Comments by "Wandering Existence" (@WanderingExistence) on "Asianometry"
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Wage labor is renting yourself via "self ownership". Employment is literally renting another human being as if they're property. The employer-employee relationship is a very insidious dynamic. Employment is a rental contract, like if you rented capital (say, a chainsaw from Home Depot), you pay rent for the "time preference" (basically the cost of time) for a piece of property. Capitalism is based on a principle of self ownership, which sounds empowering, until you realize that most people don't own capital goods other than themselves, and must rent out the authority over themselves as pieces of "human capital". This is a process of dehumanization where human beings are valued for their return on investment as capital goods. This is why, at the very least, capitalism needs unions and safety nets (or abolishment), or else the system won't value people for their human value. Importantly we must also think about our sick, elderly, and disabled people, as they can't provide competitive economic return for the investor class to value. We must figure out a way to change this economic system if we wish to value each other.
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@wtice4632 lol, nobody said they didn't have markets, I said relations were much less commodified. Where were the labor markets? Oh, that's right, serfs were bonded to the land and their payments were often in kind (the monopolized wheat mill wouldn't ask for cash payments, but rather, say, 1/7 of the milled wheat). They didn't have a normalized cash nexus for labor. That's not to say there was no monied employment, but it was not commoditized like it is today.
There were other institutions like village commons and monastic estates, which acted as places to obtain resources with little to no cash payment. With the advent of the Protestant Reformation, those properties were seized by Henry VIII and enclosed into plots to be sold off as private feehold/ fee simple property titles. As feudal ties dissolved with the transfer to private ownership, more peasants moved into cities to seek employment, which led to the rise in commodizing labor through labor markets. Bruh... Last time I checked, bonded labor/ serfdom wasn't capitalistic 🤦🏼🙄
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Personally, I've been interested in two grassroots groups focused on economic democracy, called the Next System Project and the Democracy Collaborative. They have devised a way to keep production local and contract service to cooperatives, called the Preston Model. They have helped multiple cities struggling with job loss due to factory closures build back their communities, in the US and UK. In addition, trade unions, collectives, public banks, credit unions, community land trusts, CSA's, and many other democratically controlled institutions can work together to create democratic networks outside the market to create an economy that doesn't reduce people, their governments, and the environment to a monetary value. I think this can be a viable strategy to give people the autonomy over their work. I believe economic democracy is the only way people who work for the economy will have the economy work for them, their families, and the planet too.
This way of revitalizing communities by building community wealth has helped many communities all over the globe, and it is utilized by the UK labor party and touted by Jeremy Corbyn. Preston, Lancashire became the most improved city in the UK because of community wealth building. Not to mention, much of the progress in labor rights has been due to union's collective power. The thing that draws my conviction to the movement is that I can see it now, helping empower people to live happier, healthier, and wealthier lives.
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