#leftpedia

[anarchistmemecollective]

going back to op’s original point:

“I want like... a condo. And enough money to go on vacation sometimes. And maybe a mug.”.

that’s barely even middle class. definitely not upper middle class (ignoring that middle class is a myth meant to distract us from real class politics). like owning your own home, owning a car or two, going on nice vacations, being able to afford leisure time and activities, far more than a mug, and retire comfortably at 65. that was a pretty basic version of the post-war american dream. it’s important to note that that norm was only ever available to white anglo saxon protestant cishet men, but it was the normative ideal around which other groups and classes were defined.

why i bring this up, what i can’t stress enough, is that i’ve watched that ideal shift from what i described, to what op describes, within my lifetime. and i’m not even that old.

When I grow up I wanna be upper middle class.

[anarchistmemecollective]

this is as good a post as any to clarify a distinction leftists make between work and labour.

when we talk about work we mean being forced to sell you labour for wages. it’s coerced and exploitative, a fundamental aspect of capitalism.

when we talk about labour we mean the fundamental aspect of being human of just doing things. painting singing, poetry, dishes, childcare, building a house, tending a herd, hunting, etc. it’s your time, your energy, your interactions with your environment. it’s a big part of marx’s opus.

so when we talk about abolishing work we mean abolishing being forced to sell your labour for money, to commodify your own life just to survive under capitalism.

My least favorite things about anti- UBI discourse is always the techbros whining that "nobody is going to work anymore! People will just watch Netflix all day!" and I have 2 responses:

1) Who the fuck cares. Who the fuck cares what people do with their time! That's kind of the fucking point!

2) People aren't going to stop laboring. Housework (look, it's right there in the word!) will still need to be done. So will maintenance on our homes and personal spaces. Children will still need carers, as will the elderly and disabled. There are millions of examples of ~work~ that we do all the time, uncompensated, that won't suddenly stop because we aren't forced to sell our labor to provide corporation's profits.

I'm not surprised that what is traditionally women's work is invisible to these dipshits, but it never fails to anger me.

Anyway. Join the IWW.

[anarchistmemecollective]

well first capital is money for making more money.

so if you have five dollars and you go to the store to buy lemonade to drink, that five dollars is just money. but if you use that five dollars to start a lemonade stand and make twenty five dollars, then that five dollars was capital. same with buying a home to live in vs buying a house as a real estate investment, etc.

next an ism is “a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy, typically a political ideology or an artistic movement.” in the case of capitalism, we’re talking about the overarching philosophy of our culture/society. it is what everything revolves around. so if you take feudalism 600+ years ago in western europe, the king and the aristocratic hierarchy were what dominated every aspect of society. it would be impossible to understand any aspect of feudal europe while ignoring the monarchy and aristocracy.

so, capitalism is when our culture/society holds up the making of money above all else. specifically capital, money for making more money. it is the highest good, the most important thing, people who have capital are good and people who do not have capital are bad.