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Yeah I read theory
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this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
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chapotraphouse
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I joke that Capitalists would get the most value (figuratively and literally) from Marx, but are ideologically allergic to the reading.
I've seen quite a few statements from big Wall St. people who have clearly read Marx
I think a lot more capitalists understand Marxist theory than most would think
In principle I agree, but in many ways Wall Street types are Capital's greatest slaves. Since they are dealing with other's money, they also must meet their client's literal unwitting demands. All the analysis in the world won't placate the client screaming "AI! AI! BUY AI!"
Big money managers (large hedge funds and asset management firms like Citadel and Blackrock) make their own decisions/strategies and clients rarely if ever have any input. It's only the small local bank branch types that listen to their clients
The loud ones (Elon, Trump) are the morons who lucked their way into everything. A lot of quiet ones are really good at intentful exploitation
What I mean by "unwitting demands" is the implicit "make me more money, or I will go somewhere else" that unconsciously pervades even Blackrock. They don't actually have to physically listen to understand the investment flow is going towards one market or another. They are excellent surfers, but they aren't making the waves.
Big money makes all the waves and other big money will react to that how they want
See: SoftBank causing a massive tech rally by buying boatloads of call options
http://ft.com/content/75587aa6-1f1f-4e9d-b334-3ff866753fa2
They're really, really not.
Taking specific job-related actions, which are not particularly demanding and are firmly within the confines of the job you are hired to do, which pays you very well and transfers lots of the spoils of empire to you, and which you can comfortably quit at any time with no adverse consequence, does not make you a slave.
There are still tens of millions of actual slaves around the globe, people who are trafficked, blackmailed, restricted, or otherwise coerced into labor that they will never be paid comfortably for.
Let's not dilute the depravity of capitalism with something that may seem vaguely affectively equivalent for a couple hours a day.
Smart vampires do read and understand marxist theory. They apply it to become more powerful ghouls.
Absolutely agree, but they aren't making the waves they ride. They are still subsumed in the general thoughtlessness of market forces.
EDIT: When I think of a class that is conscious of Marx, I unironically think of modern China's CCP. When they say they are still transitioning to socialism I believe them. From my standpoint (take with huge grains of salt) is that their program is capturing Capitalism in a kind of Nuclear Reactor. Just enough class antagonisms (capitalist success, hires more workers, worker wages going up incentivize productivity investment, rinse repeat) to increase productivity while using their placement on company boards as a kind of Control Rod to prevent those antagonisms from spiraling into class conflict/warfare.
You may be interested in reading China Has Billionaires.
Hillary Clinton gave a speech talking about how we need to seize the means of production back from China.
She also said we need to Pokémon Go to the polls, doesn't mean she knows what a Pikachu is.
Hillary changes her views more often than a chameleon that I wonder if the Lizard People conspiracy nerds are on to something.
Her private positions have usually been pretty consistent.
https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/nor-a-lender-be/