Dialogue

AARON
It is of my belief that the world is, on the whole, doing much worse than it done so before, by virtue of the fact of rampant corruption stemming from the proliferation of capitalism.

BETH
But Aaron! How can you make such an audacious claim? Is it not true that we have greater survival rates from birth, as well as a longer life expectancy as compared to before?

AARON
I will grant you that, Beth, but there is no justifiable consensus that such properties are indeed indicative of progress! For what is quantity of life if the said quality of life has not improved by much! Despite all the advances that we have made, we are actually working longer hours than before; how can this be a good thing?

BETH
But Aaron, even though we are working longer hours, we are doing higher value work! Each additional hour of work done contributes much more than what each hour of work used to do. How can that not be advancement?

AARON
My dear Beth, how can that be advancement? The assumption that you are using is that somehow, to work is better than to not work. There is a reason why we call work ``work''---it involves the conversion of time and effort of a person into something that can be contributed back to society as a means of helping its long term survival. But work for work's sake is not advancement! That the richest people do little work yet obtain the highest returns is an affront to the innate corruption of the capitalist system!

BETH
But Aaron, it is the only system that works. We have tried other methods, from bartering to communism, and yet we find that they have all failed due to the fundamental nature of humankind, which is greed. In capitalism we find that when greed is made the centrepiece, everyone gains something positive in return.

AARON
Yes, everyone gains something positive in return under capitalism, but at what cost? The loss of civil liberties? The loss of one's privacy, since the corporation knows all? The loss of one's freedoms, since everything needs to be done in agreement to efficiency? Is this the price to pay for a paltry sum of money? Tell me Beth, is it really worth it? Is it really true that everyone gains something positive in return then?