>>277In capitalism the concept of personal responsibility only applies to sufficiently big capitalists, blaming anybody lower on the economic ladder is class collaborationist victim blaming. In a class-less society where wealth inequality is perpetually low, of course that would be different, and everybody would have responsibility.
The basic principle is the people who control the surplus are the only ones that can be held responsible for the well being of everybody in society. In a capitalist society it's the capitalists who control the surplus and hence all responsibility falls on them, in a classless society where everybody participates in the allocation of surplus, everybody shares responsibility.
We also have to look at harmful effects of social and economic structures, when people are made powerless, either because they are politically disenfranchised or because extreme wealth concentration robs them of material means. That causes harmful stress, which inflicts damage on the body. Harming the body of people is a crime and people are entitled compensation for that damage.
If you look at the worsening health outcomes when countries move from socialist or social democratic economics to neo-liberal economics that proves that these structural crimes are indeed happening. You also have to take into account the material reality that the environment shapes people and, in the capitalist world most people are denied control over their environment.
You can't do slums (where everybody builds their own shack). It's going to breed diseases.
>the amazing amenities that modernized societyYes everybody has a right to live in a modern housing arrangement, of at least commie-block quality. And if you find a homeless person that wants to live in a modern house but is denied this, you found the victim of a crime. You may find it acceptable to live in a shack or a tent but do not attempt to impose that fate on others. And lets be clear people do not choose the material conditions they live in, because if people could choose, everybody would choose to be born as a super-wealthy trust-fund baby.
>people have optedNo people almost never have a choice when it comes to the economic system they live in, so you can't make an argument that people can choose their fate.
>no disciplineYou completely misunderstand this, people do not lack discipline or motivation to do productive things and improve them selves. With very few exceptions people are born with a drive to create, build and enhance their own attributes like skills and what not. But most people get that beaten out of them by a ruling class that imposes it self on society. And we have to be realistic about this. You cannot blame individual people for effects that are caused by the actions of a ruling class.
We have to put the finger on the motivation destroying actions of the ruling class.