N E W S F L A S H
Class divisions and identity politics are cultural distractions. The real divide? Those who OWN the economy versus everyone else who has to participate in it.
“The proletariat (/ˌproʊlɪˈtɛəriət/; from Latin proletarius ‘producing offspring’) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work)” Wikipedia
This is the actual class most of us now belong to: working people, the precariat (gig-economy and zero-hours contracted), and the economically marginalized—those who, whether for social, medical, or structural reasons, are not in work.
Identity politics and cultural class divisions, especially as expressed in Britain, are theatrical distractions that undermine our potential for a unified voice. For the split now is between people who HAVE to participate in the economy, and people who OWN the economy itself.
This is not sinister, the billionaire class are simply following the logic of our economic system. Capital seeks to capture resources through ownership and exploit their value by extracting rent. They control what we cannot live without: utilities, transportation, energy, communications, credit. We have no choice but to participate, and they profit from that captivity. What is sinister is the capture of news media, and the much of mainstream politics, to further their ambitions.
The rest of us—whether we’re cleaners, doctors, business owners, gig workers, pensioners, or those excluded from work entirely—are on the same side of the economic divide. Unless we can grasp that, the billionaire class will eventually drain us dry. There is only so much wealth to go around—they can’t have it all.”
The scale of wealth
- If we travelled back in time 1 million hours, we would go back to 1911.
- If we travelled back in time 1 billion hours, we would go back to the Ice Age.
On Techno-Feudalism
“Big tech has replaced capitalism’s twin pillars – markets and profit – with its platforms and rents. With every click and scroll, we labour like serfs to increase its power.”
“Just as it displaced feudalism gradually, surreptitiously, until one day the bulk of human relations were market-based and feudalism was swept away, so capitalism today is being toppled by a new economic mode: techno-feudalism.”
Yanis Varoufakis (Economist, former Greek Finance Minister)