Corporate culture is based on constant growth and ever increasing profit margins. Eventually they’ll amass so much of the wealth that most of the lower class won’t be able to purchase anything other than essentials like food.
No new cars, no tech gadgets, no fancy dinners, no vacations, no disposable income.
When we get there the economy collapses because there’s no money going into it.
The profits stop rolling in, unnecessary goods stop being produced, and the luxury goods producer’s shut down.
At this point the money they worked so hard to hoard becomes worthless because they can’t buy anything with it.
What’s the endgame for them if their current path takes them to a point where their assets are more or less worthless?

  • my_hat_stinks@programming.dev
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    3 months ago

    What’s the end game for cancer?

    There isn’t one, it doesn’t matter that the host dies eventually as long as they get to keep growing for now.

  • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    The endgame is feudalism.

    It’s not about money, it’s about controlling everything through the scam that is private ownership.

  • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    There is no End Game.

    They’re insulated from the short term consequences of their actions and believe that infinite growth can exist inside of a finite system. They treat their bank accounts like a high score board instead of resources to use. Their personal actions can be classified as “banality of evil” because it’s so routine and common place in their circles.

    People might point to Musk’s old obsession with Mars, but that has been shown to be nothing more then a dopamine feedback loop. He said things that got him praise, so he kept saying them. When people kept asking about missed dates, he got angry and found a different audience for his dopamine feedback loop.

  • Toneswirly@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The line will infinitely approach 0 but never get there. That is what credit is for. The rich will gladly let you borrow their vast wealth to buy the cars and the homes, and in exchange you will be their indentured servant for life. Win Win, economy go brrrrrrr…

  • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    Funnily enough Samuel Beckett of Waiting for Godot fame (not the quantum leap guy) wrote a play called Endgame, also punning on the chess term.

    A man who can’t walk or see has the only combination to the food pantry, a man who can’t sit down is the only one who can take him there to open it. They are the last two people alive. They both continually try to out do each other and come out on top as they can’t trust each other to live in peace.

    • FilthyHookerSpit@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I don’t see how a blind guy who needs assistance moving can outplay someone who has neither of those disadvantages

      Edit: I looked it up and it’s more of comedy/drama so the premise is kinda meant to be absurd, I think

  • 31337@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    I think the ultra wealthy and powerful understand that revolution becomes more likely as the majority’s material conditions declines, so their endgame is to throw just enough crumbs to the majority so that they don’t want to risk losing those crumbs. Many of today’s ultra wealthy and powerful seem exceptionally out of touch with reality and dumb though, so idk. Some are accelerationists (i.e. e/acc), and purposely avoid taking into account possible negative consequences.

    • nutsack@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      with sufficient technology and capital, they should be able to stave off any kind of revolution. and then the question becomes whether or not there is any incentive to keep the plebian class happy or alive.

    • Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      It reminds me of the ultimate game of monopoly I played as a kid (on a handheld). I had complete control over the board. I had bankrupted two of the AI’s, but in order to keep line go up, I’d have to keep the last one around. Every time it’d get low on funds I’d offer to significantly overpay for one of its’ few properties, and then sell it back for a dollar.

      I got to around 30k before the game either just quit, or the battery died.

  • Gloria@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    It is a mental desease. If I hoard umfathomble amount of newspapers, I would be called a messi. If it is capital wealth, someone is a genius. They collect to fullfill an emptness in themself. It is a delusion. It is never enough and only the continiues ammassing can give them the feeling of success and control. Consumption as a Stimulus. It is not about the amount, it is about the growth. The way you took to the next number/amount. Distancing yourself further from the others. While getting confirmed by enjoying, what many can not affort. Wealth is the main storyline that is understood by every generation and culture around the world and is a globally accepted metric for desire and standing.

    There is no Endgame. But a good perspective for them would be something like Elysium, while for us it is more like Gattaca - at best.

    • GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It is a mental disease

      Yes. As a completely uneducated non-certified internet therapist I’d say that disease is fear. I really believe that those people that strive for more and more do so to try to fix a fear of not having enough. Or a fear of not being enough. Instead of actually trying to recognize the this fear and controlling it, they just do the one thing that can temporarily make them less fearful and that is make more, control more.

    • Dorkyd68@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’ll be like that song “I sold my soul to the company store” 16 tons or whatever but in real life.

      I’ll go to buy bread and eggs at the Amazon grocery store and the ai operated cash register will turn me away saying “sorry you are 10 bezos bucks short”

  • nutsack@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    A frozen economy. The families with capital are the ruling class, and for every else there is zero mobility. Since the ruling class is not a state, it isn’t bound by democracy or a constitution, and it doesn’t have to give anyone shit. There may be some incentive to keep the lower class happy and alive, or there may not be.

  • StaticFalconar@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Its about control. When the stocks crashed in its a wonderful life, the evil banker was ‘kind’ to lend people money to switch over to being his customer. This brings them under their control.

  • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Not money, power. There’ll always be affordable consumables: clothes, food etc. It’s just the quality will go down to accommodate how squeezed the consumer is. But the limited resources: a stay at that resort, a home with space and good schools, the seats at the sports game etc those the prices will continue to race away. Which is just a different view of power (choice/control) shifting into the hands of an increasingly small proportion of people. Those places will still be full - but the chance of getting to them for the average person will grow dimmer with every passing year.

  • sumguyonline@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Ditch the planet, let us have the wastelands, if they can’t just execute us first, or starve us to a more controllable population level. They want it to be them, and a small number of us to do the jobs they couldn’t or refuse to automate. This is the only answer that makes sense with everything they do. They aren’t stupid, they aren’t trying to destroy their own habitat, so their end game either doesn’t include us, or doesn’t include the planet entirely.