What inspired me to write this?
I recently finished the first episode of Black Mirror Season 7 after hearing it was “disturbing.” While scrolling X (Twitter) to see how others felt, I came across a tweet calling it a portrayal of late-stage capitalism. And while I don’t disagree that capitalism allows for a system like this to exist, I’d argue it’s not the root cause.
This post aims to break down what I think the real problem is—and why blaming capitalism may distract from deeper, more human issues.
Background
In the beginning of the episode, a woman suffers from a medical condition that forces her husband to pay a subscription to keep her alive. The base tier of this subscription begins to lose features over time, requiring more money just to keep her functioning.
Obviously, it’s horrifying that someone’s life could be subject to a payment plan. But many people don’t realize we already live under similar conditions. Medication for seizures, diabetes, heart conditions—these are subscription-based, whether we call them that or not. If a patient stops paying, they die. Just like in the episode.
The Faulty Assumption
Many argue that capitalism ensures profit always trumps human well-being. But is that really the case? Did horse breeders stop the car industry from taking off? Have pharmaceutical companies successfully blocked all vaccines from reaching the public?
The answer is no. Because even if existing players attempt to sacrifice consumer welfare for profits, they can’t prevent new competitors—innovators—who align with consumers to disrupt and replace them. These new players don’t need to be altruists; they just need to see that serving people better is the path to profit. Capitalism, far from stagnating human welfare, encourages its advancement through competition.
A Quick Word on Economic Systems
The misconceptions don’t stop at capitalism. Many think socialism precludes profit, but that’s not entirely true—it allows for profit, just with expectations around how it’s distributed among participants.
Capitalism is defined by private property enforced by a collective authority. It doesn’t mean the absence of government; in fact, it assumes one. Just like most monetary systems do.
Why a Market-Based Economy is Necessary
A system that allows private ownership and uneven profit isn’t just inevitable—it’s vital. Physical labor is required to create the goods we consume. That labor has a cost. Without the potential for profit, no one would front those costs.
Not everyone contributes equally. The value of someone’s contribution can be measured by how their presence—or absence—affects production. That imbalance isn’t injustice; it’s basic mechanics.
If everyone could have everything for free, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. But when everything is free, no one has a reason to give. The best we can hope for is trade: that something you enjoy producing has value to someone else. And while that happens occasionally, it’s rare that personal passion lines up perfectly with survival needs.
The Real Problem
I believe the true issue stems from two things: a short-term mindset and a disconnect between consumers and the means of production.
Consumption
Governments often spend beyond their means to satisfy voters and prevent unrest, regardless of long-term sustainability. In the Black Mirror episode, the husband opts into a service he can’t afford to keep his wife alive. Some argue that this kind of offer shouldn’t exist in the first place—and that this is where capitalism fails.
But I don’t agree with the idea that the option itself is morally wrong. If I had enough money to afford a lifetime subscription for a loved one, should I not be allowed to use it just because others can’t? If anything, blaming the existence of that option risks discouraging innovation or life-saving products altogether.
It’s easy to forget: capitalism doesn’t prohibit ethical governance or intervention. If there are market abusers, we can—and should—use law, a form of socially contracted violence, to deal with them. But we shouldn’t confuse bad actors with the structure itself.
Production
People often misunderstand production but still demand a greater share of its results. There’s a growing narrative that “scarcity is artificial”—that if people are poor or unhealthy, it’s solely due to systemic barriers. While this is sometimes true, it’s not universally so.
Of course, not all poverty is due to personal failure—but I think we discount personal agency too much in public discourse. Every wealthy family today descends from someone who once wasn’t. To say structural barriers make success impossible is to mistake correlation for certainty. While success might be less probable, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible—and telling people otherwise strips them of the belief that effort matters.
Upward mobility may correlate with behavior, even if that behavior is rare. In that case, focusing on changing behavior isn’t naïve—it’s strategic. Ignoring that possibility doesn’t help those who could still make the climb.
Takeaway
The horror of the Black Mirror episode isn’t just capitalism—it’s our own myopia. We outsource morality to systems, then blame those systems when they reflect our own short-sightedness.
If we want a better world, we need to take responsibility—not just for what we consume, but for the incentives we help shape. Capitalism is not a perfect system, but it’s a flexible one. When guided by long-term thinking and moral agency, it can serve us. When left on autopilot, it reflects the worst of us.
True human responsibility isn’t about eliminating all inequality—it’s about knowing which inequalities drive progress, and which ones rot the foundation. If we forget the difference, we risk punishing the builders and praising the wrecking crew.