#especially in South America

[crazy-pages]

The more I read economics literature about automation trends and globalization trends (the actual economics term, not the rabid racist term) and their economic impacts on developed economies, the more I realize that the fundamental picture we have been sold these things is a lie.

The general picture of automation revolutions is that they present some way of doing work more efficiently and/or to create a better product, and so market forces simply demand it. And we have to figure out how to deal with all of the lost jobs which are resulting from this. Because even in a socialist utopia, surely it would be absurd to continue forcing people to use old and outdated technology to do work less efficiently just so they could have work to do, right? Maybe the socialist utopia will take care of people displaced by this work better, but the displacement will still happen.

Except then I start reading about the actual history in the actual economics of automation revolutions (I recommend Blood In The Machine for a history of the Luddites and the automated textile revolution in Britain). And that's not what happens even a single time. These automated revolutions increase the cost per unit to create a good! They make the quality worse! And the existing workers get displaced, and replaced with oppressed or even outright enslaved labors who make nothing in worse conditions! They didn't even actually reduce the amount of labor involved significantly, they just started working orphan slaves 80-90 hours a week rather than artisan workers doing 30-35, to "reduce" the labor involved by reducing the number of laborers. It seems like no one benefits from this. So why is it happening!?

Well the answer is simple. The machine looms were less efficient, created lower quality products, and were worse for every single person in every sector of the economy ... except insofar as that they enabled a more unequal economy. The textile industry itself made less profit. The world itself had worse and less textiles. But the machine loom owners specifically made more money, because machine rooms enabled more control over workers in ways which could be used to relegate them to an even smaller share of the smaller profits. And they didn't outcompete others by being better, they did it through regulatory capture, illegal business practices, outright fraud, and by having a pre-existing place of power in their society.

The same applies to the classic story of Ford and his great automobile factory model. Sure it produced a lot of cars at low prices, but what the history doesn't tell you is that a bunch of other automobile companies which weren't using the factory model were putting out their own cars similar cost. Sure they weren't scaling up as fast, but everyone involved was making good money and the market kept on producing more companies to fill the gap. Ford made the decision to sell to a new lower cost car market sure, but he did not make a better profit margin per dollar of car purchases than his competitors did. He made significantly worse actually because he had such hideous turnover at his factories, and his cars were of lower quality than non-factory line cars aimed at the same market could be.

So why the hell did the entire automobile industry follow in his wake? Well, because he personally was making an insane amount of money. The factory line model let him simplify the production chain in a way which cut out a lot of people who previously been making good salaries, and it let him replace well paid laborers with dirt cheap labor. (Despite the hubbub about how good Ford's factory jobs paid, they only paid well relative to other no skill no training work available. They paid much worse than the skilled laborers he fired had made.)

And the people who controlled how the car manufacturing process worked were the people who would stand to make money by switching over.

The same is true for globalization. When a berry monopoly which controls 60% of all berry sales in the US does so by importing berries from South America, from varieties optimized for durability rather than flavor, that isn't cheaper than growing them at home. Not even with the higher cost of labor in the US. Not even if you actually paid farm hands a good wage rather than by abusing undocumented workers who can't fight back as effectively. The transport costs are too high.

All across the US food sector we have examples of food monopolies exporting produce production overseas in ways that make the final product more expensive for the customer, and lower quality at the same time. Why!?

Well because it allows them to access even more vulnerable labor markets. So even though the whole pie shrinks, the company owners get a bigger enough cut of the pie to make up for it.

The lie of automation and globalization of work and the damage it does to developed economies is just that, a lie. It is not economically predestined for this stuff to happen. Alternatives are not predestined to be competed out of the market. Unless, of course, ownership of profits is concentrated in only a few hands. Unless what's being competed for isn't net profit or net service provided or net quality of goods, but how much profit you can localize in capital owners.

If that's the actual competition, and of course it is because the people making decisions for companies also own those companies, only then does job automation and the presence of exploitable overseas labor devastate economies.

If laborers actually owned their places of business piecemeal, the motivation for these kinds of economic shocks would largely dry up. Like, sure, labor saving devices get invented sometimes and you need less people to do the same work. And sure, sometimes work can be done overseas for cheaper because standards of living at lower or because there's some comparative economic advantage. But that is not actually what is happening most of the time this stuff occurs.

If there's one thing I've learned studying this stuff, it's that genuine examples of net gain automation are less common than we think, and tend to be implemented on fairly slower timelines. Same for globalization of work. What is very common is ways in which already unequal systems of ownership and decision making and profit can be made more unequal. And the only fix I can imagine is fundamentally changing and democratizing how businesses operate, and how we handle concepts of ownership.

[drumlincountry]

The election is in 10 days.

This weekend I heard an anti-fracking activist say "so long as there is gas in the rocks below us, and people in the world who want it, our land isn't safe."

I can't bear it. I really can't bear it. We banned fracking in this country. Then the green party were elected on the basis of banning fracked gas imports (no fracking here, no fracking anywhere). Which they did, for four years. Then the talk turned to "energy security in europe" and right before leaving office they signed a law which will expediate the construction of a facility for importing (mostly fracked) gas from the USA.

I watched 10 different politicians campaigning for votes, in front of a room full of climate activists. Every one of them said: ok we're going to build this facility but we won't use it. it's for energy security. in case of emergencies.

Even the socialists said this. Even the greens.

Four years was all it took! Four years and they are speaking the language of imperialism and capitalism. Four years, in a fight that won't end until the world doesn't need gas.

So long as anyone in the world needs gas, our land isn't safe. So long as anyone in the world wants gas, our fight is not over. So long as we don't have sovereignty of our lands. So long as any authoritarian anywhere has a long enough lever to pressure us. We are not safe.

The anti-fracking activist didn't seem stressed. We got fracking banned! We even got the importing of fracked gas banned! We are networked with people fighting fossil fuel extraction all over the world. We are part of a broad social movement. That movement is largely led by people who know degrowth and decolonialism is the only way to make all of our lands safe.

I want degrowth anyway. I want decolonialism anyway. But its painful to feel how much I need them. This place is stitched into me by a million threads. It would kill me to see it destroyed.

I can't accept a world where our land is not safe. I live in a world where our land is not safe.

Almost no one in that room was under 30 years old. Is my generation strong enough to shoulder the fight? How about the next one? Will my grandchildren be able to relax about it? Will anyone, ever?

The answer is: no. The fight may be easier at times but it will never be over. We go on.

[las-lus]

I don't mean this as hate for the boys, but it's really bittersweet to watch their latest video about the calendar as someone from South America. Their shop doesn't ship here, so it's hard not to feel like I'm from the outside looking in this fandom instead of part of it.

[sleepykitty5549]

Mhm! My ask box is always always open! :) [[ @twizzyone ]]

I like to imagine after BLU that he just kinda waddled away and sat like this for a bit in boredom

(Didn’t know what else to draw I spat this out real fast)

[fvckw4d]

Being from the global south doesn't give you a pass on stupid fucking takes actually. I can sympathize with your position, which I will never understand, and still point out you're a fucking moron if you believe that America's foreign policy could not possibly get worse. I know a lot of you who say this shit think that asking you to care about the lives of people in the US is too much, so I will at least ask you to consider what might happen under a fascist strongman who picked a neoreactionary as his VP with even more political backing than the first time he was elected.

[mythvoiced]

-. short activity psa~

the heat's picking up!!! and YES i may be italian and have lived in south italy for the past 16 years alAS my heart is still swiss, or to put all that bullshit aside, i'm???!!!!! mayhaps gonna be a lil slower both ooc and ic again bc HEAT TIREDS, i'm still here, and i'll still try to keep the queue going, but just... slower again--

[tumbloggingattheendofitall]

And not that it's actually going to stop anyone from coming for me I guess, but like. Not voting in the US this election cycle because of your disgust at the handling of the Palestinian genocide by the US government isn't actually the Great Big Political Statement Of Solidarity you think it is

What it is, is apathy. No I'm not naïve enough to believe that voting blue absolves me of the crimes committed by my country on the word of a bunch of out of touch oligarchs. But not voting doesn't actually absolve us of any of that either, and it only materially makes things worse for everybody, locally and globally, when we allow our political apathy to keep us from Working Towards Better outcomes

[good-night-space-kid]

hello people of tumblr. tell me some genres of music that you like and think i should listen to this year :D

some of the genres on my list so far: medieval rock, balkan folk metal, desi pop, japanese metal, african polka, and more

[umberandmochaagate]

We're starting to really talk about how oppression affects people on an epigenetic level for those victimized

We need to also look at how epigenetics are affected in oppressors and white supremacy

Because how in the hell you're gonna go to a South Asian country as a refugee from Europe and start tryna throw a fucking "white only" party and hating on the native people like what the fuck

[chemicalarospec]

.

[timeisacephalopod]

Part of being Canadian is how similar we are to the US, and honestly not a single person on earth I think could genuinely pin point the difference between Canadian and American culture but the average Canadian. Americans assume we're the same as them (we aren't), even a bunch of Canadians think we're Americans, especially around voting seasons, and about half our cultural identity is "we're Not American!" but there are some cultural differences and if we all spoke French equally we could have had a language distinction but nooooo. Despite not being America unfortunately such a fuck off massive country right below your teeny tiny ass country (population wise) does result in a cultural avalanche from said fuck off massive country. Especially when you share a language.

The war of 1812 will forever be funny to me though because Americans were like "hmm maybe Canadians would also like to tell the British to fuck off, we will invade to show them!" And Canada was like *burns down the white house* and we've been tentatively chill with each other ever since lmao (even when we probably like. Shouldn't be cool with America but like. We could not risk that implosion politically or otherwise it'd be suicide).

[blackmagictrait]

I'm from the west coast, most of the us just don't exist to me 😭😭

[freebooter4ever]

btw if anyone is watching the cold war documentary on ntflx? dont bother. lamo this is the dumbest doc i have seen in a while. it leaves out too much stuff, it presents things as true that are blatantly false if you give more information, and it states 'theories' as facts. some facts it just plain gets hilariously wrong. there is an agenda in this documentary that it isnt stating outright, that i am highly suspicious of, and i would be curious to know who is funding it.

[bandzboy]

i will say this tho… the reason why most kpop groups don’t come to europe is because in comparison to maybe the usa, the market for kpop music there is better than in europe and also since companies nowadays are obsessed with making groups international (promoting them in the us basically) they know it’s easy money over there honestly that’s what i think

[betty-bourgeoisie]

I just genuinely think it's kind of weird that there aren't more OC's for Liberia in this fandom

[marmett]

i was never super into resident evil, ive only ever played umbrella chronicles and darkside chronicles (the on the rails shooters) but ive been getting into watching lets plays. and i just learned that carlos was a communist from south america, and yet im supposed to believe he willingly decided to work for an international corporation. and that he was surprised to learn abt the atrocities theyd been committing.