This post started out really great. And then it sailed either over my head or just away. I can't tell, which is really one of the charms of your posts.

One of the first things taught to a first responder is to only help if you can ensure your own safety. This isn't selfishness, but rather a realization that you can't help anyone if you're also in trouble. Hence "put on your oxygen mask first and then help others with their own".

But seriously, tying this to capitalism? What the fuck is that shit?

@2: It would not be a Mudede post without at least one nonsensical jump to glorify the author's own tangential ideas.

Trade needs to exist to promote peace and prosperity, this has not changed since our ancestors were tromping through Africa in small bands. We can argue about what forms trade should take, but without free (not deregulated) markets, human society can not evolve.

Oh my god my mother was right: "If your friends jumped off a bridge would you follow them?"

Thoughtful post, Charles. Thank you for it.

Wow, pretty large logical jumps here. Here's another: a 21, 23, and 26 year old were by the river walk after midnight in an area with a lot of bars and restaurants. I'm going to say booze was involved, in which case they should be re-awarded a Darwin prize.

The real lessons: we don't know what was going through their heads, and cold water fucking scares me. I walk over the Chicago river almost every day. It almost never freezes solid, even when we were in the midst of the polar vortex. So one slip, and you've got maybe five minutes before you're dead. Your muscles cease up, you can barely breathe (if you can keep your head above water), the pain from the cold is so fucking intense, and your wet clothes will likely pull you down to a horrible death.

All of that considered, I'm a little surprised they were from Minnesota.

I strongly recommend A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit.

I recommend his book to Charles, to those who are interested in his tying these deaths to capitalism (or, rather, a situation not about capitalism), to those flummoxed and upset by the link, and to people who simply enjoy good fiction. As a writer, Solnit is nothing like Charles: her writing is simple and elegant instead of convoluted, and she makes the links between ideas very clear. But in Paradise, Solnit describes horrible events as useful insights into human character, and humans as essentially altruistic in disasters (in part because they don't set precedents, and so are outside of the status quo).

I think this post is clear enough. He's saying that news like this gets attention because it's profitable for news organizations, because they are exploiting an inborn human drive to help others. Capitalism is really good at exploiting human motivations, for both good and bad ends.

On a side note - are cell phones waterproof now? If I dropped my phone in the water I'd just consider it shot, why rescue it? But maybe I'm just behind the times.

I get the income inequality problem and I think we are in the midst of building an aristocracy that will cause great harm to our society. But my admittedly simple understanding of socialism is that it prohibits/limits private ownership and advocates central control. I think you and Sawant do yourselves a disservice by advocating socialism. You would be more likely to achieve your goals if you drop the "isms" and focus on the problem: income inequality caused by ineffective government. We had a similar problem over a century ago and had a progressive movement that went a long way towards making it better.

@3: That, but also requisite is the unnecessary aside to throw a troll into a tizzy.