ht to @golgaloth@writing.exchange
Damn, this is more of a list of “things to remember for your mental health and happiness,” capitalism or not.
Granted, for many of us these things would remind us to not get dragged into the downward capitalist spiral of equating personal worth with productivity or net worth.
Overall pretty good, but I disagree with point #2.
Land lording
Stock trading
Product Scalping
etc.
I mean that's at least usually by choice. You don't tend to accidently be a landlord for long.
But like, I dunno, call center cold calling people or something? I'm not sure telling people feeling horrible about having to do it that it's real and valid. Like sorry for them but also let's not pretend here, we'll never get to solving it otherwise
Because this is still feel-good philosophical liberalism rather than a critique of capital that has teeth
This will blow some people's minds on here: some people actually derive pleasure from work. I actually like working. I like researching, building and producing stuff. I would rather work than spend my time doing some stupid hobby. My only requirement is that I need to believe in what I am doing. I won't work just for money or out of necessity and I won't work just to make some rich asshole, richer. I also won't work out of some competitive drive like some people do. I don't even work for myself. I don't care about material riches. I only work so that I can later marvel at my creations. But, I still like working.
It's great that you have found a way to make your work fulfilling but unfortunately for a lot of people the daily grind is a matter of survival and isn't optional. If your only material riches are cheap food and a roof over your head are in jeopardy, you'll begin to care about them real quick.
You're absolutely entitled to enjoy work, particularly when it has outcomes that you value. That strikes me more as human nature than anything capitalism-specific, and something that more people should have the freedom to seek.
I work for a university as a software developer. My income is considerably lower than the private sector, but it feels so much better knowing that I am working towards something that betters the world.
None of these indicate an affinity for nor a rejection of capitalism. These are all good ideas but I wouldn’t call this list anti capitalist.
While doing nothing is good for some, I'm sure many are like myself and feel better keeping busy or at least doing things I feel are semi productive.
My wife can watch TV her whole day off. I can barely sit for an hour and watch something these days, I'd rather clean and listen to a podcast, read or at the minimum - play some vidya.
Playing video games is generally regarded as unproductive, so you're in the same boat. Reading and listening to podcasts are things that are simultaneously demanded and disparaged because productivity messaging is incoherent, but whatever.
I'm pro the message and anti whatever font this is. It looks like the slightly less annoying cousin of comic sans (yes, I know it's good for people with dyslexia, shut up).
