The human species has essentially been transformed into a giant machine to generate profit for corporations.
Under capitalism, humanity exists to serve the interests of the corporation. We are all livestock; beasts of burden used to carry margin expansion forward from quarterly statement to quarterly statement. Enjoyment of life has no value other than the extent to which it can be used to increase the net worth of the shareholders.
That’s why everyone’s so unhappy. We’re not living with purpose. We’re not working together to build a better world and a better future, we’re just pulling levers to turn gears to make the arrow line go up on the graph in the conference room. It’s a hollow, pointless way for people to live.
It makes our whole culture vapid and soulless.
Crosspost from https://news.abolish.capital/post/56355
With that line of thinking, no one would get a raise or improved quality of life. This is not a binary issue, unless you are talking about socialist production vs capitalism/fascism.
Like what was already said, life would be a lot more boring. But at least we’d be free of the hamster wheel.
And yeah, no, you wouldn’t get a raise, because there’d be no money. You can’t get a raise if you can’t make a profit, very correct.
Look, imagine these initial conditions: start with 100 people in a moneyless society. Give each person 100 coins. Now ask everyone to make a profit.
That means creating money out of thin air.
The system is b-r-o-k-e-n.
The current Western system is working as designed. Do you imagine a fantastical leap forward without any sort of transitioning steps from here to there? I’m working hard to understand you.
I know it’s working as designed — working against us.
I’m not imagining a leap forward, I’m imagining a leap backwards, to freedom before there was money. Sorry if this has been unclear all along…
Would you be so kind as to elucidate in some detail?I didn’t realize who you were until I scrolled up. Barter is cumbersome and greatly limits mobility. Do you propose means to overcome that?
I do not. Like I said, again, life will be a lot more boring and cumbersome. Trade-off.
Which is why ditching a capitalist system is also required. One should not have personal profits, one should have basic needs met.
Every dollar of profit is taken from the back of a worker further down the line.
Here you go: >When workers are the state and own the means of production, profits can be planned and used to keep production lines running, decrease hours while increasing wages, paying more taxes for basic human rights such as clean food, air, water, quality housing, quality healthcare, quality education, reduction of waste and emissions, r&d of better ways to produce, better medicine, and more!
Bolding added, here
State capitalism is still capitalism. It still works on the exploitation of those down the line at some degree, profit is not generated from thin air, it is taken from others earning less than their fair share or paying more than something is worth.
There is no ethical capitalism, be that private or state (states are also not the people) owned.
https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11887529
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/the-anarchist-faq-editorial-collective-an-anarchist-faq-full
I’ve already told you, I began with anarchism and moved to communism. I’m not saying it’s entirely impossible, either, and I’m not entirely opposed to anarchy, rather that we need a practical, disciplined, and proven means to achieve it, if it’s ever to be realized in materiality. It doesn’t mean I like practicalities, rather that I recognize them as necessary.
I don’t even know if we’ve ever spoken before to be honest.
However I started with communism and moved to anarchism. I do not think there is any universal one size fits all approach, rather that we need many local ways of doing that accommodate the needs of the local population. That can only be achieved through empowering people at the local level and ensuring they have the flexibility to adapt and change as situations arise.
Top down models are incapable of meeting that, and routinely fall into power traps from small groups of elites from everything I see practiced historically and currently.
We have! Sorry, it’s one of my divergences. I think by listening to each other, we can grow our perspectives, if not evolve them.
Eta:
Believe it or not, this is a shared, popular perspective, on grad!
It’s not state capitalism. If you’re interested in an understanding that differs from your preferred narrative, they are abundant on grad. If you can stomach it.
Did… you actually read the comment to which you originally replied?
If “socialist” production has profit, it is capitalistic.