Our benevolent job creators promised that, in exchange for turning the bull loose through our blind submission, doting servitude, and complete acceptance of the destruction of the commons for their exclusive profit, they would rain down glorious golden showers of prosperity upon all of us!
We've only been waiting... looks at watch... about 50 years. They could start pissing that wealth down any second now, don't fuck this up for us!
Over 100 years. They've been talking about Horse and Sparow economics since before the 1900s. They just changed the name around 50 years ago, it's the same economic theory.
And if your aren't in a union, you can start one, and if it's unlikely you'll ever be in a union because of your career, it doesn't mean you can't help out other unions get informed about it.
Problem is keeping everyone on that message for long enough. Sure, it's possible to do that for like, a week, and realistically a week is all it would take. During the COVID Lockdowns, there were many companies that felt the pressure from everyone staying home, nobody buying anything, and they pressured state governments all over the country to lift lockdowns to get people back in. They're still fighting WFH because, if you think the residential real estate market is precarious, wait till you see the commercial market. All those companies that bought all that office space they can't fill. So, it's possible that a week of general striking is all it would take to cripple the entire private sector.
Problem is, people are not in a position to do that. We cant just not work, or we just go homeless. It's very much rigged and i dont know a practical way to get out of this mess on a societal level.
Community aid and action. Basically we all look after each other. It would be nice if we could get everyone to agree and work together. If we all go homeless, we pool what resources we have left together, hold nothing back, and build our own new homes.
Has this ever happened in America? I'm having trouble finding a historical reference with these modern search engines. I just get articles about Striketober, whatever that was.
A broad general strike? I don't think so, but the closest thing I could think of would be the the Coal Wars across Appalachia the laegest one being the Battle at Blair Mountain. All the miners and their families (they lived in company towns) armed themselves, took control of the mines they worked at and fought tooth and nail against Baldwin-Felts Detectice Agency, the Logan County Sherriff's department, WV state police and the National Guard stationed in WV.
10,000 strikers took to the mines and tried to hold out against a force of 30,000.
I think we'd get a lot farther if we were proposing a new social contract and expecting our capitalistic overlords to adhere to that contract.
If we fulfill our side of the bargain they must fulfill their side of the bargain.
Very simple things like, you must be immune to going bankrupt due to medical debt for your entire life as long as you are participating in the workforce or have retired from it after a full life of participation.
If you graduate from college your job must pay you enough money to pay off your student loans in 5 years while renting an apartment all by yourself and taking at least one week long vacation every year to a place you've never been before.
If you have graduated from college and you have paid off your student loans then you must be able to afford a house.
If you have purchased a house you must be able to pay it off before you are 60 years old.
If you have paid off your house then you must have a retirement account that will ensure that you will live a good life in your Twilight years.
They can figure out all of the details, everyone should be able to hash it out, and everyone would be happier knowing that there are liberties and certainties about the outcome of their participation in life regardless of the form that participation takes.
It's really fucking simple but nobody is putting it into words.
Well, you see. That's the promise that has been made to us since birth. We even grew socialized to live like that's what we are supposed to get.
In a sense, most of the estate socialism I know of is focused on what you say.
Yet, after so many years living in this system, I'm convinced that asking nicely or having hierarchies just doesn't cut it because the mere existence of an asymmetry in power means we are the ones under the boot. Money is just a reflection of that asymmetry. It can buy you governors, mass media, hired guns, etc.
As long as that difference of political power exists, no matter how "fairer" it can be, as long as you are on the side of the governed, we are on the losing end, my friend.
And you wanna know the saddest part? We, the people, are bombarded every day with propaganda focused on dividing us and discouraging us from pursuing how we can organize with each other in a way more organic way. But, of course, the discourse of hate is against ethnic groups, genders, sexual preferences, and religions... The media they own (the majority we can access) will try their best to deflect the fault of everything happening with justice and ecology to us instead of them.
I would say that running a race without goalposts is part of the problem.
I don't mind that someone else is richer than me, but I do mind living a life where everything boils down to raw luck.
I want definite, attainable, sustainable goals that lead to static positive average happiness for everyone rather than misery for the meek and glory for the assholes.