In the hegemonic telling, a capitalist has a vision for some productive enterprise and hires workers to execute that vision. In return for providing their labor, workers receive wages from the capitalist in a voluntary exchange that leaves both better off.

In reality, capitalists do not pay wages to workers. Instead, workers pay rents to capitalists in exchange for permission to work.

Consider the following: a feudal lord owns a manor. He demands rents from his tenant serfs, at sword point, for “permission” to use “his” manor productively. His ownership contributes nothing to their production; he merely collects rents, a form of protection racket. Whatever production is left over after rents are paid constitutes the tenants’ incomes.

Now let’s imagine that lord has decided to become a capitalist. Rather than a manor, he will now manage a “business.” Instead of collecting a share of production as rents, he will now collect all of the production of his employees. Then, he will pay some back to his employees as “wages.”

As we see, wages are a bait-and-switch that creates the illusion that wages flow from the capitalist. In reality, workers generate incomes through their productive labor. Wages do not flow from the capitalist; they are funded from the expropriated value of the workers’ labor. Without capitalists, goods and services would flow between different workers as they saw fit. Capitalists merely sit parasitically in the midst of those flows and siphon off income.

In short, we pay wages to capitalists in return for permission to provision ourselves through our own labor.

Personally I will become as openly anti-capitalist as possible so that I can inspire others to do the same, with an attitude towards eliminating most current political divisions that weakens us.

I also have a stupid idea of starting a street art phenomenon that works kinda like a virus, with writings that specifically push people to copy the behaviour. Not much but it could for sure create a small sense of organized action.

I've seen that creating groups that help the poor by gathering food and supplies and distributing them helps in making those people see that some entities that care about them DO EXIST, this helps in creating a community that can then unite against the system. Kinda show them how we'd do it no?

Anti-capitalist propaganda is also not taken very seriously by the general public, I think one reason is that a lot of us have a tendency to alienate opposing views instead of trying to understand them and then explain our alternatives rationally.

But mostly we need to start coordinating worldwide in a much more serious way which is one of the reasons I'm making this post.

Good afternoon comrades!

I’m looking for a PDF copy of “Three kinds of anti-intellectualism: Rethinking Hofstadter” by sociologist Daniel Rigney. Can anyone direct me to a platform where I might be able to find it or send it to me directly?

I’d be grateful if so. Thanks in advance!

We are a mutual aid group created to lessen the burden of capitalism. By exchanging resources, skills, and knowledge, we aim to build a system that values collaboration over competition and mutual care over profit. The goal of this group is to become a self- sustaining network of people from all walks of life who come together for the common goal of nurturing humanity; invite those you know with or without specific skills to join! @barter_collaborative

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