- Capitalism and Alternatives -

& here's why...

Posted by: Samuel Day Fassbinder ( Citizens for Mustard Greens, USA ) on October 07, 1999 at 16:05:14:

In Reply to: Condescending. posted by Nikhil Jaikumar on October 07, 1999 at 15:11:07:


: : That is such a dopey term. Nobody is a slave, except those who think of themselves as slaves.

SDF: The individual at the bottom of the current system is given a choice: work for an employer, under conditions set by that employer, or starve. This is not slavery?

: Supposing a person is perfectly content with working a 9 to 5 job and meets all his obligations? He goes to work, comes home, turns on the boob tube and drinks a 6 pack. He's not interested in amassing a fortune. He's content.

SDF: What a great justification for paying such an individual an insignificant wage!!!

: Doesn't care about Marx or Smith. Is he a wage slave, or is he your typical blue-collar worker?

: You have a fucking low opinion of blue collar people. Such apathy is at least as typical of the business class who runs our sorry world.

SDF: They're looked upon as the "little people," as Leona Helmsley called them. They're the folks who built houses for Frenchy's dad, when Frenchy claimed "his dad" built all those houses, and when I asked Frenchy how they were doing, he said he didn't know. The debate is not about the possibility of prosperity, we know the current system can produce that for its owning classes. It's about the possibility of community.

: You might be interested to knwo that the lowest-educated, poorest americans were the most likely to oppose the Vietnam war and teh least likely to buy into our whole phony capitalist ethos.

SDF: Actually, Nikhil, such people are also deeply concerned about their own survival under capitalism, since their wages are usually insufficient to meet their expenses (especially those great numbers here in the US without medical insurance) or to provide them with much security.


Follow Ups:

The Debating Room Post a Followup