Category: Class (Page 17 of 24)

The ABCs of Socialism

July 2, 2020 / baseblogger

I tried to buy The ABCs of Socialism one time. I messed up and bought The ABCs of Capitalism instead. Doing the best I could with the situation, I read the pamphlets and wrote an overview. As it turned out, they’re a – decent, not great – socialist overview of capitalism.

This time I bought the real thing: The ABCs of Socialism, from Bhaskar Sunkara‘s Jacobin crew. Like much of what’s going on in the Jacobin world, it’s influential among many people in the social democratic-to-socialist left. And I think it has much to offer people in that camp.

Rent Strike: Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay?

May 28, 2020 / baseblogger

Through Commune magazine – by way of our local tenants union – I recently heard about Woodbine. It’s a space in Queens for food aid in the coronavirus era. Among other things, the Commune article discusses the rent strike, that object of lots of recent fascination.

As Commune puts it, the slogan of the nascent New York rent strike is ‘can’t pay, won’t pay.’ People in Iowa City talk about the same thing, often with the same slogan. So, what’s happening here? Is it a good time for a rent strike? If so, is it best to organize a rent strike around inability to pay rent during hard times?

The Value of Automation

May 18, 2020 / baseblogger

Automation isn’t profitable for the companies building products and services on it. Uber claims it’ll be profitable by the end of 2020, but it’s not there yet. It lost $8.5 billion in 2019. Analysts remain skeptical. Lyft is wildly unprofitable, not even pretending it can make it by the end of this year. Grubhub and DoorDash lose money, especially on the food delivery component of their business. And investors and the tech press are putting the pressure on. WeWork – a coworking startup – might be one of the most unprofitable companies in the world.

Even the far less dicey social media world is less a goldmine than one might think. Twitter is profitable, but barely. It consistently misses its own profit forecasts. And Facebook – once wildly profitable – now suffers from narrowing profit margins.

These companies are household names, They’re darlings of the tech sector and widely emulated throughout the U.S. economy. How many executives say their businesses should be ‘more like Uber’ or ‘scrappy like WeWork or DoorDash’?

Why do CEOs model their businesses after losers?

garden of eden tree of the knowledge of good and evil

Work and the Garden of Eden

April 30, 2020 / baseblogger

We don’t have a state religion in the U.S. But if we did, it would probably be the Protestant Work Ethic. Or so Max Weber would argue. Most Americans think they should work hard to succeed, even if they don’t. And yet there’s an alternative attitude from within the same Christian traditions. We can find it in the Bible, in the Garden of Eden story.

rich people anti-social lighting cigar $100 bill

Are Rich People Anti-Social?

April 23, 2020 / baseblogger

I’m sure you know the stereotype of the rich asshole: wealthy guy, probably a business person, cares little for other people’s needs. The world revolves around him, his ideas and his needs. He’s an anti-social guy. And sometimes he even rides it all the way to the White House.

That’s the pop culture image, but let’s talk about the social science for a bit. Social psychologists study the phenomenon. So, are rich people anti-social? Does it mean working class people are pro-social? If so, why? What does social psychology say about these things?

Category: Class (Page 17 of 24)

The ABCs of Socialism

Rent Strike: Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay?

The Value of Automation

Work and the Garden of Eden

Are Rich People Anti-Social?

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