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"Wealth isn't "stuff", its the social relationship of command."

Oh fuck thats an amazing point.

The medieval king did not have aspirin.

He also did not have to wait six weeks for an appointment with a doctor who told him to lose weight and the pain will go away.

The medieval king did not have a car, or even a bicycle.

He also did not have to travel an hour and a half every morning and back every evening to work so he could keep a roof over his head.

The medieval king did not have internet access.

He also did not have to give his personal information to companies that treat it carelessly (how many major data breaches have there been in the last few years? How many of those companies have gone bankrupt or had people go to jail over that?), in order to remain connected to a network of potential job opportunities.

It's not about "what modern things do you have that didn't exist 500 years ago?" It's "how much of your life is free to live as you wish, without worry, without threats, without someone else having the ability to make you miserable just by refusing to acknowledge your existence?"

capitalism stop iiiiittttt. like for real stop

"No one ever tries to flee capitalism."

Well, that was a lie.

That last quote took me out lmao

the thing about capitalism is that at a certain point a product reaches its maximum audience and cant really be improved (at least not while remaining profitable), but capitalism requires a product provide infinite growth, and at that point the only way to increase profits is to raise prices, cut corners, and in the case of services start adding advertisements. this is just how the system works.

The actual economic term for this parasitic behavior is "Rent Seeking", as in "charging you rent for things that didn't used to cost money just because we can."

Growth capitalism is a deranged fantasy for lunatics.

Year 1, your business makes a million dollars in profit. Great start!

Year 2, you make another million. Oh no! Your business is failing because you didn't make more than last year!

Okay, say year 2 you make $2 mil. Now you're profitable!

Then year 3 you make $3 mil. Oh no! Your business is failing! But wait, you made more money than last year right? Sure, but you didn't make ENOUGH more than last year so actually your business is actively tanking! Time to sell off shares and dismantle it for parts! You should have made $4 mil in profit to be profitable, you fool!

If you're not making more money every year by an ever-increasing exponent, the business is failing!

Absolute degenerate LUNACY

#we loooooove the methodology of a cancer cell

#constant expansion at all costs!! go go go go go!! what do you mean the body has died

^^^^^^^^^^^

I am always blown away by the mental disconnect between rich people and the rest of us.

I work for a doctor. He pulls in $70,000-$90,000 a month before tax. After tax, he's still $200,000+ a year.

I earn $52,000 a year.

Yet his wife will still talk to me and say "oh, we're not rich." She drives a Porsche. She wears Carla Zampatti. They live in a new townhouse that cost well over a million.

So, when she gives me recommendations on things to buy and I tell her I can barely afford Kmart, she seems genuinely perplexed.

They are NOT bad people. I've worked for them for 12 years now. They are good people with good hearts. But they no longer connect with reality on level and it's absolutely mindboggling.

And I think a large part of this is that rich people compare themselves to other rich people, not to the regular people.

He doesn't earn as much as a surgeon. He doesn't own a mansion or a helicopter (both of which I know a couple of surgeons own).

In comparison, they aren't as rich.

They were once poor, 25 years ago when he was starting to become a doctor. But that memory is skewed now. Or perhaps they always aimed for the Porsche and the month long holidays in Scotland so the journey meant something else.

But, holy shit, when she shows me something on sale that's still out of my price range, I feel that gap. And I don't envy her. I don't want a Porsche.

I just want to actually afford Kmart without saving up for it.

And since there seems to be some belief that I earn a huge amount, that is AUD.

It's $34,000USD, rounded up.

And yet, horrifyingly, she's kind of right.

Like yeah, the surgeon is unfathomably wealthy compared to someone who struggles to meet their basic needs... but he's fundamentally still working class. He gets his money from his labor, not by virtue of merely owning something.

Does the surgeon make more than he "deserves"? Maybe. Even if he's a plastic surgeon, I can still squint and kind of see how it makes sense for him to get paid that much. However, I do know that people who get their wealth by merely owning things absolutely don't deserve it.

And like, the important thing is that it's a difference in kind... but the difference in scale is absurd too. If her husband worked since Egyptians first started writing on papyrus, and didn't spend any money, he'd still have less than what Jeff Bezos makes in a week. The pay ratio between Bezos and the surgeon is 60,000x greater than the pay ratio between the surgeon and you... and he literally doesn't do anything besides own companies. Bezos literally does less work than you.

I don't like this fact at all.

That last point is an important point to make. There is a big difference between those who are paid large amounts of money for their work and those who make 1000x more simply by ownership of capital.

When i think of who in society probably deserve to be paid the most? I'd say neurosurgeons. It requires a huge amount of skill, dedication, and study. 8+ years of medical school. Many more years of training. But the higher end of neurosurgeon salaries is just under $1 million a year.

Yes that is a lot of money and you can debate if its too much or too little for their work, but the point is they are arguably ~the most highly skilled and intelligent workers in the world~ (qualities that neoliberals say are the most important in society) and yet they are still paid pennies on the dollar compared to capital owners.

"Shouldn't the man who invented the iPhone own his own creation?"

An explanation by anti-capitalist brad pitt.

Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski, The People’s Republic of Walmart

–Karl Marx, Capital

Launching my first art blogs with a small comic based on the amazing words of Ursula K. Le Guin!

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UBI needs to happen. via antiwork

I think most importantly, it would give us the leverage to say “no”. To walk away from bad jobs and abusive managers. To refuse to work in unsafe environments. To demand better pay.

To demand better, because the options are no longer “suck it up” or “die”.

and that’s why there’s so much resistance to implementing it - capitalism wants workers who don’t have a choice

CAPITALISM WANTS WORKERS WHO DON’T HAVE A CHOICE

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