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On twitter @housetrotter made this extremely pertinent observation:
We make jokes about “after the revolution,” but the fact is I don’t know how we get to revolution and it scares the shit out of me.
Here is the problem:
This statement:
Capitalism
???
Communism
Practically translates into this statement:
Capitalism
Wages go to zero
Communism
And this statement:
Capitalism (Jobs, jobs, jobs!)
100% unemployment
Communism
It’s real easy to figure out how we get to communism when capitalism does all the dirty work. It’s that middle part, when wages go to zero and unemployment goes to 100%, that bothers people, I guess. People have a really hard time imagining a future where no one has a job or wages.
Fine. If we can’t figure out how to drive our own wages to zero, capital can do it for us.
The problem with this is that that’s also the definition of communism. People know, of course, that under communism no one has a job or wages, but they just can’t see how to get there without a huge bother. So, they try to figure out a way to get to communism in such a way that everyone will still have a job and good wages. They keep running into this brick wall and become despondent.
No need to be despondent: capitalism is going to take all of your jobs and all of your wages and leave you with nothing. If you can’t figure out how to discard your own jobs and wages, capitalism will do it for you. Getting rid of your jobs and wages is all capitalism does. Capitalism is very good at it. Of course, you probably won’t like how capitalism does this — but it gets the job done.
If we do not figure out how to get rid of our own jobs and wages, more people will turn to fascists like Trump who promises to create jobs. And Trump will do this by expelling migrants, pumping more fossil fuels into the atmosphere and stripping labor of it protections. All because you want to cling to jobs and wages. There is no way to create jobs without expelling migrants, pumping fossil fuels into the atmosphere and stripping labor of its protections. If you don’t want to expel migrants, pump fossil fuels into the atmosphere and strip labor of its protections, stop demanding jobs. Demand less jobs and lower wages, instead.
Counter-intuitive, I know, but you have no choice if you want to get to communism.
It’s almost as if jobs only serve capital and wages only serve to constrict subsistence. How could that be? How could it be that jobs and wages only serve capital, not wage labor. I mean, isn’t it called “wage” labor? Doesn’t that mean it serve the wage worker? Why would they name it that if it served capital. Capitalism is so bizarre. Who would have imagined wage labor serves capital, not workers? Seems just wrong that that happens.
If there was any justice in the world, wage labor would make workers rich, not non-workers. Who could have imagined its the exact opposite? Who could have imagined that the more we work, the poorer we get and this because our own labor impoverishes us?
If our own labor impoverishes us, is it just possible that less labor might slow or even reverse our impoverishment?
Nah! That’s silly.
How can you end poverty by working less? How could you increase your subsistence by lowering your wages? Everybody knows two dollars buy more groceries than one dollar; which is why six times higher wages today means we have lower real income than in 1970 … wait, wha…? That’s not right. Our wages have gone up for fifty years, but our real income has dropped? How did that happen?
More people working more hours and earning more dollars equals a lower standard of living than in 1970, when productivity has increased at least four-fold over that period?
Could this possibly be because more people working more hours doesn’t raise the standard of living, but lowers it? Could it be that we only think more work means more income because, like imbeciles, we look at the pretty pieces of paper we are paid? But when we actually look at what we can afford with those pretty pieces of paper, we actually make less than a minimum wage worker in 1970.