Lakigigar
Legacy Member
1. Capitalist work is too specialized.
Marx's argued that work can be one of the sources of our greatest joy, the modern "find your passion and you'll never have to work a day", but in order to feel fullfilled at work Marx argued that one needs to see themselves in the objects they have created. Think of the person who builds a product from IKEA, even when the final product isn't exactly as expected you're proud of your work because it was your work, you see yourself in your work. Or the last time you built a coop from scratch. But this is very rare in capitalism because work is too specialized. This makes the economy highly efficient, but it also makes it seldom possible for a worker (not only labor worker, any type of work) to derive a sense of a genuine contribution they might be making to the real needs of humanity.
2. Capitalist work makes humans expendable.
Because of the highly efficent economy focus of capitalism a worker is but a mere pawn in the force of production that can be let go the minute the cost rises or savings can be made through technology. We don't want to be arbitrarly let go, we are terrified of being abandoned.
3. Capitalism is unstable.
Marx argued that capitaism is characterized by a series of crises. Everytime a capitalist crysis happens the capitalist economists argue that it is something very uncommon and rare soon to be the last one, but it never is. Marx argued that crises are natural to capitalism, and they're caused by something very odd, the fact that we're able to produce too much for anyone to consume. Capitalist crises are of abudnace rather than of shortage.
4. Capitalism sees work as something natural.
Marx argued that few of us actually need to work, because the modern economy is so productive, and that rather than seeing the need not to work as freedom and natural to humans capitalism describes it as unemployment. There is so much unemployment because we're good at making things efficently, we're not all needed at work, but in that case Marx argued we should make lesuire admirable. We should redistribute part of the massive corporations' wealth and give it to everyone. Factories and systems are so efficent that they could give anyone a home, a car, acces to a decent school and a hospital, that's what enraged Marx but also made him hopeful too. This is in it's own way an utopia, but a more realistic one.
5. Capitalism is bad for capitalists.
Marx didn't think of capitalists as evil, but as experiencing sorrows and secret agonies, for example Marx argued that the bourgegois' marriage was actually an extension of business, not out of love out out of economic interest. Capitalism forces everyone to put capitalism and money at the heart of their lives. Capitalism makes people value things that have no objective values, Marx wanted people to be free from financial constraint so that they will start making sensible healthy choices. People should have the permanent option to enjoy leisure.
6. Capitalism colors the ideas that capitalists have.
Capitalist economy generates ideology. Most people believe all sorts of things that are really just value judgments of the economic system. For example that a person who doesn't work is worthless, that leisure beyond a few weeks a year is sinful, that more money and belongings will make us happier, and that worthy people would make money. One of the biggest evils of capitalism is not that there are corrupt people at the top, that's true in any human hierarchy, but that capitalism teaches all of us to be anxious, conformist, competitive and politically complacent. It's possible for people to do one thing today and another tomorrow, hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, without ever becoming hunter, fisher, heardsman or critic.
______________
Ik wou dit even delen, vond dit wel sterk. Ik zie het zo: we worden gegijzeld in al onze mogelijkheden door het kapitalisme door dingen die zo lijken te zijn, terwijl ze in de werkelijkheid totaal niet zo zijn. Geld is bijvoorbeeld op zich gewoon waardeloos. Het is enkel en alleen maar een tool. Ben jij de enige met geld (papiertjes) op aarde, dan zal je direct ontdekken dat je waardeloos papier hebt. Voor mij is kapitalisme de grootste bedreiging op aarde na de klimaatverandering hoewel dat op zich en het gebrek aan actie daar ook een gevolg van is (competitiviteit, overproductie en overconsumptie). Deze aarde zal enkel en alleen maar leefbaar worden wanneer de principes van het kapitalisme worden opgegeven en er ruimte komt voor een ecologisch en sociaal vriendelijk beleid.
Marx's argued that work can be one of the sources of our greatest joy, the modern "find your passion and you'll never have to work a day", but in order to feel fullfilled at work Marx argued that one needs to see themselves in the objects they have created. Think of the person who builds a product from IKEA, even when the final product isn't exactly as expected you're proud of your work because it was your work, you see yourself in your work. Or the last time you built a coop from scratch. But this is very rare in capitalism because work is too specialized. This makes the economy highly efficient, but it also makes it seldom possible for a worker (not only labor worker, any type of work) to derive a sense of a genuine contribution they might be making to the real needs of humanity.
2. Capitalist work makes humans expendable.
Because of the highly efficent economy focus of capitalism a worker is but a mere pawn in the force of production that can be let go the minute the cost rises or savings can be made through technology. We don't want to be arbitrarly let go, we are terrified of being abandoned.
3. Capitalism is unstable.
Marx argued that capitaism is characterized by a series of crises. Everytime a capitalist crysis happens the capitalist economists argue that it is something very uncommon and rare soon to be the last one, but it never is. Marx argued that crises are natural to capitalism, and they're caused by something very odd, the fact that we're able to produce too much for anyone to consume. Capitalist crises are of abudnace rather than of shortage.
4. Capitalism sees work as something natural.
Marx argued that few of us actually need to work, because the modern economy is so productive, and that rather than seeing the need not to work as freedom and natural to humans capitalism describes it as unemployment. There is so much unemployment because we're good at making things efficently, we're not all needed at work, but in that case Marx argued we should make lesuire admirable. We should redistribute part of the massive corporations' wealth and give it to everyone. Factories and systems are so efficent that they could give anyone a home, a car, acces to a decent school and a hospital, that's what enraged Marx but also made him hopeful too. This is in it's own way an utopia, but a more realistic one.
5. Capitalism is bad for capitalists.
Marx didn't think of capitalists as evil, but as experiencing sorrows and secret agonies, for example Marx argued that the bourgegois' marriage was actually an extension of business, not out of love out out of economic interest. Capitalism forces everyone to put capitalism and money at the heart of their lives. Capitalism makes people value things that have no objective values, Marx wanted people to be free from financial constraint so that they will start making sensible healthy choices. People should have the permanent option to enjoy leisure.
6. Capitalism colors the ideas that capitalists have.
Capitalist economy generates ideology. Most people believe all sorts of things that are really just value judgments of the economic system. For example that a person who doesn't work is worthless, that leisure beyond a few weeks a year is sinful, that more money and belongings will make us happier, and that worthy people would make money. One of the biggest evils of capitalism is not that there are corrupt people at the top, that's true in any human hierarchy, but that capitalism teaches all of us to be anxious, conformist, competitive and politically complacent. It's possible for people to do one thing today and another tomorrow, hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, without ever becoming hunter, fisher, heardsman or critic.
______________
Ik wou dit even delen, vond dit wel sterk. Ik zie het zo: we worden gegijzeld in al onze mogelijkheden door het kapitalisme door dingen die zo lijken te zijn, terwijl ze in de werkelijkheid totaal niet zo zijn. Geld is bijvoorbeeld op zich gewoon waardeloos. Het is enkel en alleen maar een tool. Ben jij de enige met geld (papiertjes) op aarde, dan zal je direct ontdekken dat je waardeloos papier hebt. Voor mij is kapitalisme de grootste bedreiging op aarde na de klimaatverandering hoewel dat op zich en het gebrek aan actie daar ook een gevolg van is (competitiviteit, overproductie en overconsumptie). Deze aarde zal enkel en alleen maar leefbaar worden wanneer de principes van het kapitalisme worden opgegeven en er ruimte komt voor een ecologisch en sociaal vriendelijk beleid.
