not going to
just be handed to you the system that we
live in
doesn't take that into consideration I
think it's like a personal journey and
while thinking about the life that I
want to live and the world that I want
to live in I've noticed a pattern there
seems to be a common denominator
a through line if you will of all the
things that bring the most meaning in my
life and it's the things that cannot be
measured and that to me feels like one
of the defining elements of this time
period that we live in it's like can we
remember those things
in a world where we think we can measure
everything it's essentially remembering
what Adam Smith said right that we have
higher needs that work outside of the
capitalistic system that we cannot get
lost in the tyranny of numbers
economists are kind of funny their job
is to make sense of the economy right
and how it works and there's a bit of a
conundrum that they have to solve which
is that some people artists for example
take on jobs that pay them less because
they just want to do what they love and
in economics that doesn't make a whole
lot of sense right people are not
supposed to take on jobs that make them
less money when there are other jobs
available and so their answer to this
conundrum is the concept it's called
psychic income it refers to the monetary
or non-material satisfactions that come
with an occupation or economic activity
and while I don't fully Embrace this
term psychic income because we're still
referring to things in terms of like a
salary or financial compensation I do
like the concept it makes it easier to
imagine to understand so I guess you
could say all the best parts of life are
in a sense a form of psychic income so
much of life isn't uniquely
transactional or for profit or for
consumption I want to live a beautiful
life and to do that I know I must take
ownership over the role that I play in
where this train is going
[Music]