And if your aren’t in a union, you can start one, and if it’s unlikely you’ll ever be in a union because of your career, it doesn’t mean you can’t help out other unions get informed about it.
I think we'd get a lot farther if we were proposing a new social contract and expecting our capitalistic overlords to adhere to that contract.
If we fulfill our side of the bargain they must fulfill their side of the bargain.
Very simple things like, you must be immune to going bankrupt due to medical debt for your entire life as long as you are participating in the workforce or have retired from it after a full life of participation.
If you graduate from college your job must pay you enough money to pay off your student loans in 5 years while renting an apartment all by yourself and taking at least one week long vacation every year to a place you've never been before.
If you have graduated from college and you have paid off your student loans then you must be able to afford a house.
If you have purchased a house you must be able to pay it off before you are 60 years old.
If you have paid off your house then you must have a retirement account that will ensure that you will live a good life in your Twilight years.
They can figure out all of the details, everyone should be able to hash it out, and everyone would be happier knowing that there are liberties and certainties about the outcome of their participation in life regardless of the form that participation takes.
It's really fucking simple but nobody is putting it into words.
Well, you see. That’s the promise that has been made to us since birth. We even grew socialized to live like that’s what we are supposed to get. In a sense, most of the estate socialism I know of is focused on what you say.
Yet, after so many years living in this system, I’m convinced that asking nicely or having hierarchies just doesn’t cut it because the mere existence of an asymmetry in power means we are the ones under the boot. Money is just a reflection of that asymmetry. It can buy you governors, mass media, hired guns, etc.
As long as that difference of political power exists, no matter how “fairer” it can be, as long as you are on the side of the governed, we are on the losing end, my friend.
And you wanna know the saddest part? We, the people, are bombarded every day with propaganda focused on dividing us and discouraging us from pursuing how we can organize with each other in a way more organic way. But, of course, the discourse of hate is against ethnic groups, genders, sexual preferences, and religions… The media they own (the majority we can access) will try their best to deflect the fault of everything happening with justice and ecology to us instead of them.
I would say that running a race without goalposts is part of the problem.
I don't mind that someone else is richer than me, but I do mind living a life where everything boils down to raw luck.
I want definite, attainable, sustainable goals that lead to static positive average happiness for everyone rather than misery for the meek and glory for the assholes.
I understand your point of view since I have shared it for a long time.
It’s just that, you’ll notice, the way the social system is framed makes it impossible to have those things. The argument is that, as long as there is a hierarchy, you don’t have a say in how things are run: others will decide for you, and those others have interests that don’t align with the well-being of all to increase their power. Ala, power begets power, or money attracts more money. As you have seen, it occurred in the news or economic analysis.
Now, that’s my position, and I align with eco-anarchism. So, to be fair to you and give you space to find your own answers, I invite you to study the subject of politics. So, to point you in the general direction of people (like anarchists) who care about open education (since our interest is Libertarian Socialist society and not seizing power but creating new institutions of consensus and democracy), I’ll point you to the YouTube channel of WHAT IS POLITICS? who helped me navigate the most common questions about the subject in a 101 style. Mainly to avoid falling into the trap of “worbs,” which are words that mean nothing. You have found many of those, but he’ll help you catch them when you hear them.
Keep in mind that the subject of politics can be studied from many angles since it is really complex. And one thing is sure: no “objective” studies about the subject exist since everything is checked with different interests in mind. You don’t study why some people are poorer than others if your goal is not to solve the issue. Another example is PraggerU’s changing history, facts, and data to perpetuate the validation of the capitalist hierarchies. Do you get me?
I hope this helps you to understand the problem better. It is a challenging subject, so take your time to learn at your own pace, and if you need any sources to study the topic from a libertarian socialist perspective, feel free to send me a message.
I think we should take a cue from Shawn Fain (United Auto Workers president) and prepare for a real general strike in 2028 when the Big 3 auto makers return to the negotiating table.
How do we do this? Anything that can enable those on strike to keep their homes and keep food on the table for long enough to break the capitalsts.
This means building community
Think about how we, how millions of us are going to eat when the grocery stores are closed because strikes broke supply chains or salty company owners close to spite strikers. As long as we are almost totally dependent on the capitalists, we can’t realistically expect to resist them. If you want change, start growing some of your own food as real first step. Second step is coordinating with your neighbors. Third step is figuring out what to do when your landlord come knocking.
Problem is, people are not in a position to do that. We cant just not work, or we just go homeless. It’s very much rigged and i dont know a practical way to get out of this mess on a societal level.
Community aid and action. Basically we all look after each other. It would be nice if we could get everyone to agree and work together. If we all go homeless, we pool what resources we have left together, hold nothing back, and build our own new homes.
Problem is keeping everyone on that message for long enough. Sure, it’s possible to do that for like, a week, and realistically a week is all it would take. During the COVID Lockdowns, there were many companies that felt the pressure from everyone staying home, nobody buying anything, and they pressured state governments all over the country to lift lockdowns to get people back in. They’re still fighting WFH because, if you think the residential real estate market is precarious, wait till you see the commercial market. All those companies that bought all that office space they can’t fill. So, it’s possible that a week of general striking is all it would take to cripple the entire private sector.
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