AlexWhat is something society treats as normal that you secretly think is completely insane?
Capitalism.
Now there are all kinds of things people think of when you say capitalism, the free market, democracy (for some reason), etc.
But I mean the idea that the guy that owns the means of production should get the value produced by labor.
If you boil it down to that, it’s kinda crazy. You want to start a company digging holes, but you don’t have enough money to buy a backhoe.
Fred has plenty of money and can afford a backhoe. He buys it and makes you a deal, you can use his backhoe and he will own the company, you go out and dig holes and he will pay you a couple bucks an hour.
Obviously he has to charge the people that want the holes dug more than he’s paying you to make it worth his while, and he has to recoup the money he spent on the backhoe in the first place.
Fred will never pay you enough to live and save up to buy your own backhoe. After a while he’s made back all the money it cost him to purchase the backhoe.
So now the situation is this. A customer wants a hole dug, you come and dig the hole, and Fred, who has done nothing and already recouped all the money he spent to purchase the backhoe, gets most of the money. And that arrangement just goes on forever. When Fred dies, Fred Jr will inherit that backhoe, Fred Jr will have never spent a dime for that capital, in fact Fred Jr will have had a very comfortable life paid by for the sweat of your labor digging holes.
Fred Jr will get most of the value of your labor for his whole life for doing nothing at all, just because he happened to be Fred’s son.
This is the way we decide who gets the rewards of all the work humanity collectively does (under capitalist systems) and it’s resulted in a hundred or so people so insanely wealthy we can’t even conceptualize how much money they have and everyone else scraping by.
And very serious people (often paid by those billionaires) will be on the news (or replying to this very comment) telling you how this is just the only system that makes sense. But listen closely when they do, they will always say it’s good because of free markets, or competition, or democracy or something that is NOT capitalism. Capitalism rarely defends itself by talking about why it’s good for the rich guy that owns the capital to get all the value, it always misdirects you to something else, a free market or freedom just generally. The freedom to pick between 10 different ultra wealthy companies that own everything and work to make them even more wealthy for your entire life.
archonetit continues to amaze me that we can cure diseases, go to the moon, reflect on all of human history, and still the “best” we can collectively achieve in societal progress is elevating a select few while crushing the majority underfoot. The means of repression differs from feudalism to capitalism to communism, but the underlying failures remains constant: someone benefits, most do not.
LumpyPancakesHmmm.
I’m a self employed IT consultant.
On the plus side, I pay nobody except insurance, fuel, tax etc
On the minus side my earning potential is limited to the hourly rate I earn fixing stuff.
Am I still a capitalist in this case?
No, you’re just an expert. They’ve always existed – a master blacksmith would make a decent living, much better than the common serf. Nobody’s against highly talented hardworking people making more money than average, I think we all agree they deserve it.
The capitalist would be someone like you bribing the state government to create a new regulation that your profession requires a special license and your company is the only one in the state with the license and you hire in all your competitors at a wage 20% what you bill them out at. Then om your deathbed you donate a couple million for the local hospital and you go down in history as an American Hero.
That’s why there are some capitalists hate crony capitalism.
If I have a lot of rich friends who need IT support and I get exclusive deals with them, making it impossible for experts like you to get freelance deals, and practically force you to work for me for a wage, that’s capitalism. I don’t know anything about IT. I get all the contracts thanks to my connections. You do the job and get a fraction of what you would have gotten if you were able to freelance.
I worked as a conference interpreter and it works exactly like that. We cannot directly contact the clients. There are a few interpreter offices. Clients call them, they call us. They get half the payment for playing telephone.
According to marxists, a capitalist is someone who extracts the surplus value of other people’s labor.
According to non-marxist socialists, a capitalist is someone who holds decision-making power in a workplace without having been given that mandate by the workers of that workplace.
In either case, owning your own business does not in itself make you a capitalist. Having non-owner employees makes you a capitalist.
I love that you took the time to make this analogy. I’d like to share another example, and then explain why I think the above analogy maybe won’t appeal to working class folks. First, a bit of history:
Years ago, I was broke and jobless. My neighbor needed an odd job or two done. So, I tightened a few screws and painted her kitchen. She loved my work. I loved working for myself. I started painting houses. Interior only, because all I needed was a tarp and a paint brush. The customer was responsible for buying the paint up front.
Eventually, I worked my way into buying a really shitty truck and a ladder and it kept snowballing. My equipment got better. The jobs kept rolling in. I had more work than I could handle.
Now…what should I do? Should I hire someone? Try to find an equal partner? Or just turn down the work? I talked it through with several friends, and decided to hire a friend of a friend. I didn’t know the guy, so it didn’t make sense to immediately offer him a partnership. The guy didn’t know me, and wasn’t about to commit to a partnership.
So, at this point, I’m the same as “Fred”, right? I’m the owner, I’m looking for an hourly employee. Why am I the bad guy? I’m just working hard. If business is good and I can pay someone who wants the money, isn’t that a good thing?
Let’s skip ahead in your story. Fred retires. Fred Jr. inherits the business and continues to make money for doing nothing. And that’s a very valid objection to the way things work - inherited wealth is poison to a fair system. Nepotism is poison to a fair system.
On the other hand, Fred built a business. Yes, he had someone else running his backhoe. Fred was responsible for other aspects of the business, though. Admin tasks, sales, etc. He worked, there’s no shame that his was a desk job instead of a field job.
The wrap up your analogy is this:
“This is the way we decide who gets the rewards of all the work humanity collectively does (under capitalist systems) and it’s resulted in a hundred or so people so insanely wealthy we can’t even conceptualize how much money they have and everyone else scraping by.”
Let’s break down that statement, there’s a lot going on.
“This is the way we decide who gets the rewards…” Sorry, but the system we use is SO much worse than your analogy. I buy a share of stock in the company. I never meet an employee. I never meet a customer. I never even see the business. I just get paid when the company profits. The company itself is too big to fail. The government will loan them low or no interest money to ensure that it doesn’t go under. In 30 years, I can sell my stock, or I can pass it to my children. I can take loans against the unrealized value of that stock.
“it’s resulted in a hundred or so people so insanely wealthy we can’t even conceptualize how much money they have…” Again, it’s SO much worse than that. The poorest person on Forbes 400 list is worth almost $4 billion. (That list is USA citizens only, btw.) A billion dollars is inconceivable wealth to most people. At a 10% return rate, that’s $400 million per year accumulated by doing nothing but investing in the Dow. Imagine that. Enough money to give 50 of your family and friends $4 million per year AND still have $100 million income for yourself AND still have $100 million to reinvest every year. Imagine how much political influence that amount of money buys.
So, yeah. I think using a small business as an analogy for capitalism - especially a single proprietor working-class business - distracts from just how bad things really are. Thanks for reading, and hope that I didn’t offend you by jumping into the comments with this rant. :)