 You just watched a snippet of a new video published by the biggest YouTuber on the planet, MrBeast. And in this video, he basically cures 1,000 people of blindness by paying for a simple 10 minute surgery for all of them. And this video, in my opinion, is really important because perhaps for the first time ever, MrBeast doesn't just help people in need purely for entertainment purposes. He either, wittingly or unwittingly, also forces his viewers to question the system itself that allows for this type of unnecessary suffering in the first place. And I think that this video in particular sparked a level of curiosity even in MrBeast that I haven't seen before, that none of us have seen before. But first, here's some additional details about the video. As CNN reports, Jeff Levinson, an ophthalmologist and surgeon, worked with Donaldson, that's Jimmy, MrBeast, to perform the first round of surgeries in Jacksonville, Florida. Levinson has coordinated the Gift of Sight program for over 20 years, which provides free cataract surgery for uninsured patients who are legally blind due to cataracts. Half of all blindness in the world is people who need a 10-minute surgery, Levinson says in the video, referring to the cataract removal surgery. And that statistic was mentioned in the video multiple times, which I think is really significant because it primes viewers to think deeper about the entire system, the system that perpetuates this level of unnecessary cruelty. And it gets viewers to wonder why, if the government has the power and the financial ability to end this suffering like that, why would they not? Why allow this suffering to go on when you have the power to end it? And this is a question that MrBeast himself asked via Twitter, writing, I don't understand why curable blindness is a thing. Why don't governments step in and help? Even if you're thinking purely from a financial standpoint, it's hard to see how they don't get a return on investment on taxes from people being able to work again. And the fact that this experience of curing 1,000 people of blindness got Jimmy to ask this question is I think really important because what he's saying here makes perfect sense to the average individual. It seems puzzling, but there is an answer, believe it or not, and we'll get to that. But first, more from CNN about how Jimmy was able to pull this off. They started by calling homeless shelters and free clinics to create a list of patients in the Jacksonville area who needed cataract surgery but could not afford it. Eventually they had a group of 40 patients and Levinson performed all of their surgeries in a single day, starting at 7am and ending at 6pm. Levinson said that patients were in disbelief that somebody would actually seek them out to rescue them from blindness and then have the kindness and generosity of spirit to offer the surgery. Now the ophthalmologist who worked with MrBeast ended up connecting him with a non-profit organization called C-International which is how he was able to broaden the scope of this effort and conduct surgeries for 1,000 people in countries ranging from Mexico to Honduras to Indonesia and of course the United States as well. So overall, love him or hate him, what MrBeast did here was use his wealth for good. He cured 1,000 people of blindness and that is an objectively good thing. However, what's important to keep in mind is that these good deeds shouldn't only be done if and only if wealthy people come along and cure these people. We have systems in place that in theory are supposed to be taking care of their populations but that's not happening and this video itself kind of forced viewers to ask themselves why. I think it really triggered a level of introspection that we haven't seen from other MrBeast's videos. So why don't governments intervene here? Well, let's go back to MrBeast's question. Why wouldn't governments cure people of blindness despite the financial cost since they'll eventually in theory be able to make that money back in the first place? Doesn't it make sense to just cure people if you can? And the answer is an unequivocal yes but we don't live in a system that functions in that way and the answer to Jimmy's question quite simply is capitalism. That's why. Because capitalism, under our capitalist system, the priority of governments isn't to serve its people. The goal is to foster an economy that allows private corporations to endlessly increase their profits year after year and this is why universal school lunch programs expire while tax cuts for corporations become permanent because politicians don't serve us. They serve corporations almost exclusively but don't take my word for it. A 2014 Princeton University study by political scientists, Drs. Gilliams and Page found that when it comes to policy outcomes, economic elites and interest groups disproportionately get what they want whereas working class people, whatever they want, whatever they desire, well those bills never become law. But why is that the case? Well, because each election is getting more and more expensive. The 2020 election cost more than 14 billion dollars. Yes, that's billion with a B, which is double the cost of the last presidential election in 2016. But if you're wondering why? Well, it's because elites and corporations are spending more and more money to help elect politicians that they know will do their bidding. And how do we know that these politicians will in fact do the bidding of these large multinational corporations who contribute to their campaigns? Well, let's put it this way. If a friend paid a million dollars to help you get the job of your dreams, would you not be eternally grateful to your friend? Would you not pick up the phone every single time that they called you? Would you not do any favor that you possibly could for that friend who helped you out? Of course you wouldn't because you're a human being. And that's just part of human nature. And politicians like us are human beings who understand that they want to help the people who helped them. Now, you may be thinking, wait, doesn't this kind of sound like a system of bribery? And you'd be correct to come to that conclusion. But this is all legal thanks to Supreme Court cases that opened the door to the commodification of U.S. elections, starting with Buckley v. Vileo back in 1974 and getting even worse in the 2010s with cases like Citizens United in 2010 and McCutcheon in 2014. So that's why our government doesn't care about what we want. It's composed of politicians almost exclusively who only serve these corporations. So with that in mind, it becomes much more clearer as to why our government wouldn't intervene and help people, doesn't it? Because Mr. Beast is right. Not only would the government save money by just paying for the health care of these people who need it, but they'd also save lives. So Jimmy's question makes sense. A Yale study published in 2020 found that transitioning the U.S. to a single payer health care system would actually save an estimated 450 billion each year with the average American family seeing $2,400 in annual savings. The research was published in the medical journal The Lancet, and it also found that Medicare for All would prevent about 68,000 unnecessary deaths per year. And the researchers believe that that number is actually conservative because they didn't factor in uninsured people. And for the more that study was conducted before the pandemic, so the number of lives that free health care would save is likely much, much higher now. So if there's money and lives to be saved, why not do it? It makes sense, right? Well, it goes back to who our government represents and what its purpose is. If the government provided free health care to its citizens, then health insurance companies wouldn't be able to rake in billions of dollars in profits each year. So the government lets these bloodsuckers exist and they convince us that their services are necessary, but they're only really necessary insofar as the system itself stays the same. And these health insurance companies spend millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions, all to maintain the status quo and make sure that we don't have a system that makes more sense. In fact, Goldman Sachs notoriously questioned whether or not curing patients was a sustainable business model. Yes, you heard that correctly. Because curing patients, believe it or not, isn't the priority of these corporations. Maximizing profits is corporations are a moral, meaning they don't have ethics like you and I, so they don't make decisions based on morality or who does and doesn't need help. Their behavior is dictated exclusively by money and how to make more of it. And politicians, it's not like they're ignorant to these perverse incentives that exist. They just simply look the other way, so long as these same corporations continue to contribute to their campaigns. It's kind of a, I scratch your back, you scratch my back situation. So the problem, Mr. Beast, is capitalism. Capitalism is like a virus, and its goal is to commodify every single aspect of our lives and squeeze as much money out of us as they possibly can. And I understand why some people feel turned off by Mr. Beast's content, because rather than turning prisons into a YouTube challenge, Mr. Beast could shine a light on the American prison industrial complex and address the profit motives behind mass incarceration. He could have addressed the growing housing crisis in this video where he gave an unhoused person a home, but we have to meet people where they are. And I think that Mr. Beast probably hasn't done these things in his videos. He hasn't asked these questions in his videos because he probably hasn't thought about these systemic solutions because Mr. Beast, like most Americans, is a capitalist. And I kind of feel like we're all brainwashed into the system. We're all products of our environment. So we by default are capitalists until a particular event or situation gets us to rethink the system. And it seems as if this video where Mr. Beast easily cured a thousand people is kind of getting him to be a little bit more introspective about the system that he once perhaps didn't question. But the fact is, he is, maybe for the first time, thinking holistically, which is really encouraging to see since his reach is absolutely massive. And if he uses his platform to educate his young audience about all the ways that the system is failing us, then that is a massive, massive net good for society. Now, even though I understand the leftist critique of Mr. Beast's content, understand there's always been this genre of YouTube where creators shove cameras in people's faces and they watch them react as they give them money or leave a really large tip. I remember enjoying Mr. Shy's City giveaway videos where he would give dozens of people $20 bills and that would go massively viral. And even though it feels a little bit gross and even exploitative to monetize good deeds like this, I mean, in the capitalist system, there's a profit motive in everything if you just look hard enough and get creative enough. Now, I'm not assuming that these creators are creating this type of content for cynical reasons, but Perseverance porn is very popular because it makes us feel good temporarily. But Perseverance porn becomes a problem if it gets us to shut down our brains and not think about the system that created these negative outcomes in the first place at the individual level. So what really matters ultimately is if these good deeds facilitate dialogue and get young viewers to be curious about the system that subjects people to unnecessary suffering that can be cured as easy as Jimmy just cured it. And I think that this video for Mr. Beast was different because it did get people to think deeper about this subject that he was covering. Mr. Beast himself is asking questions about this barbaric system that we live in. So I think that's a good thing. I look forward to him enlightening himself further. And I hope that he finds a way to educate his young audience about these serious issues because if he can, Mr. Beast can be more than just an entertainer. He can actually be an educator and a huge force for good that educates millions of people potentially about the barbarity of capitalism. But it all starts with just a little bit of curiosity. And to see this for Mr. Beast was really good. So I commend him for this video. And I hope that he continues to ask questions about this system. And I hope that his viewers do too.