It’s expensive to be poor. It’s harder to get out poverty than to be born wealthy with family that has connections and opportunities. Spend your money extremely wisely, because it’s the real way we vote in this system.
I’ve asked myself the question a lot lately, “What am I spending money on that’s a waste perpetuating this broken system which I could stop spending today?”
The only way to rise is to be smarter than the systems designed to drag us down. If you need a clear example, just look at a casino.
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TIL!
Should be Vimes’ Boots Theory, GNU Terry Pratchett. Many have said it, but he kicked it right in the nuts.
The opening sentence is “the Sam Vimes theory of socioeconomic unfairness, often called simply the boots theory”
Didn’t say Pratchett’s Boots theory, he was way too modest. I just personally think he’s likely one of the best satirists of his era (happy to compare to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels but with significantly more uplifting) and deserves the recognition, can we not stretch to title it with one of his more beloved characters, likely similarly modest, something of a lost art these days.(I will admit I should take it up with wiki rather than here, more comfortable here though).
You’re right about almost everything!
Spend your money extremely wisely, because it’s the real way we vote
Your power is derived from your labor (and your ability to withhold it), not from your consumption. Going on strike/protesting as part of an organized effort is when you discover your true power.
The only way to rise is to be smarter than the systems designed to drag us down.
The only way for us to rise is for us to collectivize and smash this exploitative system into pieces. We can do it. We have to.
Labor may be the source of your power, but consumption is how you fritter it away. Trade your labor for subscription plans, little conveniences that prop up the oligarchs, big luxuries like fancy car or home, and you lose your ability to withhold your labor in safety.
Withholding your labor only works if you can recruit a lot of like-minded people, each with their own safe ability to withhold labor. We can get there eventually, but you have to start with yourself.
The best thing you can buy with money is your freedom from having to earn wages to live.
The one caveat I’d add to this is that because we have to exist in this system, you don’t have to deprive yourself of all joy all the time. It’s ok to spend a few bucks on something frivolous every once in a while (within reason, of course). Do what you can, however much you can, but also make sure you’ve got the energy to keep going.
There is no production without consumption.
Yes but your power comes from your production, not your consumption. Take the example of the miners living in a company town. ALL of their consumption is captured by the company. It’s withholding labour that gives the worker power.
Nope you have it backwards. You wouldn’t have any production without consumption. If no one burned coal there would be no coal miners. Companies capture their consumption because that’s the only power the worker has, and when they’re forced to buy from the company they work for then the company has absolute power over them.
No. I don’t have it backwards. We’re using two different definitions of power.
Power, in the physical sense, comes from converting fuel to energy. In this sense you are correct. Physical power comes from consumption.
However, polticial-economic power OF THE WORKING CLASS comes from production, not consumption. This is because the rich ALSO need to eat but they do not farm. If the working class stopped farming, they would starve all people on the planet. That’s political-economic power.
Company towns capture the consumption of their workers because the company has political-economic power over the workers that precedes the worker in that the power the company wields today is based on wealth accumulation that occurred long before the worker was born. Because the company has this power, they can capture the consumption of the worker. This is how we know that consumption is not political-economic power because if it were the company town would not be able to capture it without some kind of consuming contest with the worker. Instead, because workers must eat to survive and die if they do not, consumption is a political-economic vulnerability and production is political-economic power.
The worst part is that this is most true when it comes to groceries. You can save thousands of dollars a year on groceries if you are able to invest in your pantry and freezer or afford to buy bulk.
Yup, and then on top of that the time to be able to use those bulk ingredients to prepare healthy meals. If you’re poor, stressed, and working two jobs, you don’t really have time for that right? The tax of convenience hits those with the least amount of time to invest in themselves.
One has to bite through the fatigue this society creates to cook. Why spend $10 for a single meal when you can spend that on groceries and make several. It’s just really hard some days and I get that, but take a little time here and there to cook something. It helps having something like that on the side instead of existence meals.
I’ve decided to eat out less and cook at home more often. I’ve been looking up recipes and have taken some inspiration from Great Depression era cooking. I have access to seasonings still so I can take something like a Hoover Stew and flavor it up as well as use slightly better ingredients for more flavor. It’s cheap, pretty tasty, filling, and lasts a while.
I’m fortunate I have a regional grocery chain and don’t have to shop at Wal-Mart or Target for my groceries and some toiletries. For everything else though, I gauge heavily “Do I need this at all?” I’ve reached a point where I’m not spending as much as I did and working to pay down debts as well as save.
The only way to win is not to play.
Unfortunately not playing means death so…
Not really, that’s an absolute. The way to win is to be smart about how you spend your money. Don’t be wasteful.
Capitalists own everything so any money you spend is propping them up. If i go live out in the woods they don’t win.
You’re so right. This is the way we can solve poverty in the West. We just need you to build some curriculum and train a team of trainers. Then we can send all of you out there and just teach people how to win. Such a missed opportunity over the last thousand years that we haven’t figured it out yet. Thank God you’re here
