Thanks so much for the elaborate replies.
@Randall I definitely did not mean to say that labels such as yours are getting rich off the customer's back. I know that's not the case.
see-saw.fun's evan minsker Yes, that has always been my take on the whole thing too; putting money in the pockets of the 'good guys'. Even if Fat Mike and Gregg Ginn are business men these days, I'd rather line their pockets than those of Jeff Bezos.
BARELY HUMAN I'll check Cher Tan. Thanks for the heads up!
Money
I'm not saying that trying to make (a little) money is a bad thing. My 16 year old self used to scream along to 'Money Changes Everything' by Choking Victim - yes, I liked that band. Bite me..., but I like to think I outgrew that sentiment somewhat. Probably only partly so. It might me the Calvinist Dutch culture? Max Weber said the capitalist work ethic can be traced back to Protestantism, which would make where I live the historical capitalist heartland.
Money is currency, something that makes exchange possible. It's not by nature bad. Making something costs money. Aiming to make that money back is more than fair.
Supposedly Karl Marx said there is no escaping capitalism as in it is a principle, a system if you will. I'm trying hard to stay clear of academia and my (pseudo-)intellectual inclinations here. We all need to live and working a job is part of that for practically all of us. I consider that a given.
Culture and consumption
What I'm interested in is how capitalist culture influences basically everything, punk included. What I was trying to say was that I feel like the exchanges I have with people about punk are along 'capitalist lines'. They are of a consumer nature, mostly about buying stuff. This probably has a lot to do with doing the mailorder. I am literally buying and selling records.
The basis on which purchases are made are very similar to those of random other consumer products. The argument that if you do not buy something, you will be sorry is a marketing trick you find all across the board. Same goes for the idea that the product sold is unique and excellent and therefor worth your money. The message is always that you need something either because it will make your life better if you buy it or worse if you don't.
A lot of the discourse - can't help myself - around punk overlaps with that of capitalist culture these days. I feel like this was less so when I tuned in about 20 years ago, but I might be wrong. Either way spare me the reproach of getting old. A strange fact of the time we live in is that you're not supposed to say certain things might have changed for the worse. It seems to be a taboo.
I am no saint nor do I have an alternative. I am a consumer too. I buy records and books. Probably too many. I got a new record cabinet in yesterday. Putting records on its shelves made me feel like buying stuff has become a habit. Same story with books. I buy them at a pace I can't possibly keep up with. It's not as dire a situation with records, because it takes less time and concentration to play a record than it does to read a book. Anyway, the experience brought about some self-loathing on my part and made me wonder how many records and books would be enough, a question I am sure other people on here have found themselves asking as well. Feel free to paste that Harvey Peekar panel into this thread.
The internet
The fact that a lot of communication happens throught the internet has created somewhat of a monoculture although it wasn't so bad before social media, I think. For most people younger than me - I am closing in on 40 - not having a smartphone and not being on social media is close to unthinkable.
This taps into what BARELY HUMAN was saying. There's a constant war for our attention on the internet. For most people that means their phone screen - I still have a Nokia. Still I'm disgusted by my own screen habits: scrolling shorts on my laptop for empty entertainment and distractions, watching Youtube clips with clickbait titles that don't deliver. Supposedly I am the only person who clicks on clips that show the still of an attractive women showing cleavage. Nobody else is falling for that.
The other day I heard a guy a few years younger than me talking about the content he got offered through online platforms as a representation of his being. He said he was doing a good job at keeping bad content shut out. Another kid some years younger than myself once told me he preferred personalized advertisement over random advertisemen on the internet, because it increased the chance that he got offered something of interest to him. That blew me away. When I said I preferred no advertisement at all, he replied that was not an option. When I worked with children with autism and disability we would offer them choices along the lines of: 'do you want to play with the blue or the red ball today?' We would call that freedom of choice. It is, but a very limited one.
Punks be weird
The fact that a band like the electric eels existed is life affirming for me. That does not mean I need their records. I am sure as hell buying them though. I remember Daniel Distort writing once that if someone says that Thirsty and Miserable is his favorite Black Flag tune, you get a pretty good impression of who you're dealing with. That's what I'm talking about, that it takes one to know one. I really like the idea of punk being for the outsiders, the freaks and the weirdos creating a world of their own, music of their own and art of their own. I miss that, but maybe I'm just out of the loop. Maybe I am a curmudgeon. I have no problem admitting the latter.
I hope I made sense.