Capitalism is the paywall of life

kat@feddit.de to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 240 points –

If they could somehow monetize breathing, they would

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If air were a limited resource, rather than one available in great abundance, it probably would be.

The air has already been made in to a limited resource, killing millions annually:

  • Air pollution is one of the greatest environmental risk to health. By reducing air pollution levels, countries can reduce the burden of disease from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and both chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma.

  • In 2019, 99% of the world’s population was living in places where the WHO air quality guidelines levels were not met.

  • The combined effects of ambient air pollution and household air pollution are associated with 6.7 million premature deaths annually.

  • Ambient (outdoor) air pollution is estimated to have caused 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2019.

  • Some 89% of those premature deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries, and the greatest number in the WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions.

Source - WHO

Don't worry, they're working on it...

If air were an economic resource, we’d probably need some kind of economic system for distributing it.