I just don't think this argument really tracks. If we were hunter/gatherers, we would have no choice but to hunt and gather for food. No it's not consensual, you have to do it, but would we really say we were being coerced? By who? Nature?
You can say there is bad stuff about Capitalism, and better ideas or systems we should do instead, without this coercion claim.
Not only that, before we can even "freely" sell ourselves, we, or someone, has to pay for our preparation/education, because why pay for a slave's training when you can charge them?
We are slaves. We just don't like in a big plantation. No. We live anywhere where there are "jobs". No jobs means we become homeless eventually. And who has these "jobs"? The rich assholes do. Just like we were forced to work for their forefathers in plantations, now we work for them in "jobs". The job is basically a metaphorical plantation.
But we have our freedom.
Freedom to work at a selection of under paying, exploitative places that will take from you every ounce of effort, strength, and time, so that you can "earn" a living... Because nobody is going to give you a living; you're not worth anything unless you work and earn your life.
Freedom to choose from a number of ways to live, how to travel from place to place, either by buying an overpriced automobile, and paying for every interaction any professional repair person has with it... Or you can choose to pay to ride transit, where you have to conform to their schedule and if you're late, you're left behind... And you get to pay for the privilege. Or you could, IDK, walk? But wait, it's MILES away from your home, because it's in a commercial zone and you live in a residential zone. We couldn't possibly mix commercial and residential. Tsk tsk. That's just not okay.
You can also choose to buy food at the grocery store where the lowest prices are not in the shareholders best interest, so we'll do everything we can to convince you that you're getting the best deals by offering lower prices on your food, as the quality slips away, and products are shrunken down to the point where it's almost not worth buying it anymore.
But because you have been given a choice, you are "free" and not a slave. Clearly.
..... Late stage capitalism is just slavery with extra steps. They're making the slaves figure their own shit out, rather than give them food and a place to sleep.... Just, here's your barter (pay) for today, go figure out where to sleep and what to eat on your own fucking time.
Ah yes. The Always Sunny argument for UBI.
The argument that the employment contract is not a consensual transaction is a weak argument against capitalism. The employment contract is voluntary by any normal juridical standard. Even if this difficulty could be overcome, it would only necessarily imply a UBI not abolishing capitalist property relations. A much stronger argument is the inalienable rights argument based on the factual inalienability of responsibility
Sir this is a wendy's.
Speaking of eat the rich, I'd like a rich market. A market for the rich we can transfer the wealth from and impoverish them.
"You're in a plane crash..."
Mooooo
This community is incredibly pessimistic. I know the world is in a hard place already, but I don't want to be reminded of it every 5 posts on c/all. I have taken to block multiple communities because of it.
