So, another book I've been reading has been "Work" by Crimethinc, and I have really mixed thoughts on this one. I havent finished it, but I have read enough to give my general thoughts on the perspective here. They tend to frame capitalism as if it were a foreign occupation designed to put you "in prison" and oppress you at every level of its being. And to some extent, I cant disagree. After researching the history of capitalism for myself, I cant disagree, the system is designed to basically coerce each and every person to work, and at this point indoctrinates each new generation into it to the point many don't realize how deep the rabbit hole goes. I mean, capitalism sucks.
So, one might wonder, why do I support it? Well, because at the end of the day, SOMEONE needs to do the work necessary for society to survive. We arent to the point where a fully automated post scarcity economy exists yet. Economics exists to serve our wants and needs, and we need SOME system of logistics to determine who does what and who gets what. And capitalism WORKS. It produces tons of wealth. It just is unjust in distributing it, and coerces people into its mechanisms in a rather brutal fashion. And let's face it, no system devised before, nor any devised after, has been better. Before capitalism, we had systems of feudalism, or slavery. Heck, statism has a long sad history of oppressing people in general. And that goes all the way back to 5000 years ago. In a sense, the problems of capitalism are problems with states and government. But does this mean that we would be better off without government? No. Life before government was a war against all, with people living in a constant state of struggle andscarcity. I know anti capitalists often are attracted to anarchism and the promise of a world where we go back to having no states, but such life is nasty brutish and short, and inevitably ends with us being conquered by the first people to figure out how to organize people enough to start oppressing and conquering others again.
Not to mention, if we replaced capitalism with something like socialism or communism, we still risk the oppression of states. Heck, thats the reason socialism and communism are said to have failed and not worked. They just end up replacing capitalism with its oppression with state control under communism.
So, let's not delude ourselves. Yes, capitalism sucks, capitalism is oppressive. But so is every other system ever conceived. And capitalism ends up being the best option in the same way Kamala Harris ends up being the best presidential candidate this time even when taking into consideration the horror show that is the landscape of third party candidates this election cycle.
If anything, the best societies in the world seem to be the ones who have regulated and tamed capitalism to the point of providing shared prosperity for all. The best era in the US was the new deal era economically, and the social democracies of Europe are the most free and propserous societies that have existed. The solution isn't abolishing capitalism, the reformists are the ones who were able to actually improve life. And while capitalism isnt perfect under liberalism, much like everything else, it's a work in progress. Just as we shifted from the dictatorships and monarchies to liberal democracy, the solutions to capitalism are reforms that walk back the most oppressive elements of capitalism and make them better.
And I admit, liberalism needs to do better. The worst aspect of capitalism these days is forcing people to work. We are a society that is obsessed with work. A society where we walked back the most oppressive aspects of work with having minimum wages and mandated work weeks, but many of those safeguards are inadequate and need to be outdated, we must take effort at work itself, and attempt to begin to transition to a post work society. We can do it. We can implement a UBI to make work more voluntary, while preserving enough work incentive to ensure the sausage gets made. We can reduce our work week to be lower than 40 hours over time, as the economy becomes more productive. We can ensure basic needs while motivating people to work for luxuries. We can make society be whatever people want it to be. If people choose to work or choose not to work and each of them have their needs met but those who work get even higher standards of living, who is anyone to resent each other? The freeloader gets the "free to play" experience while the worker gets the "season pass" experience.
I mean, thats all I really want. A society where no one is actually forced to do anything, everyones' needs are met, and then everyone stays out of each others' ways. Capitalism is actually the system to accomplish that. It just has to be tweaked to allow for it. I've had it said to me this way in the context of the environment. Right now, the economy is the center of our lives, everything revolves around the economy. What if the economy was just part of our lives and not the whole thing? Thus, we start moving toward human centered capitalism. The economy exists for us, we don't exist for the economy. Capitalism isnt the problem. Our current iteration of capitalism is the problem. A society that subverts us and our lives to it is one that enslaves us. One that exists to serve us and our needs is one that is just. The economy exists for humans, humans dont exist for the economy. The core idea behind human centered capitalism.
As such. Yeah, I mean, I see where Crimethinc is coming from, but sometimes the leftists doth protest too much. They see society as oppressive but have no real solutions to our problems. Everything is about resisting society and refusing to interact with the systems of electoralism available to us, and about committing some weird form of guerilla warfare in the form of "direct action." And these guys act like jack###es who throw tantrums to get their ways and come off as ineffective as a result. It's like the incel trap. They realize the system sucks so they end up behaving in ways and developing toxic attitudes that make their relationship with it worse rather than striving to fix it.
I mean, i criticize the democrats and our two party system a lot, but at the end of the day, leftists are a small minority. Most people actively support the existing system. And many of them benefit from it. Both the arguments for and against capitalism are valid, just as two people can look at a number on the ground and see a 6 or 9 depending on their position. But that said, both are valid. And most have grown to support it to varying degrees. if people didnt, they wouldnt vote for the candidates that support capitalism.
I mean heres the sad reality i realized post covid. As the economy reopened, the majority of the people were complaining that there werent enough workers to give them their middle class creature comforts. Not enough people to give them their sunday breakfasts in IHOP, not enough people to do their nails, etc. They cried "no one wants to work any more" over their desires for LUXURIES going unfulfilled. They freaked out over not being able to work during covid and how they didnt wanna sit in the couch collecting a paycheck. Most people are, for better or for worse, fully indoctrinated into this system. And to be fair, I kinda get it. This system does have its advantages. The stuff is nice. It is fun. But it's SO MUCH WORK. Again, i kinda recognize some people want that premium experience of going to restaurants and fancy vacations and stuff (I say, as I'm sitting in a hotel room on family vacation), but i dont think people should be forced to work for my enjoyment. Needs, sure. If we're in a state of scarcity and the ONLY way to motivate people to make enough so we dont starve to death is "those that don't work, dont eat", i can see the wisdom and justice in that. I just think that in a society as prosperous as ours, people shouldnt have their basic needs held over them to force them to provide for my middle class creature comforts. Like, I'm in Myrtle Beach right now. The entire city didnt exist before WWII, it's COMPLETELY a tourist place. The economy is all service economy. If it didnt exist because no one would voluntarily work here if they werent coerced by the threat of poverty? So be it. It's nice. I like it, but nice pleasurable middle class experiences shouldnt come at the expense of others' economic freedom. I know some of the bartenders of the one place we go work multiple jobs and always seem busy. I think that's insane. But that's life in modern capitalism. I dont think anyone should be forced to work for anyoone's enjoyment. But....a lot of people disagree, and they vote. ANd the fact that their luxury stuff is sometimes more expensive (as well as necessities) is why Trump has been favored for most of this election cycle. And why I've been so defensive of biden and the dems. We are fighting a culture war, and defending biden and the dems is in my strategic interests here. Im voting for the change i wanna see and against the change I dont want. But everyone else does and not everyone thinks the same as me. One downside of democracy is sometimes it's tyranny by majority. And this is one of the reasons economic democracy, ie, "socialism" isnt necessarily the answer either.
But yeah, the reason capitalism is so oppressive is, in a sense, because the american public wants it to be. We are a work obsessed culture, and we have a lot of selfish middle class people who also benefit from capitalism (it's not just the ultra rich) who refuse to allow it to change because it might get rid of their creature comforts. As long as the system keeps 51% of people happy and keeps any discontent minimized and fractured among vrious different groups all fighting amongst themselves, nothing changes. And honestly, thats the first and foremost reason why nothing changes. Yes, we could argue education and socialization keep people dumb. Yes we can argue the rich are pulling the strings. But someone always is, and keep in mind what I said about states earlier. Capitalism is the worst system ever devised...except for literally everything else. We can complain about it, but what's the solutions? I have my solutions, but again, its reforming the system, and the core reason why nothing changes is not enough people are in demand for my solutions. We can say theyre dumb. Theyre uneducated, but it's just the reality of it. There is no magical working class movement waiting to happy where everyone suddenly just agrees the system is bad and wants to do something else. Most people like things as they are. Change happens slowly. And people are stupid en masse and easily manipulated.
So...yeah. As such, complaining about capitalism is easy. Changing capitalism is hard. It's hard to devise solutions. It's even harder to sell the population on them. Most seem to like the system as it is, warts and all. While I respect lefties for trying to raise consciousness and thats why one of the reasons i write so much about this stuff too. let's stop acting like we're all oppressed and the system is all evil and blah blah blah. It's a blessing and a curse. it's both good and evil. It benefits some and hurts some too. Sometimes it does both to the same people. Capitalism ultimately has what id consider a mixed legecy. It provides massive wealth while also oppressing people to make it. There's a duality to capitalism. It's good, it's bad. It's both at the same time. I value the anti capitalist side to some extent, but I just think they go too far. And yeah, that's where I stand on the issue.
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