as Cowbee wrote: the ‘free market’ narrative assumes the market is participatory, and that you can simply opt out (‘go live in the woods’).
but capitalism doesn’t work without a labour market, and the labour market isn’t stable without a buffer of un[der]employment. so living outside the market — and general ‘propertylessness’ — is criminalised or made so inconvenient/unsustainable that you’re left with ‘the choice’ between peonage or starvation. the people who fall into homelessness and houselessness serve as a warning to anyone who might consider ‘opting out’.
i don’t think anyone genuinely believes this is a real choice, but i’ve experienced this narrative being used to dismiss critiques of capitalism and wage slavery.
There are several independent farming communes in the USA, so it’s actually wrong to say you can’t. Living without other people at all is what is inconvenient/unsustainable as a result of the human condition, not capitalism.
They’re trying to say if you try to live on your own separate from the guvment (they think capitalism is western military for some reason) that bad men with guns will come and tear it down.
I don’t understand the message. Of course it was not voluntary, no drastic change in social structure is
A persistent Liberal narrative is that Capitalism is a system based on voluntary contracts, and therefore participation is voluntary as well.
Fair enough
as Cowbee wrote: the ‘free market’ narrative assumes the market is participatory, and that you can simply opt out (‘go live in the woods’).
but capitalism doesn’t work without a labour market, and the labour market isn’t stable without a buffer of un[der]employment. so living outside the market — and general ‘propertylessness’ — is criminalised or made so inconvenient/unsustainable that you’re left with ‘the choice’ between peonage or starvation. the people who fall into homelessness and houselessness serve as a warning to anyone who might consider ‘opting out’.
i don’t think anyone genuinely believes this is a real choice, but i’ve experienced this narrative being used to dismiss critiques of capitalism and wage slavery.
Fair enough
There are several independent farming communes in the USA, so it’s actually wrong to say you can’t. Living without other people at all is what is inconvenient/unsustainable as a result of the human condition, not capitalism.
They’re trying to say if you try to live on your own separate from the guvment (they think capitalism is western military for some reason) that bad men with guns will come and tear it down.