Asklemmy

43898 readers

1403 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

270

What would you do if Capitalism didn't curb your potential and force you to sell most of your time? (lemy.lol)

submitted 1 year ago by matcha_addict@lemy.lol to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

305 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I often daydream about how society would be if we were not forced by society to pigeon hole ourselves into a specialized career for maximizing the profits of capitalists, and sell most of our time for it.

The idea of creating an entire identity for you around your "career" and only specializing in one thing would be ridiculous in another universe. Humans have so much natural potential for breadth, but that is just not compatible with capitalism.

This is evident with how most people develop "hobbies" outside of work, like wood working, gardening, electronics, music, etc. This idea of separating "hobbies" and the thing we do most of our lives (work) is ridiculous.

Here's how my world could be different if I owned my time and dedicated it to the benefit of my own and my community instead of capitalists:

more reading, learning and excusing knowledge with others.
learn more handy work, like plumbing and wood working. I love customizing my own home!
more gardening
participate in the transportation system (picking up shifts to drive a bus for example)
become a tour guide for my city
cook and bake for my neighbors
academic research
open source software (and non-software) contributions
pick up shifts at a café and make coffee, tea and smoothies for people
pick up shifts to clean up public spaces, such as parks or my own neighborhood
participate in more than one "professions". I studied one type of engineering but work in a completely different engineering. This already proves I can do both, so why not do both and others?

Humans do not like the same thing over and over every day. It's unnatural. But somehow we revolve our whole livelihood around if.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] pjhenry1216@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But the same result would occur in socialism. Even communism. I don't know what you expect to happen in any societal economic structure that would suddenly give you the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want. Jobs existed the same way all the way back then as they do now. And that was the birth of capitalism, not before it. Most didn't own their land. It belonged to a king or emperor. Sure there are exceptions and caveats, but to say capitalism didn't exist back then isn't accurate. Capitalism isn't bad. It's how it's implemented that makes it awful. I think we need to migrate to socialism via capitalism. But it requires winning of the minds of the populace and that won't happen until folks have an accurate understanding of both capitalism and whatever system you want them to transition to. I don't even know what system you're supporting with your question. It sounds like you're trying to describe some sort of star trek utopia that supposedly is advanced beyond economic systems (yet how many episodes revolved around trade deals between planets and races.... but I digress).

[–] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 2 points 1 year ago

Jobs existed the same way all the way back then as they do now.

Are you arguing that ancient societies had "jobs", and in the same way that we do nowadays? I don't intend to be rude (and sorry if I come off that way), but a simple Google search will tell you that's false, but I'd be glad to cite you exact resources as well.

And that was the birth of capitalism

While the exact beginning of capitalism may be a subject of a little debate, no expert on the matter believes it goes that far back. Again, simple Google search reveals it, and I'll be glad to cite you resources if you want.

Most didn't own their land. It belonged to a king or emperor.

This wasn't always true. There was a time that preceded class society. And not all class society is capitalism.

but to say capitalism didn't exist back then isn't accurate.

It is the scientific consensus that it did not.

I think we need to migrate to socialism via capitalism

Not sure what you mean here. Can you please elaborate?

whatever system you want them to transition to

It is simple. Instead of orienting society around profits and capital, we orient it around bettering the human condition. Instead of working our days to generate more profit for capitalists in exchange for money to buy necessities, we work to serve our interests and our own communities. So much wasted labor is suddenly removed.