This content originally appeared on Go Make Things and was authored by Go Make Things
My toxic trait is that I believe access to the things you literally need to survive (food, clothes, shelter, healthcare) should be free.
I know, I know…
If people didn’t have to work to survive, why would anyone go to work?
Congratulations, you’ve just unlocked the hidden door to the capitalism engine room!
Capitalism needs poverty
Capitalism depends on the looming threat of poverty, suffering, and death to work.
Because why the fuck would someone go work for $15/hour at Burger King, standing on their feet all day while shitty customers yell at them and shitty bosses yell at them and they still don’t make enough money to pay rent, if the alternative wasn’t to curl up in a ball and literally die?
People would still work, though
Just not like that.
It’s not like stuff wouldn’t get done. Have you seen the internet!?
It’s filled with stuff people made for free just because they felt like it! Some of it silly and pointless (insomuch as art can every be pointless). A lot of it is not!
People are farming and building their own tools and inventing new shit… and then just sharing it with the world. For free!
It just wouldn’t be pointless work. Dumb work. Shitty work.
Some people can’t work
And what about people who can’t work?
People who are disabled or have to care for a loved one or simply need a break. Under capitalism, they’re forced into poverty or just have to push through and suffer.
This is all by design.
This is how the rich keep everyone else enslaved by the system, while also convincing you that if you just hustled a little harder, you could be rich like them, too.
Capitalism doesn’t drive innovation
An argument I hear a lot is something like…
An iPhone could only exist under capitalism.
First of all, that’s nonsense! Please see my comments above about the internet.
But let me ask you this: if you could live in a world where no one went hungry, died of a preventable disease, or slept on the street, but the iPhone didn’t exist, would you?
It’s a false choice, but it’s still an obvious one. Unless you’re an awful person.
Like this? A Lean Web Club membership is the best way to support my work and help me create more free content.
This content originally appeared on Go Make Things and was authored by Go Make Things
Go Make Things | Sciencx (2025-11-21T14:30:00+00:00) Essentials. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/11/21/essentials/
Please log in to upload a file.
There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.