Trading in existing items is not exactly capitalism … that’s just plain old bartering.

Capitalism, especially the modern form, is when you use your existing or inherited wealth to buy or develop companies who generate wealth from the work of other people to create brand new products or services. It’s exploitative because capitalists take the hard work of many people who create brand new products and then claim full or majority ownership over those products without having done anything except claim ownership.

What you are doing is taking old discarded things that either have no more value or lesser value and taking your own effort and time to recreate value and barter it to someone else. The only person you’ve exploited in the transaction is yourself … but you reap all the benefit. And no one can go back and say that the product that you just traded is stolen profit from the previous owner … the previous owner had thrown it away and didn’t value it any more or even considered it trash to be thrown away.

Flipping isn’t capitalism … it’s just good economic sense for the individual.

Unless you turn it all into a multimillion dollar business with employees, real estate and a corporation … it isn’t capitalism.

Buy stuff on ebay and start trading to bigger and better things. If you work at it hard enough, you’ll end up with trading items worth thousands without having spent more than $75.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/steven-ortiz-porsche-trade-craigslist,news-7544.html

We did a little tour on our own into Germany one spring, about 20 years ago. It was only a few days, we didn’t have much money and we absolutely didn’t know what we were doing. We rented a car and just started wandering. It was just at the point of technology where GPS was still new. We didn’t have any so we just started driving with a shitty map and no clue.

We had done some traveling in other countries before and we had met several famously obnoxious German tourists. We had partly expected to meet equally arrogant Germans in their home country.

Instead we met the most open, kind hearted, brilliant people ever. Everywhere we stopped, we’d meet three or four locals who were more than happy to give directions, recommend restaurants, bars, tea shops and sites to see.

At one point we met a truck driver who gave us a ton of information and showed us a driving route on a big format ringed binder map book. When he was done talking, he left the book. We told him he was forgetting his book and he said we could have it as it had detailed updated map info of the entire country. It was an expensive book and I knew it, so I told him not to give it away. He insisted and said he didn’t mind.

I still have that map book on my shelf and whenever I see it, I think of that trip and all those people we met.

Totally loved Germany after that.

If I ever run into that scenario … that would be a great reason to raise the Jolly Roger

Don’t know … I can’t afford internet credits in order to access a connection.

It sounds like you’ll fit right in … great to have you here … have fun!

I was making light of your question … partly to have a bit of fun … and partly to show that the community enjoys sharing these silly little bits of movie quotes that act like memes. The one I was using is from the movie “The Naked Gun” (the original film from 1988 with Leslie Nielson)

A lot of the meme communities enjoy old slapstick movie content as there is a lot of memeable content there … films like ‘The Naked Gun’ series, Hot Shots, any of the Mel Brooks films and Monty Python.

Don’t be afraid to test your boundaries, comment as you like but with an open mind and kind heart … people will let you know if you’ve said or implied anything negative or positive. Don’t be discouraged if you get no response either … it’s not a popularity contest. The longer you stay, the more you comment, the more you get to know people and the more they get to know you and eventually you become a regular part of the community.

Welcome to Lemmy and welcome to the fediverse.

Then tell them they’re part of the gang and to join everyone else as we go wedgie and noogie the next new guy

“I’m sure we can handle this situation maturely, just like the responsible adults that we are. Isn’t that right, Mr. Poopy Pants?”

Take advice from Detective Frank Drebin

“Like a blindman at an orgy, I was going to have to feel my way through”

The fact that we all casually talk about how big money is almost a requirement to get into, run, manage, and maintain politics … goes to show you how democratic the system is.

Like I implied, the problem isn’t the HOW to do it.

The problem is in giving any one person, government, corporation or company this amount of power and control.

And because it’s so powerful, no one who had it would want to give up control by making it anonymous or in objectively protecting privacy for the user.

Great! … the solution to our problems … let’s all trust edgemaster72

The problem is not the system or the idea of age verification

The problem is that no one on earth can be trusted with that level of monitoring, control and power.

The people who own, run, operate and manage all information systems from education, news services to schools are all or mostly private corporations, businesses or wealthy benefactors who all base their wealth on capitalism. So they spend all their time and energy using the services and organizations they control to convince everyone everywhere that capitalism is the only option and that socialism in any form is not good or does not work or is not practical.

Which now renders their site useless … I’ll go on your site to look up basic info … then go to your store to get what I want and even visit some other store or service that could give me the same product.

It’s a disincentive to want to use their site in the future.

I’ve stopped using several store websites because of this. Then when I want an actual product … I’ll call the store and ask them to look for the product for me. If they have it great, if they don’t, I’ll look for it elsewhere or figure out some other solution for myself that doesn’t involve any of their dumb websites.

I’m regressing from the internet and use people contact more and more because of this stupidity. I’m going back to the way I did things in the 90s and early 2000s where I would just use their store flyer as a guide, call the local store to ask for something and then go look for it myself because the online services today are so intrusive and needlessly complicated that its faster and more useful to not go online.

Practice your religion by yourself and speak and connect to your beliefs on your own. No one needs a public and constant display or acknowledgement of what you believe. And we don’t need to conform the entire world and everyone around to satisfy your beliefs and your religion. And a religion doesn’t need a billion dollar industry and infrastructure in order for it to exist.

If what you believe is moral, respectable, useful and beneficial to society, then there should never be a need to display your religion, your beliefs or to have the need to want to convert others by force or coercion. If what you believe is morally good for everyone, people will gravitate towards your religion … forcing it on others and onto society is a sure sign that what you believe has more to do with wanting control over others rather than in creating a belief system that would benefit people.

We only hear the loud lunatics because the quiet followers never say or do anything about them.

At this point in history, the image of Jesus Christ is a caricature of what he is supposed to represent. He is just an image and idea that is worshipped and that is all. No one cares about his teachings or his ideas, they just care about his image, praising him and getting their free ticket to heaven.

In essence, the image of Jesus Christ has become their golden calf that people mindlessly pray to and worship without thinking or wondering about what he actually represents.