To badly paraphrase Zizek: Take their money today, then kill them tommorow
And when they say, "Why are you killing me? I gave you money!" Reply, "You idiot! Why did you give me money?"
The trouble is that isn’t an original take, and many that have tried just end up skipping into that devil’s bargain.
Why stop? Once you own 51% you now have your own PMC and can use it to overthrow the bourgeoisie state. I mean. Don't buy in in the first place but if you accidentally own more than half of a PMC, job done. Bring about the revolution comrade
Yeah, but you're obligated to wall yourself after, and if you aren't, you fucked up.
Order your PMC to wall you as your final act after you bring about the revolution
fellas is it counterrevolutionary to not keep all of your savings underneath your mattress?
"Those who play with the devil's toys come by degrees to wield his sword"
All of a sudden, you've got a financial incentive to act against your communitarian instincts. Whether consciously or not, it's there and influencing your attitudes and choices.
IMO the best response.
People have no pension, pathetic social security, and high interest rates. There is no choice. The only way to take care of yourself when you are too old to work is to invest.
I've been investing since I understood the power of capital and it is the only way I'll be able to buy a house and stop renting. It is so seductive to look at the numbers go up, it's like gambling but the odds are in your favor. Its so insidiously easy to think, ok I deserve this free money and the free money I get next year will yield even more free money which I also deserve. And it should go up forever 🤑 The most liberal people you meet will undermine public housing to protect the value of their house. Who's to say that in 40 years I won't be some boomer kneecapping young workers to protect my nest egg? What ideals are more powerful than class interests?
Everything becomes saleable and buyable. The circulation becomes the great social retort into which everything is thrown...Not even are the bones of saints, and still less are more delicate res sacrosanctae, extra commercium hominum able to withstand this alchemy. Just as every qualitative difference between commodities is extinguished in money, so money, on its side, like the radical leveller that it is, does away with all distinctions. -Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1 Ch. 3
Dude, come on. There's a huge difference between a big day trader who manipulates markets, becomes a major shareholder of a company in order to squeeze out every little bit of profit at the expense of worker, and in general just exploits as much as possible, and a guy who trades on Robinhood with his spare money.
Depends on the scale. Investing in a retirement fund? Probably smart, nobody gets a pension these days anyway so it's not like there are a lot of options and you want to be prepared if we don't get the rev by the time you're too old to work. Being a major shareholder of a company? Big yikes, sweaty
It would be dumb to just keep your money in your bank account if you have a lot of it, put that baby in an investment fund. But if you make your living from stocks, that is a bit suspect.
I initially read that as "Is it ok to own socks as a communist?". In both cases the aswer is no
You can have endless debates whether owning stocks will psychologically change people's view of capitalism etc etc. But materially, all you are neither contributing to the goal of communism nor are you hurting it. It makes no difference at all in that regard.
probably dont go out of your way to own defense contractor shares though
