I have working-class roots also. It’s more the glimpse beneath the online persona.
1 Like
I know, I was being a knob.
1 Like
Capitalism, by its nature, is doomed and destined to fail/implode at some point, right?
Aren’t we now just seeing the inevitable end game of capitalism and waiting for its replacement to come along?
And it’s hard to see an Octatrack smooth crossfader style transition to the next system… usually means a lot of fighting and loss of lives/livelihooods.
I’m sure I’ve read peoples comments here who have a background in social politics… 
4 Likes
This is one of the many reasons I blow my top about the gigantic missed opportunity the pandemic was. COVID was an absolute shit show but one of its benefits was that, in the UK at least, it decentralised much of our “services” workforce. I use “services” very loosely there and include the likes of the financial sector.
This decentralisation had the potential to revolutionise how we live and work. Instead, we had bozos, more often than not in London and either MPs or rich CEOs, jumping up and down and screaming for our offices to be filled back up as soon as possible. I appreciate it’s a hugely complex issue with much to factor in but I personally couldn’t give a shit if one of London’s millions of Pret’s has to shut down because people are working and living “out in the sticks”. And I certainly couldn’t give a tuppenny fuck if some rich billionaire is losing out because he can’t fill his ill gotten mega office block complex.
Anyway, I can look back fondly on the Pandemic days as a period of time where the rat race was more or less suspended for a time. Just pretty gutting that we’re headed back to pre pandemic approaches and behaviours. C’est la vie and all that.
3 Likes
According to Marx and others’ very detailed analyses, yes. Problem is, it’s really difficult to figure out exactly when, how or why it will happen.
To be truthful, I’ve no idea if we’re anywhere near the end of capitalism as a global system, and neither does anyone else, really.
The collapse of the Soviet Union was seen by many as the victory of Capitalism and the “end of history”, so there are clearly many who don’t see it ending any time soon.
This idea of “late stage capitalism” seems me to be mostly wishful thinking, as capitalism is no worse or more evil than it ever was. Yep, gentrification is shit, yep, the housing situation of many developed countries is nothing short of corruption, but it’s not as bad as the slave trade or the opium wars or many of the other horrors of international capitalism through history.
The problem seems not to be with capitalism per se, but with our ability to imagine, instigate or implement a better alternative.
Interestingly, one of the areas where I think the Soviet Union (to pick a notable alternative to capitalism) did well was in their housing provision. Captialist societies have always struggled to find an adequate urban housing policy that doesn’t seem to shine a big light on inequality within that urban area.
3 Likes
Why was this post flagged? I’m a dirty foreigner living in London, so I guess I’m part of the problem, but what he said is true. There are areas where many apartments/houses have no lights on most of the time, because owners only visit now and then.
1 Like
I watched a couple of minutes of the first video but it felt reductionist. I just finished living for three years in NYC, so I can speak to it a bit. It is still possible to find affordable housing in NYC, not so much in Manhattan, but out in the other boroughs (especially if you’re willing to ride a bus and not just the subway). It’s not London or even Toronto in that respect. The transit system still works, and the city still owns apartments that it rents, but both of these are underfunded (I don’t think any new social housing is being built). Talk of rising crime is copaganda, and the NYPD is a huge problem. The perverse incentives of commercial real estate mean too many vacant storefronts waiting for a franchise tenant or just resale for a big profit. I remember NYC in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, and it is way better than it was then, so to say it is finished is absurd, except to the extent that we’re all finished.
4 Likes
Because I said cumsponge.
2 Likes
Ooh, better go wash out your mouth with soap.
This is exactly where I get to when I think about it, it’s hard to picture an alternative even harder imagining it being implemented.
Then I think about the fact that, if we’re on computers/devices, on this forum, chances are that we’re in the top 1-5% of the wealthiest individuals on the planet, so what does giving up our own wealth to be redistributed look like in a new utopian system? And, if you’re not down with that, you’re a bit of a hypocrite to expect people in the top 1% to do the same.
Where/what are the good alternative systems? Apart from Russell Brand…
So far I can only see one way out of capitalism, and that’s a post-scarcity society. What is reassuring, I don’t see much potential for unrest during the transition. However, it’s hard to predict when will our technologies reach that point (and whether we’ll end our existence somewhere on the way there).
1 Like
Can’t wait to move out of the megalopolis to the outskirts of a 1m pop city. I love big cities, but the older I get, the less I love living in them. And with kids in plans… fuck this traffic, fuck this pollution, fuck this noise.
2 Likes
Whilst there is a huge problem with magnetic accumulation of wealth at the top - the 1% or whatever the slogan is - the other problem is access to opportunity and self-awareness of what hard graft means.
Through whatever random cards we are dealt on birth, if we have the opportunity and guidance we’ll either graft like robots to make a better living for ourselves or not. If the former,. we’ll either fail or succeed depending on what subsequent opportunity comes our way or not.
Ultimately this is a divisive model; the random chance of opportunity is critical. Some will make it through the mill of life and acquire savings and earning power, others won’t.
One aspiration should prevail: opportunity to foresee one’s future and make personal choices should be equal. Sadly, that is far from the case currently.
No matter how much better society and economies fix themselves to present opportunity for all, there will always be those who ultimately do better than others; even if totally fairly as they worked for it and succeeded; after multiple failures they persevered.
I’ve no magic bullet ideas to solve this. By the time I get to 90 years old maybe it will dawn on me, but I’ll probably be more focused on other existential matters at that point.
Fairer redistribution of the wealth of the lucky is one obvious way to mitigate the problem. As is the general level of honesty and intelligence of our political class.
Not castigating ‘socialist’ principles like healthcare, education, the right to a roof over ones head and not profiteering off critical medicines would be a start. Bail-outs should not just be for the already wealthy.
1 Like
I must be the odd one out. I’ve never been far from the city since coming here for higher education. 45+ years on I’m smack in the middle of things (have been for the last 20+ years) and have no desire to move out.
The pandemic and now the Ukraine war have both been horrible things but they’ve both also forced people to start progressing into the right direction. During the pandemic people stopped innecessary flights and tourism (unfortunately they’re slowly creeping back to the level where they were previously.)
The Ukraine war and the need to get independent from russian gas/energy has started research and investment into renewable energy like never before.
I wish humankind was able to evolve and progress without these catastrophies.
1 Like
Hope you get there soon!
I here colleagues who work in other big cities talk about their daily lives and I shudder in silence, having kids in a metropolitan area must add a lot of extra stress.
They’re among us.
As someone whose been in NYC for nearly 20 years rising crime vs. what the city was like pre-covid is not some myth… you spent 3 years in NYC in every decade since the 70s?
Isn’t creating music with consumer electronics and then expecting to get paid for your music the epitome of capitalism? I think all music should be free and people need to just get real jobs, preferably through a unionized workplace that provides decent pay and benefits. Does this offend anyone? That’s my half-thought-out idea for a utopian capitalist (with a hint of socialist) society that still values art but also values it’s working class.
Edit: wait I thought it out more, it doesn’t work, nothing works for everyone and never will
2 Likes
From the late '60’s through the late '80’s I had close family there, and visited friends of my parents (who themselves spent several years there in the '50’s). In the '90’s I had friends of my own, and brought my family on annual visits. My partner moved to NYC in 2017 so I racked up about a year of intermittent residence there before living full-time during COVID. The neighbourhood we are leaving would not have been considered safe fifteen years ago. The “safe” zone is expanding eastward along the A line.