Late Stage Capitalism
A place for for news, discussion, memes, and links criticizing capitalism and advancing viewpoints that challenge liberal capitalist ideology. That means any support for any liberal capitalist political party (like the Democrats) is strictly prohibited.
A zero-tolerance policy for bigotry of any kind. Failure to respect this will result in a ban.
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1 Understand the left starts at anti-capitalism.
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You're right about almost everything!
Your power is derived from your labor (and your ability to withhold it), not from your consumption. Going on strike/protesting as part of an organized effort is when you discover your true power.
The only way for us to rise is for us to collectivize and smash this exploitative system into pieces. We can do it. We have to.
Labor may be the source of your power, but consumption is how you fritter it away. Trade your labor for subscription plans, little conveniences that prop up the oligarchs, big luxuries like fancy car or home, and you lose your ability to withhold your labor in safety.
Withholding your labor only works if you can recruit a lot of like-minded people, each with their own safe ability to withhold labor. We can get there eventually, but you have to start with yourself.
The best thing you can buy with money is your freedom from having to earn wages to live.
The one caveat I'd add to this is that because we have to exist in this system, you don't have to deprive yourself of all joy all the time. It's ok to spend a few bucks on something frivolous every once in a while (within reason, of course). Do what you can, however much you can, but also make sure you've got the energy to keep going.
There is no production without consumption.
Yes but your power comes from your production, not your consumption. Take the example of the miners living in a company town. ALL of their consumption is captured by the company. It's withholding labour that gives the worker power.
Nope you have it backwards. You wouldn't have any production without consumption. If no one burned coal there would be no coal miners. Companies capture their consumption because that's the only power the worker has, and when they're forced to buy from the company they work for then the company has absolute power over them.
No. I don't have it backwards. We're using two different definitions of power.
Power, in the physical sense, comes from converting fuel to energy. In this sense you are correct. Physical power comes from consumption.
However, polticial-economic power OF THE WORKING CLASS comes from production, not consumption. This is because the rich ALSO need to eat but they do not farm. If the working class stopped farming, they would starve all people on the planet. That's political-economic power.
Company towns capture the consumption of their workers because the company has political-economic power over the workers that precedes the worker in that the power the company wields today is based on wealth accumulation that occurred long before the worker was born. Because the company has this power, they can capture the consumption of the worker. This is how we know that consumption is not political-economic power because if it were the company town would not be able to capture it without some kind of consuming contest with the worker. Instead, because workers must eat to survive and die if they do not, consumption is a political-economic vulnerability and production is political-economic power.