The stratification comes from primate brains, not capitalism. It remains even without capitalism, except no amount of effort gets you out of it in other systems.
Growing up in Eastern Europe, you could be extremely hard working and honest and the second you reach even minor success there would be a strong man (mafia muscle or political/government corruption) knocking on your door to trim you down a bit and take your everything if you fight back. If you were born in a village, you were not allowed to move to the city and had your destiny sealed as the farmer to feed the privileged citizens.
There is a Bulgarian Book called “To Chicago and Back” where the author travels to America for the world fair. One of the highlights mentions that in the bus or train in America, even low level workers can wear a suit. Unlike the rest of the world, in capitalistic countries your money and effort is just as green, regardless of your parentage, color, proclivities, etc. You can make what you are willing to work for and the rest is a matter of choice. At least you have a choice. The rest of the non-capitalistic world mostly doesn’t.
I'm sure the opportunities for poor people in the US are much greater than they were for a poor person growing up in late 20th century Eastern Europe. But I think it is wishful thinking to say that any poor person in the US can become rich if they work hard enough. Of course, it suits the rich people to have everyone believe that.
> The stratification comes from primate brains, not capitalism. It remains even without capitalism, except no amount of effort gets you out of it in other systems.
I think you missed my point. I didn't say that our social values come from capitalism. Quite the opposite. I said that capitalism is nothing more than an amoral economic system. The problem is that we've imposed a bizarre ethical system on top of capitalism.
I suspect that this unholy alliance is a result of trying to reconcile capitalism with the dominant American religion, Christianity, which originally was vehemently anti-materialistic: Jesus himself was exceedingly clear about this. But eventually the self-sacrificial ethos of Christianity morphed into the Protestant work ethic, and wealth became God's earthly reward for "hard work".
> in America, even low level workers can wear a suit
Do you really think it is as black and white as that. That the only choices are the failed system of the Soviet Union or the unfettered capitalism of the United States?
We are all extremely fortunate to be able to move to countries and states that for our beliefs and moral compass. That’s what I did. The important part is seeing all options available very very clearly. Please feel free to list more so people are more informed. Each system stratifies (that goes back to Chimp and Gorilla societies too). So your choice is to pick the ladder you want to climb:
1. US Capitalism uses money as priority for getting whatever you want. Those willing to spend more get first dibs at most legal things and the more money something costs, the faster you’ll see resourceful people find a way to make more of it - so if something is in shortage, that doesn’t last long and eventually everyone who wants it can afford it (assuming the scarcity is not deliberate like a rare location) . You have many legal and some illegal ways to make money and once you make a surplus of that, you can have the stock market grow your nest egg for you, so the older you get the more likely you are to have money. In countries without a stock market, seniors can live in misery and barely afford food on government rationed pensions.
2. Communism/socialism - point system is political connections. If you have them you get nice things, if you don’t you are assigned to
where you can live and where your kids can study and punished if you complain. Government rations to you whatever it hasn’t spent on frivolous stuff, while its officials can be partying every weekend with shared resources. You can get whatever is available, whenever it is available - cars in 20 years, for example, because everyone works as much as they want and is equally poor. Rich or educated/higher class people get fleeced or imprisoned. You can prioritize what you want with connections or money (corruption thrives after all).
3. The stuff in between gravitates to one or the other because your system either prioritizes getting more stuff supplied to its people or more people restricted to meet the available eternally lesser supply. If your birth rate goes up or you get immigration gets higher, the process accelerates.
Take your pick, or offer more currently available societies with different point systems.
> We are all extremely fortunate to be able to move to countries and states that for our beliefs and moral compass.
Which all did you have in mind here? All the top 10% of HN contributors? Or all the people in whichever country you are in? if it is the latter I can assure that it is most certainly not the case that "We are all .. able to move to countries .." unless they are EU citizens proposing to move to another EU country.
A substantial fraction of all people wouldn't be able raise the money for the flight, let alone have the necessary qualifications to satisfy the visa and residence permit issuing authority of most western countries.
Growing up in Eastern Europe, you could be extremely hard working and honest and the second you reach even minor success there would be a strong man (mafia muscle or political/government corruption) knocking on your door to trim you down a bit and take your everything if you fight back. If you were born in a village, you were not allowed to move to the city and had your destiny sealed as the farmer to feed the privileged citizens.
There is a Bulgarian Book called “To Chicago and Back” where the author travels to America for the world fair. One of the highlights mentions that in the bus or train in America, even low level workers can wear a suit. Unlike the rest of the world, in capitalistic countries your money and effort is just as green, regardless of your parentage, color, proclivities, etc. You can make what you are willing to work for and the rest is a matter of choice. At least you have a choice. The rest of the non-capitalistic world mostly doesn’t.