#wagelabor — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #wagelabor, aggregated by home.social.
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With all due respect, boss, need a lil raise for this #wagelabor #love #humanbodies #oddintimacies #blog #fiction #nonfiction #reaper https://rant.li/atmercurialatrant-li/hopefully-not-creepy-just-human
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With all due respect, boss, need a lil raise for this #wagelabor #love #humanbodies #oddintimacies #blog #fiction #nonfiction #reaper https://rant.li/atmercurialatrant-li/hopefully-not-creepy-just-human
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With all due respect, boss, need a lil raise for this #wagelabor #love #humanbodies #oddintimacies #blog #fiction #nonfiction #reaper https://rant.li/atmercurialatrant-li/hopefully-not-creepy-just-human
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With all due respect, boss, need a lil raise for this #wagelabor #love #humanbodies #oddintimacies #blog #fiction #nonfiction #reaper https://rant.li/atmercurialatrant-li/hopefully-not-creepy-just-human
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With all due respect, boss, need a lil raise for this #wagelabor #love #humanbodies #oddintimacies #blog #fiction #nonfiction #reaper https://rant.li/atmercurialatrant-li/hopefully-not-creepy-just-human
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RE: https://urbanists.social/@Streetsweeper/116341614455296369
Zoning laws do function like this -- they increase car dependence. But that's not all they do. Laws are tools, and tools only very rarely have just one capability. Tools created to solve one problem are often repurposed to solve many others. For instance, hammers were invented hundreds of thousands of years before nails, but now driving nails is a common use of hammers.
Laws are different from hammers in at least one important sense. Almost everyone who has a problem that a hammer can solve has access to hammers and the ability to use them. Laws, on the other hand, can only be created and can only be used by a very small group of people -- the ruling class. [1]
So as in this article, the ruling class uses zoning to increase car dependence because they make money from it in a variety of ways -- car sales, gasoline sales, oil, etc. But car dependence serves other purposes -- it makes people easier to track, to control, etc
And increasing car dependence is not the only ruling class solution provided by zoning. Zoning laws prevent people from running businesses out of their homes, increasing the likelihood that they'll have to work for wages -- without wage laborers capitalism would collapse. Zoning laws also prevent tenants from sharing rentals to the full extent possible, so more rental units get rented. Without a steady supply of tenants the landlord business -- quintessential capitalism -- would collapse.
Zoning laws also allow local governments to take houses away from their putative owners -- can't afford to fix your fences, keep your lawn mowed, keep your house painted, etc, and the city will fine you until you comply. Can't afford to pay? They'll take your house. Eventually it gets sold to someone else and both the city and your mortgage holder make money.
I'm sure that many of these uses weren't foreseeable when modern zoning was invented, but as I said, tools are continually repurposed to solve new problems. Since effectively only the ruling class is able to create laws and to use them effectively they get repurposed for their benefit.
Attributing purposes to tools rather than to those who wield them is a common fallacy, and it leads to serious analytic errors. When people say that the purpose e.g. of police is to protect people and that we just need to get them back to this original use -- in other words advocating for reform -- they're falling into this trap. Look at the capabilities of police, remember that those capabilities can be directed in many ways and only the ruling class is able to decide how the police are used, and it becomes clear that reform is a pipe dream.
#Zoning #ZoningLaws #ACAB #Abolition #Tools #ToolTheory #Capitalism #WageLabor #Landlords
[1] Sometimes people who aren't in the ruling class manage to use laws to their advantage, but these are edge cases. Not only that, but the very possibility of non-rulers using laws serves as one of capitalism's many safety valves. When it does happen it relieves pressure from below and capitalism lives another day. Such cases are also examples of the ruling class using the laws
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RE: https://urbanists.social/@Streetsweeper/116341614455296369
Zoning laws do function like this -- they increase car dependence. But that's not all they do. Laws are tools, and tools only very rarely have just one capability. Tools created to solve one problem are often repurposed to solve many others. For instance, hammers were invented hundreds of thousands of years before nails, but now driving nails is a common use of hammers.
Laws are different from hammers in at least one important sense. Almost everyone who has a problem that a hammer can solve has access to hammers and the ability to use them. Laws, on the other hand, can only be created and can only be used by a very small group of people -- the ruling class. [1]
So as in this article, the ruling class uses zoning to increase car dependence because they make money from it in a variety of ways -- car sales, gasoline sales, oil, etc. But car dependence serves other purposes -- it makes people easier to track, to control, etc
And increasing car dependence is not the only ruling class solution provided by zoning. Zoning laws prevent people from running businesses out of their homes, increasing the likelihood that they'll have to work for wages -- without wage laborers capitalism would collapse. Zoning laws also prevent tenants from sharing rentals to the full extent possible, so more rental units get rented. Without a steady supply of tenants the landlord business -- quintessential capitalism -- would collapse.
Zoning laws also allow local governments to take houses away from their putative owners -- can't afford to fix your fences, keep your lawn mowed, keep your house painted, etc, and the city will fine you until you comply. Can't afford to pay? They'll take your house. Eventually it gets sold to someone else and both the city and your mortgage holder make money.
I'm sure that many of these uses weren't foreseeable when modern zoning was invented, but as I said, tools are continually repurposed to solve new problems. Since effectively only the ruling class is able to create laws and to use them effectively they get repurposed for their benefit.
Attributing purposes to tools rather than to those who wield them is a common fallacy, and it leads to serious analytic errors. When people say that the purpose e.g. of police is to protect people and that we just need to get them back to this original use -- in other words advocating for reform -- they're falling into this trap. Look at the capabilities of police, remember that those capabilities can be directed in many ways and only the ruling class is able to decide how the police are used, and it becomes clear that reform is a pipe dream.
#Zoning #ZoningLaws #ACAB #Abolition #Tools #ToolTheory #Capitalism #WageLabor #Landlords
[1] Sometimes people who aren't in the ruling class manage to use laws to their advantage, but these are edge cases. Not only that, but the very possibility of non-rulers using laws serves as one of capitalism's many safety valves. When it does happen it relieves pressure from below and capitalism lives another day. Such cases are also examples of the ruling class using the laws
-
RE: https://urbanists.social/@Streetsweeper/116341614455296369
Zoning laws do function like this -- they increase car dependence. But that's not all they do. Laws are tools, and tools only very rarely have just one capability. Tools created to solve one problem are often repurposed to solve many others. For instance, hammers were invented hundreds of thousands of years before nails, but now driving nails is a common use of hammers.
Laws are different from hammers in at least one important sense. Almost everyone who has a problem that a hammer can solve has access to hammers and the ability to use them. Laws, on the other hand, can only be created and can only be used by a very small group of people -- the ruling class. [1]
So as in this article, the ruling class uses zoning to increase car dependence because they make money from it in a variety of ways -- car sales, gasoline sales, oil, etc. But car dependence serves other purposes -- it makes people easier to track, to control, etc
And increasing car dependence is not the only ruling class solution provided by zoning. Zoning laws prevent people from running businesses out of their homes, increasing the likelihood that they'll have to work for wages -- without wage laborers capitalism would collapse. Zoning laws also prevent tenants from sharing rentals to the full extent possible, so more rental units get rented. Without a steady supply of tenants the landlord business -- quintessential capitalism -- would collapse.
Zoning laws also allow local governments to take houses away from their putative owners -- can't afford to fix your fences, keep your lawn mowed, keep your house painted, etc, and the city will fine you until you comply. Can't afford to pay? They'll take your house. Eventually it gets sold to someone else and both the city and your mortgage holder make money.
I'm sure that many of these uses weren't foreseeable when modern zoning was invented, but as I said, tools are continually repurposed to solve new problems. Since effectively only the ruling class is able to create laws and to use them effectively they get repurposed for their benefit.
Attributing purposes to tools rather than to those who wield them is a common fallacy, and it leads to serious analytic errors. When people say that the purpose e.g. of police is to protect people and that we just need to get them back to this original use -- in other words advocating for reform -- they're falling into this trap. Look at the capabilities of police, remember that those capabilities can be directed in many ways and only the ruling class is able to decide how the police are used, and it becomes clear that reform is a pipe dream.
#Zoning #ZoningLaws #ACAB #Abolition #Tools #ToolTheory #Capitalism #WageLabor #Landlords
[1] Sometimes people who aren't in the ruling class manage to use laws to their advantage, but these are edge cases. Not only that, but the very possibility of non-rulers using laws serves as one of capitalism's many safety valves. When it does happen it relieves pressure from below and capitalism lives another day. Such cases are also examples of the ruling class using the laws
-
RE: https://urbanists.social/@Streetsweeper/116341614455296369
Zoning laws do function like this -- they increase car dependence. But that's not all they do. Laws are tools, and tools only very rarely have just one capability. Tools created to solve one problem are often repurposed to solve many others. For instance, hammers were invented hundreds of thousands of years before nails, but now driving nails is a common use of hammers.
Laws are different from hammers in at least one important sense. Almost everyone who has a problem that a hammer can solve has access to hammers and the ability to use them. Laws, on the other hand, can only be created and can only be used by a very small group of people -- the ruling class. [1]
So as in this article, the ruling class uses zoning to increase car dependence because they make money from it in a variety of ways -- car sales, gasoline sales, oil, etc. But car dependence serves other purposes -- it makes people easier to track, to control, etc
And increasing car dependence is not the only ruling class solution provided by zoning. Zoning laws prevent people from running businesses out of their homes, increasing the likelihood that they'll have to work for wages -- without wage laborers capitalism would collapse. Zoning laws also prevent tenants from sharing rentals to the full extent possible, so more rental units get rented. Without a steady supply of tenants the landlord business -- quintessential capitalism -- would collapse.
Zoning laws also allow local governments to take houses away from their putative owners -- can't afford to fix your fences, keep your lawn mowed, keep your house painted, etc, and the city will fine you until you comply. Can't afford to pay? They'll take your house. Eventually it gets sold to someone else and both the city and your mortgage holder make money.
I'm sure that many of these uses weren't foreseeable when modern zoning was invented, but as I said, tools are continually repurposed to solve new problems. Since effectively only the ruling class is able to create laws and to use them effectively they get repurposed for their benefit.
Attributing purposes to tools rather than to those who wield them is a common fallacy, and it leads to serious analytic errors. When people say that the purpose e.g. of police is to protect people and that we just need to get them back to this original use -- in other words advocating for reform -- they're falling into this trap. Look at the capabilities of police, remember that those capabilities can be directed in many ways and only the ruling class is able to decide how the police are used, and it becomes clear that reform is a pipe dream.
#Zoning #ZoningLaws #ACAB #Abolition #Tools #ToolTheory #Capitalism #WageLabor #Landlords
[1] Sometimes people who aren't in the ruling class manage to use laws to their advantage, but these are edge cases. Not only that, but the very possibility of non-rulers using laws serves as one of capitalism's many safety valves. When it does happen it relieves pressure from below and capitalism lives another day. Such cases are also examples of the ruling class using the laws
-
RE: https://urbanists.social/@Streetsweeper/116341614455296369
Zoning laws do function like this -- they increase car dependence. But that's not all they do. Laws are tools, and tools only very rarely have just one capability. Tools created to solve one problem are often repurposed to solve many others. For instance, hammers were invented hundreds of thousands of years before nails, but now driving nails is a common use of hammers.
Laws are different from hammers in at least one important sense. Almost everyone who has a problem that a hammer can solve has access to hammers and the ability to use them. Laws, on the other hand, can only be created and can only be used by a very small group of people -- the ruling class. [1]
So as in this article, the ruling class uses zoning to increase car dependence because they make money from it in a variety of ways -- car sales, gasoline sales, oil, etc. But car dependence serves other purposes -- it makes people easier to track, to control, etc
And increasing car dependence is not the only ruling class solution provided by zoning. Zoning laws prevent people from running businesses out of their homes, increasing the likelihood that they'll have to work for wages -- without wage laborers capitalism would collapse. Zoning laws also prevent tenants from sharing rentals to the full extent possible, so more rental units get rented. Without a steady supply of tenants the landlord business -- quintessential capitalism -- would collapse.
Zoning laws also allow local governments to take houses away from their putative owners -- can't afford to fix your fences, keep your lawn mowed, keep your house painted, etc, and the city will fine you until you comply. Can't afford to pay? They'll take your house. Eventually it gets sold to someone else and both the city and your mortgage holder make money.
I'm sure that many of these uses weren't foreseeable when modern zoning was invented, but as I said, tools are continually repurposed to solve new problems. Since effectively only the ruling class is able to create laws and to use them effectively they get repurposed for their benefit.
Attributing purposes to tools rather than to those who wield them is a common fallacy, and it leads to serious analytic errors. When people say that the purpose e.g. of police is to protect people and that we just need to get them back to this original use -- in other words advocating for reform -- they're falling into this trap. Look at the capabilities of police, remember that those capabilities can be directed in many ways and only the ruling class is able to decide how the police are used, and it becomes clear that reform is a pipe dream.
#Zoning #ZoningLaws #ACAB #Abolition #Tools #ToolTheory #Capitalism #WageLabor #Landlords
[1] Sometimes people who aren't in the ruling class manage to use laws to their advantage, but these are edge cases. Not only that, but the very possibility of non-rulers using laws serves as one of capitalism's many safety valves. When it does happen it relieves pressure from below and capitalism lives another day. Such cases are also examples of the ruling class using the laws
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Hype for the Future 68A: Is Work a Symptom of Capitalism?
Preamble In the vast majority of modern corporate jobs, income streams remain unethically minimized, and upward mobility is largely restricted in the same manner. However, what if work is a symptom of an overall hostile and unethical economic system? Introduction While not every job is a symptom of an unethical society, far too many people are working in corporate chains, many of which are unethical to begin with. Regarding even the essentials of food and drinks, profit is served over […] -
Hype for the Future 68A: Is Work a Symptom of Capitalism?
Preamble In the vast majority of modern corporate jobs, income streams remain unethically minimized, and upward mobility is largely restricted in the same manner. However, what if work is a symptom of an overall hostile and unethical economic system? Introduction While not every job is a symptom of an unethical society, far too many people are working in corporate chains, many of which are unethical to begin with. Regarding even the essentials of food and drinks, profit is served over […] -
Hype for the Future 68A: Is Work a Symptom of Capitalism?
Preamble In the vast majority of modern corporate jobs, income streams remain unethically minimized, and upward mobility is largely restricted in the same manner. However, what if work is a symptom of an overall hostile and unethical economic system? Introduction While not every job is a symptom of an unethical society, far too many people are working in corporate chains, many of which are unethical to begin with. Regarding even the essentials of food and drinks, profit is served over […] -
Hype for the Future 68A: Is Work a Symptom of Capitalism?
Preamble In the vast majority of modern corporate jobs, income streams remain unethically minimized, and upward mobility is largely restricted in the same manner. However, what if work is a symptom of an overall hostile and unethical economic system? Introduction While not every job is a symptom of an unethical society, far too many people are working in corporate chains, many of which are unethical to begin with. Regarding even the essentials of food and drinks, profit is served over […] -
Hype for the Future 15C: Anticapitalist and Degrowth Proofs
While capitalism may not be morally equivalent to human slavery and slave labor, numerous fundamental similarities exist. Even though society has supposedly advanced beyond legally enforced racism, sexism, and even ableism, capitalism continues to promote all three of the discriminatory practices. novaTopFlex believes that capitalism is fundamentally a crisis and essentially the equivalent of human slavery and slave labor, even without the moral connotations. Unfortunately, modern day, […] -
Hype for the Future 15C: Anticapitalist and Degrowth Proofs
While capitalism may not be morally equivalent to human slavery and slave labor, numerous fundamental similarities exist. Even though society has supposedly advanced beyond legally enforced racism, sexism, and even ableism, capitalism continues to promote all three of the discriminatory practices. novaTopFlex believes that capitalism is fundamentally a crisis and essentially the equivalent of human slavery and slave labor, even without the moral connotations. Unfortunately, modern day, […] -
Hype for the Future 15C: Anticapitalist and Degrowth Proofs
While capitalism may not be morally equivalent to human slavery and slave labor, numerous fundamental similarities exist. Even though society has supposedly advanced beyond legally enforced racism, sexism, and even ableism, capitalism continues to promote all three of the discriminatory practices. novaTopFlex believes that capitalism is fundamentally a crisis and essentially the equivalent of human slavery and slave labor, even without the moral connotations. Unfortunately, modern day, […] -
Hype for the Future 15C: Anticapitalist and Degrowth Proofs
While capitalism may not be morally equivalent to human slavery and slave labor, numerous fundamental similarities exist. Even though society has supposedly advanced beyond legally enforced racism, sexism, and even ableism, capitalism continues to promote all three of the discriminatory practices. novaTopFlex believes that capitalism is fundamentally a crisis and essentially the equivalent of human slavery and slave labor, even without the moral connotations. Unfortunately, modern day, […] -
Hype for the Future 15C: Anticapitalist and Degrowth Proofs
While capitalism may not be morally equivalent to human slavery and slave labor, numerous fundamental similarities exist. Even though society has supposedly advanced beyond legally enforced racism, sexism, and even ableism, capitalism continues to promote all three of the discriminatory practices. novaTopFlex believes that capitalism is fundamentally a crisis and essentially the equivalent of human slavery and slave labor, even without the moral connotations. Unfortunately, modern day, […] -
Why do governments discourage work by collecting income taxes?
#incometaxes #labor #wagelabor #workers #taxes #taxpolicies #incentives #economics -
Why do governments discourage work by collecting income taxes?
#incometaxes #labor #wagelabor #workers #taxes #taxpolicies #incentives #economics -
Why do governments discourage work by collecting income taxes?
#incometaxes #labor #wagelabor #workers #taxes #taxpolicies #incentives #economics -
Why do governments discourage work by collecting income taxes?
#incometaxes #labor #wagelabor #workers #taxes #taxpolicies #incentives #economics -
Why do governments discourage work by collecting income taxes?
#incometaxes #labor #wagelabor #workers #taxes #taxpolicies #incentives #economics -
Today in History — September 2, 1789
The U.S. Treasury Department was established.
Alexander Hamilton became its first Secretary.I love the musical.
I don’t even mind taxes all that much.
Annoying, sure—but fine.But goddamnit, I hate wage labor.
And that’s all I can think about.#ThisDayInHistory #Hamilton #USTreasury #WageLabor #Capitalism #LaborHistory
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Just published a piece about working bar shifts where the sky is your real boss.
Rain, bad timing, the mythical “discerning guest,” and why sometimes stoicism is the only thing keeping you from losing your mind behind the stick.
Read it here → https://substack.com/home/post/p-172353285
#BartenderLife #ServiceIndustry #Labor #Weather #PoolBar #HospitalityTruths #WageLabor #PhilosophyOfWork
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Just published a piece about working bar shifts where the sky is your real boss.
Rain, bad timing, the mythical “discerning guest,” and why sometimes stoicism is the only thing keeping you from losing your mind behind the stick.
Read it here → https://substack.com/home/post/p-172353285
#BartenderLife #ServiceIndustry #Labor #Weather #PoolBar #HospitalityTruths #WageLabor #PhilosophyOfWork
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Just published a piece about working bar shifts where the sky is your real boss.
Rain, bad timing, the mythical “discerning guest,” and why sometimes stoicism is the only thing keeping you from losing your mind behind the stick.
Read it here → https://substack.com/home/post/p-172353285
#BartenderLife #ServiceIndustry #Labor #Weather #PoolBar #HospitalityTruths #WageLabor #PhilosophyOfWork
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Just published a piece about working bar shifts where the sky is your real boss.
Rain, bad timing, the mythical “discerning guest,” and why sometimes stoicism is the only thing keeping you from losing your mind behind the stick.
Read it here → https://substack.com/home/post/p-172353285
#BartenderLife #ServiceIndustry #Labor #Weather #PoolBar #HospitalityTruths #WageLabor #PhilosophyOfWork
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Millennials and Gen Z DEMAND A 4 Day Work Week | Work Life Balance
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Millennials and Gen Z DEMAND A 4 Day Work Week | Work Life Balance
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Millennials and Gen Z DEMAND A 4 Day Work Week | Work Life Balance
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Millennials and Gen Z DEMAND A 4 Day Work Week | Work Life Balance
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Lately I've been trying to work on an essay about how I feel a lot of contemporary discourse around #neurodiversity in workplaces suffers from a failure to really grasp the primary, fundamental social function of #WageLabor. It seems very commonly argued (if sometimes only implicitly) that #neurodivergent people have unique talents that can benefit businesses' "bottom lines" if only they are unlocked by appropriate accomodations. Therefore, employers who don't embrace neurodiversity in their workplaces are clearly just uninformed about its upsides, and from there it follows that they can be persuaded to become more #autism- / #ADHD- / etc-friendly through education and awareness campaigns.
1 / 🧵
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Lately I've been trying to work on an essay about how I feel a lot of contemporary discourse around #neurodiversity in workplaces suffers from a failure to really grasp the primary, fundamental social function of #WageLabor. It seems very commonly argued (if sometimes only implicitly) that #neurodivergent people have unique talents that can benefit businesses' "bottom lines" if only they are unlocked by appropriate accomodations. Therefore, employers who don't embrace neurodiversity in their workplaces are clearly just uninformed about its upsides, and from there it follows that they can be persuaded to become more #autism- / #ADHD- / etc-friendly through education and awareness campaigns.
1 / 🧵
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Lately I've been trying to work on an essay about how I feel a lot of contemporary discourse around #neurodiversity in workplaces suffers from a failure to really grasp the primary, fundamental social function of #WageLabor. It seems very commonly argued (if sometimes only implicitly) that #neurodivergent people have unique talents that can benefit businesses' "bottom lines" if only they are unlocked by appropriate accomodations. Therefore, employers who don't embrace neurodiversity in their workplaces are clearly just uninformed about its upsides, and from there it follows that they can be persuaded to become more #autism- / #ADHD- / etc-friendly through education and awareness campaigns.
1 / 🧵
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Lately I've been trying to work on an essay about how I feel a lot of contemporary discourse around #neurodiversity in workplaces suffers from a failure to really grasp the primary, fundamental social function of #WageLabor. It seems very commonly argued (if sometimes only implicitly) that #neurodivergent people have unique talents that can benefit businesses' "bottom lines" if only they are unlocked by appropriate accomodations. Therefore, employers who don't embrace neurodiversity in their workplaces are clearly just uninformed about its upsides, and from there it follows that they can be persuaded to become more #autism- / #ADHD- / etc-friendly through education and awareness campaigns.
1 / 🧵
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Lately I've been trying to work on an essay about how I feel a lot of contemporary discourse around #neurodiversity in workplaces suffers from a failure to really grasp the primary, fundamental social function of #WageLabor. It seems very commonly argued (if sometimes only implicitly) that #neurodivergent people have unique talents that can benefit businesses' "bottom lines" if only they are unlocked by appropriate accomodations. Therefore, employers who don't embrace neurodiversity in their workplaces are clearly just uninformed about its upsides, and from there it follows that they can be persuaded to become more #autism- / #ADHD- / etc-friendly through education and awareness campaigns.
1 / 🧵
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In his brilliant dissertation, “Property and the Power to Say No,” Karl Widerquist cites an exchange that occurred between Union soldiers and a group of newly emancipated people in Savannah, Georgia. When asked what they needed to secure their freedom:
“The group chose at its spokesman Garrison Frazier, a Baptist minister who had purchased the liberty of his wife and himself in 1856. Asked what he understood by slavery, Frazier responded that it meant one person's ‘receiving by irresistible power the work of another man, and not by his consent.’ Freedom he defined as ‘placing us where we could reap the fruit of our own labor, and take care of ourselves;’ the best way to accomplish this was ‘to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor.’”
There’s a remarkably clear and clear-eyed understanding of freedom and unfreedom from people who had undeniable first-hand knowledge of slavery.
Many people, when they hear the phrase “wage slavery,” take offense to the idea of comparing the horrors of chattel slavery to the quite often banal insults of wage labor. But the thing that defines slavery isn’t “bad working conditions;” it’s the absence of the power to say “no.”
And both Douglas and Frazier were quite clear: wage laborers are as unfree as they were as slaves.
2/6
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a73bad11-7004-43f2-a02d-5ed151078476
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In his brilliant dissertation, “Property and the Power to Say No,” Karl Widerquist cites an exchange that occurred between Union soldiers and a group of newly emancipated people in Savannah, Georgia. When asked what they needed to secure their freedom:
“The group chose at its spokesman Garrison Frazier, a Baptist minister who had purchased the liberty of his wife and himself in 1856. Asked what he understood by slavery, Frazier responded that it meant one person's ‘receiving by irresistible power the work of another man, and not by his consent.’ Freedom he defined as ‘placing us where we could reap the fruit of our own labor, and take care of ourselves;’ the best way to accomplish this was ‘to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor.’”
There’s a remarkably clear and clear-eyed understanding of freedom and unfreedom from people who had undeniable first-hand knowledge of slavery.
Many people, when they hear the phrase “wage slavery,” take offense to the idea of comparing the horrors of chattel slavery to the quite often banal insults of wage labor. But the thing that defines slavery isn’t “bad working conditions;” it’s the absence of the power to say “no.”
And both Douglas and Frazier were quite clear: wage laborers are as unfree as they were as slaves.
2/6
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a73bad11-7004-43f2-a02d-5ed151078476
-
In his brilliant dissertation, “Property and the Power to Say No,” Karl Widerquist cites an exchange that occurred between Union soldiers and a group of newly emancipated people in Savannah, Georgia. When asked what they needed to secure their freedom:
“The group chose at its spokesman Garrison Frazier, a Baptist minister who had purchased the liberty of his wife and himself in 1856. Asked what he understood by slavery, Frazier responded that it meant one person's ‘receiving by irresistible power the work of another man, and not by his consent.’ Freedom he defined as ‘placing us where we could reap the fruit of our own labor, and take care of ourselves;’ the best way to accomplish this was ‘to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor.’”
There’s a remarkably clear and clear-eyed understanding of freedom and unfreedom from people who had undeniable first-hand knowledge of slavery.
Many people, when they hear the phrase “wage slavery,” take offense to the idea of comparing the horrors of chattel slavery to the quite often banal insults of wage labor. But the thing that defines slavery isn’t “bad working conditions;” it’s the absence of the power to say “no.”
And both Douglas and Frazier were quite clear: wage laborers are as unfree as they were as slaves.
2/6
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a73bad11-7004-43f2-a02d-5ed151078476
-
In his brilliant dissertation, “Property and the Power to Say No,” Karl Widerquist cites an exchange that occurred between Union soldiers and a group of newly emancipated people in Savannah, Georgia. When asked what they needed to secure their freedom:
“The group chose at its spokesman Garrison Frazier, a Baptist minister who had purchased the liberty of his wife and himself in 1856. Asked what he understood by slavery, Frazier responded that it meant one person's ‘receiving by irresistible power the work of another man, and not by his consent.’ Freedom he defined as ‘placing us where we could reap the fruit of our own labor, and take care of ourselves;’ the best way to accomplish this was ‘to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor.’”
There’s a remarkably clear and clear-eyed understanding of freedom and unfreedom from people who had undeniable first-hand knowledge of slavery.
Many people, when they hear the phrase “wage slavery,” take offense to the idea of comparing the horrors of chattel slavery to the quite often banal insults of wage labor. But the thing that defines slavery isn’t “bad working conditions;” it’s the absence of the power to say “no.”
And both Douglas and Frazier were quite clear: wage laborers are as unfree as they were as slaves.
2/6
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a73bad11-7004-43f2-a02d-5ed151078476
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"A complex and sophisticated industrial bureaucracy cannot function efficiently with a resentful proletariat. What it needs is apathy[.]"
— from "Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative" by Daniel & Gabriel Cohn-Bendit (1968)I think this is a decent quote, but I would change two things: a) add in the word "organized" and, b) expand the idea beyond industrial to other kinds of work.
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"A complex and sophisticated industrial bureaucracy cannot function efficiently with a resentful proletariat. What it needs is apathy[.]"
— from "Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative" by Daniel & Gabriel Cohn-Bendit (1968)I think this is a decent quote, but I would change two things: a) add in the word "organized" and, b) expand the idea beyond industrial to other kinds of work.
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"A complex and sophisticated industrial bureaucracy cannot function efficiently with a resentful proletariat. What it needs is apathy[.]"
— from "Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative" by Daniel & Gabriel Cohn-Bendit (1968)I think this is a decent quote, but I would change two things: a) add in the word "organized" and, b) expand the idea beyond industrial to other kinds of work.
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"A complex and sophisticated industrial bureaucracy cannot function efficiently with a resentful proletariat. What it needs is apathy[.]"
— from "Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative" by Daniel & Gabriel Cohn-Bendit (1968)I think this is a decent quote, but I would change two things: a) add in the word "organized" and, b) expand the idea beyond industrial to other kinds of work.
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"A complex and sophisticated industrial bureaucracy cannot function efficiently with a resentful proletariat. What it needs is apathy[.]"
— from "Obsolete Communism: The Left-Wing Alternative" by Daniel & Gabriel Cohn-Bendit (1968)I think this is a decent quote, but I would change two things: a) add in the word "organized" and, b) expand the idea beyond industrial to other kinds of work.
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CW: American lawn-care standards are a violently enforced labor control device, like so many other aspects of American life. An argument.
The idea that contemporary American lawn-care standards are the result of brainwashing is politically naive. There's nothing voluntary about lawns. Lawns are an essential tool in contemporary capital's violent urban labor control strategy.
Most American cities have mandatory lawn-care standards in their muni codes. Such laws allow cities to unilaterally bring yards up to code and bill residents for the work. Whatever the purposes behind such laws in the past, now one function is to force people into the cash economy. (1) There are dozens of laws like this, requiring residents to clear sidewalks, paint fences, shovel snow, plant specific trees, cover up graffiti, and so on.
Anyone who has enough money can pay other people to do this work, but people living on the financial edge either do it themselves in addition to job, self, and family care responsibilites or else the City does the work, bills the resident,(2) adds interest, and so on. This is too much of a loss for many people, so they make sure the damn work gets done.
If they don't, the unpaid bills pile up and the City will confiscate the property to pay them. If the residents won't leave the cops will make them leave. At this stage of American capitalism lawn care standards are enforced at gunpoint except, of course, for rich people.
QED
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(1) I believe this is akin to what @HeavenlyPossum calls a "tollbooth", but I won't speak for them.
(2) Or possibly the landlord. I feel like this is variable across cities and also probably subject to modification in lease terms.
#DownWithLawns #ClimateChange #Environment #Anarchism #Capitalism #Lawns #BillHeavey #Tollbooths #WageLabor #LaborControl
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CW: American lawn-care standards are a violently enforced labor control device, like so many other aspects of American life. An argument.
The idea that contemporary American lawn-care standards are the result of brainwashing is politically naive. There's nothing voluntary about lawns. Lawns are an essential tool in contemporary capital's violent urban labor control strategy.
Most American cities have mandatory lawn-care standards in their muni codes. Such laws allow cities to unilaterally bring yards up to code and bill residents for the work. Whatever the purposes behind such laws in the past, now one function is to force people into the cash economy. (1) There are dozens of laws like this, requiring residents to clear sidewalks, paint fences, shovel snow, plant specific trees, cover up graffiti, and so on.
Anyone who has enough money can pay other people to do this work, but people living on the financial edge either do it themselves in addition to job, self, and family care responsibilites or else the City does the work, bills the resident,(2) adds interest, and so on. This is too much of a loss for many people, so they make sure the damn work gets done.
If they don't, the unpaid bills pile up and the City will confiscate the property to pay them. If the residents won't leave the cops will make them leave. At this stage of American capitalism lawn care standards are enforced at gunpoint except, of course, for rich people.
QED
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(1) I believe this is akin to what @HeavenlyPossum calls a "tollbooth", but I won't speak for them.
(2) Or possibly the landlord. I feel like this is variable across cities and also probably subject to modification in lease terms.
#DownWithLawns #ClimateChange #Environment #Anarchism #Capitalism #Lawns #BillHeavey #Tollbooths #WageLabor #LaborControl
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CW: American lawn-care standards are a violently enforced labor control device, like so many other aspects of American life. An argument.
The idea that contemporary American lawn-care standards are the result of brainwashing is politically naive. There's nothing voluntary about lawns. Lawns are an essential tool in contemporary capital's violent urban labor control strategy.
Most American cities have mandatory lawn-care standards in their muni codes. Such laws allow cities to unilaterally bring yards up to code and bill residents for the work. Whatever the purposes behind such laws in the past, now one function is to force people into the cash economy. (1) There are dozens of laws like this, requiring residents to clear sidewalks, paint fences, shovel snow, plant specific trees, cover up graffiti, and so on.
Anyone who has enough money can pay other people to do this work, but people living on the financial edge either do it themselves in addition to job, self, and family care responsibilites or else the City does the work, bills the resident,(2) adds interest, and so on. This is too much of a loss for many people, so they make sure the damn work gets done.
If they don't, the unpaid bills pile up and the City will confiscate the property to pay them. If the residents won't leave the cops will make them leave. At this stage of American capitalism lawn care standards are enforced at gunpoint except, of course, for rich people.
QED
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(1) I believe this is akin to what @HeavenlyPossum calls a "tollbooth", but I won't speak for them.
(2) Or possibly the landlord. I feel like this is variable across cities and also probably subject to modification in lease terms.
#DownWithLawns #ClimateChange #Environment #Anarchism #Capitalism #Lawns #BillHeavey #Tollbooths #WageLabor #LaborControl