Free Stuff Makes Us Free
A person I often debate with on face-we dont sell your secrets to the highest bidder- book, said this to me, as part of a defence of capitalism in the USA:
"...this is a society that loves new products, remember....so consumer driven... so people are constantly getting rid of good stuff... craigslist: free stuff, The free cycle network, just type in "free stuff....people give away free computers…free furniture,..cars….this is the country of surplus...." and they go on to see this as a defence of capitalism, and left wing Americans as being biased, with an unrealistic view of how good things are in the USA, with an especial attack on Noam Chomsky.
So, here, is my reply. As always, folks, too long - but I try to make it as short as i can while covering all the points:
It's almost certain that lefties are also biased, and that even Chomsky makes mistakes (i myself in a talk in Tokyo to some anarchists had to make a criticism of something he said at the same event a month before). However, that bias or mistakes on some aspects does not mean capitalism is therefore ok. That is a very basic important point. You seem to think that because lefties are wrong on X point that their whole view is rotten. This is not realistic. The basic thing is that capitalism is not a good enough system, and we can do better. THAT is the essential left view and despite any mistakes left wing people may make along the way, I think it is accurate.
Giving away free things because they have plenty and no longer need it. Ok, now i understand what you meant. Again, this is no defence of capitalism. Are you seriously saying because X neighbour gives you a, say, ladder or computer, that therefore capitalism is ok? Is a very odd argument, and weak. Could you come up with a impressive, well argued explanation as to why such free stuff from neighbours, or on craigslist means that capitalism is a good system? Please try, I would like to see it, really.
Here is my view: people do that DESPITE capitalism, not because of it. That habit of giving free stuff away is a good one, based on treating others as of inherent worth, of co-operating, of helping others, of simply being nice, etc. Those are all socialist things. Oh yes...those habits and ways of thinking are what socialism and anarchism are built on, and rely on to make things work. That is a factual thing - we can read in endless books from the mid 19thc on that those things are the core of socialism and anarchism.
Now, the fact that you or millions of Americans dont CALL that behaviour socialist or are not aware that it is socialist does not mean its NOT socialist. There are plenty of things we are not normally aware of yet which influence us a lot, like gravity. It just means we have been cheated into not fully understanding what capitalism/socialism/anarchist are. Cheated into it by education, media, family, workplace, etc… power that does not wish us to really know what the choices actually are. And that is not arrogance by me to say so. It just a reasonable observation of social conditions that most people dont understand these things well. Even major corporate studies have shown that is true, for example, I find this after 2 minutes search on a right wing website:
“2010 CBS/New York Times survey found that when Americans were asked to use their own words to define the word “socialism” millennials were the least able to do so. According to the survey, only 16 percent of millennials could define socialism as government ownership, or some variation thereof. In contrast, 30 percent of Americans over 30 could do the same…”
Now, that was a biased view on it since the ‘government ownership’ bit is not quite true of what socialism aims for. But the point here is that 70% of Americans could not give a clear explanation of what socialism is. Therefore 70% of them dont know what the alternatives to capitalism are, according to that study. In my personal experience its even higher than that. The percentage who couldn’t define anarchism correctly would probably be more like 90%.
So, to repeat: that kind of giving away stuff to people is a socialist type behaviour, even if most Americans dont realise it. Which does not mean that people CANT do it in a capitalist society - clearly they do. But they dont do it BECAUSE of capitalism, they do it despite it. In terms of their mentality/attitude they do it despite capitalism. We might say they do it because of capitalism in one way: economic terms. they have a decent wage, so they buy new stuff and give the older stuff away. Ok, that could well be a factor, yes. But if they were operating in a capitalist WAY, a capitalist mentality within that system, they would not give away that computer. They would try to sell it, for profit. Or they would wish to maintain their social superiority in wealth and status over others by possessions and therefore also not give it away, they would trash it, so deliberately leaving others with less possessions and wealth than they. Or they would wish to not undercut their profit but giving away free stuff, as happens everyday in millions of food shops across the USA, UK , etc when the refuse to give away sandwiches and pies and cakes for free at the end of the day. They dump them in the rubbish instead, wasted. THAT is capitalist mentality (thankfully various governments and consumer groups and activist groups are pushing for rules to stop or reduce that kind of food wastage - that is, they are making socialist type rules against capitalism's normal habit, to stop the wastage of capitalism and make things more sensible and realistic).
The fact that millions of folk dont act according to such capitalist ideas, but instead give things and time for free, is because of the continued existence of feelings of co-operation and consideration to other people, regardless of differences between them. And that type of behaviour is what socialism and anarchism are built upon. That also makes a mockery of the silly cliche ‘socialism does not work in practice because of human nature’. If that is so why do millions of people give stuff away for free? You yourself indicate that they do this, in reality. And you try to see a justification of capitalism in it. Well, you can’t have it both ways - either it is or it is not part of human nature to be considerate to others in this way, to co-operate without much benefit to themselves apart from just feeling like decent person, to see others as of value, etc. If that does exist, as giving stuff away for free seems to indicate that it does…then that behaviour suits socialism/anarchism. Because its exactly such stuff that socialism and anarchism aims to promote and build society on.
“2010 CBS/New York Times survey found that when Americans were asked to use their own words to define the word “socialism” millennials were the least able to do so. According to the survey, only 16 percent of millennials could define socialism as government ownership, or some variation thereof. In contrast, 30 percent of Americans over 30 could do the same…”
Now, that was a biased view on it since the ‘government ownership’ bit is not quite true of what socialism aims for. But the point here is that 70% of Americans could not give a clear explanation of what socialism is. Therefore 70% of them dont know what the alternatives to capitalism are, according to that study. In my personal experience its even higher than that. The percentage who couldn’t define anarchism correctly would probably be more like 90%.
So, to repeat: that kind of giving away stuff to people is a socialist type behaviour, even if most Americans dont realise it. Which does not mean that people CANT do it in a capitalist society - clearly they do. But they dont do it BECAUSE of capitalism, they do it despite it. In terms of their mentality/attitude they do it despite capitalism. We might say they do it because of capitalism in one way: economic terms. they have a decent wage, so they buy new stuff and give the older stuff away. Ok, that could well be a factor, yes. But if they were operating in a capitalist WAY, a capitalist mentality within that system, they would not give away that computer. They would try to sell it, for profit. Or they would wish to maintain their social superiority in wealth and status over others by possessions and therefore also not give it away, they would trash it, so deliberately leaving others with less possessions and wealth than they. Or they would wish to not undercut their profit but giving away free stuff, as happens everyday in millions of food shops across the USA, UK , etc when the refuse to give away sandwiches and pies and cakes for free at the end of the day. They dump them in the rubbish instead, wasted. THAT is capitalist mentality (thankfully various governments and consumer groups and activist groups are pushing for rules to stop or reduce that kind of food wastage - that is, they are making socialist type rules against capitalism's normal habit, to stop the wastage of capitalism and make things more sensible and realistic).
The fact that millions of folk dont act according to such capitalist ideas, but instead give things and time for free, is because of the continued existence of feelings of co-operation and consideration to other people, regardless of differences between them. And that type of behaviour is what socialism and anarchism are built upon. That also makes a mockery of the silly cliche ‘socialism does not work in practice because of human nature’. If that is so why do millions of people give stuff away for free? You yourself indicate that they do this, in reality. And you try to see a justification of capitalism in it. Well, you can’t have it both ways - either it is or it is not part of human nature to be considerate to others in this way, to co-operate without much benefit to themselves apart from just feeling like decent person, to see others as of value, etc. If that does exist, as giving stuff away for free seems to indicate that it does…then that behaviour suits socialism/anarchism. Because its exactly such stuff that socialism and anarchism aims to promote and build society on.
Last point - since a central aim of such systems, BESS as i call them (better economic and social system), is the ending of private ownership of the property rights over machines, land, resources. The end to a tiny elite of less than 1% owning these basic things we need for survival. And not of the 'government' owning them, and the rest of us being slaves to the government. That is not the end goal of a BESS. The goal is ALL of us owning them - and operating them. That means the social ownership of machinery, land and resources and we ourselves deciding how to organise it all. In such a BESS, everything will be free because we will already own it all. Of course we will work out some system of working, of contributing..and some connected system of receiving, of getting stuff and services. But the resources will already be held in common, belong to us all. Really free.
We may need a bigger lawn for THAT give away...