In capitalism there is no getting around exploiting others. Even if you have barely enough to eat this might just mean the cheap food you bought was made with more exploitation than normal (and part of it is exploiting their own consumers by ripping them off for subpar stuff).
I don’t mean that people should just “do whatever because capitalism” though, but be aware that you will be exploiting people (and the more money you have the more so) so do try to help people the more you can. And preferably by helping people in a more permanent way like moving towards a socialist society, but how exactly this help will be will vary from your conditions, your place, the time and so on.
And landlording is bad but under capitalism some may have to chose between either being a landlord/buying shares/leaving your money with the bankers/“investing” in the goverment or food insecurity/bad education/not having time for oneself… which just underscores the need to get rid of this system that puts people against people to survive just so a few can feel good about exploiting others.
You’re entirely right, but my point was that passively taking half a salary from someone for the privilege of having a roof over their head, and buying a microscopic amount of stock of a company that holds small amounts of stock in a bunch of companies are quite literally on the opposite sides of the spectrum of exploitation.
You don’t know what exploitation means in this context.
Exploitation, Marx’s term, is the mechanism by which the owning class reproduces their living via the labor of others. It is not a spectrum, it is a phenomenon with an unambiguous boundary. As an owner of stocks, you are benefiting from the increasing value of the property which is created by the people who work in those companies. As an owner of rentable properties, you are benefiting from the labor of workers who produce the value that built the property and the workers who produced the value that is converted to cash to pay the rent. As a middle manager, sales person, or marketer, your entire salary comes from the value produced by others, most often those laboring in extraction and manufacturing.
Exploitation is the phenomenon in which value is taken from the people producing it and used to reproduce a way of life for someone else.
Get your money up, king, as long as you’re not exploiting others. You’re right.
In capitalism there is no getting around exploiting others. Even if you have barely enough to eat this might just mean the cheap food you bought was made with more exploitation than normal (and part of it is exploiting their own consumers by ripping them off for subpar stuff).
I don’t mean that people should just “do whatever because capitalism” though, but be aware that you will be exploiting people (and the more money you have the more so) so do try to help people the more you can. And preferably by helping people in a more permanent way like moving towards a socialist society, but how exactly this help will be will vary from your conditions, your place, the time and so on.
And landlording is bad but under capitalism some may have to chose between either being a landlord/buying shares/leaving your money with the bankers/“investing” in the goverment or food insecurity/bad education/not having time for oneself… which just underscores the need to get rid of this system that puts people against people to survive just so a few can feel good about exploiting others.
You’re entirely right, but my point was that passively taking half a salary from someone for the privilege of having a roof over their head, and buying a microscopic amount of stock of a company that holds small amounts of stock in a bunch of companies are quite literally on the opposite sides of the spectrum of exploitation.
Exploitation is not a spectrum
Yeah, right, because children in the cobalt mines, prisoners stamping out license plates, and underpaid middle managers are sure exploited equally.
You don’t know what exploitation means in this context.
Exploitation, Marx’s term, is the mechanism by which the owning class reproduces their living via the labor of others. It is not a spectrum, it is a phenomenon with an unambiguous boundary. As an owner of stocks, you are benefiting from the increasing value of the property which is created by the people who work in those companies. As an owner of rentable properties, you are benefiting from the labor of workers who produce the value that built the property and the workers who produced the value that is converted to cash to pay the rent. As a middle manager, sales person, or marketer, your entire salary comes from the value produced by others, most often those laboring in extraction and manufacturing.
Exploitation is the phenomenon in which value is taken from the people producing it and used to reproduce a way of life for someone else.
Uhhh, all money you earn from owning anything is exploitation, even your retirement accounts.