Back in my university days as an RA one of my favorite hobbies was printing full color posters and dnd maps with my employee badge
I also have a nice collection of usb and display cables and keyboards if I ever need a spare
i am so tired
Let's all take a nap
Naps are nice
Alt text: Also I am recently unemployed so if you like the comic it would be a great time to support me on patreon or Ko-Fi
Wait, you really are the author of existentialcomics ?
Lol, no, just simply posted the alt text, but probably wasn't necessary for this comic.
Is the point here, that "first world labor" has no or almost no constant capital(i.e. means of production)? If that was true it would actually have the highest rate of exploitation, since it would be made up almost entirely of variable capital, like a sweatshop. That's obviously the opposite of what the creator of the meme wanted to say, so it doesn't make sense.
In reality, labor in the imperial core has a higher than average organic composition of capital with lots of constant capital. Naively, one would think, that this would lead to lower profits, since value only comes from human labor. But if their business was less profitable than average, capitalists would just move their capital. And they do. They move capital out of those sectors. This lowers production and raises prices above values, until profits equalize. In a globalized market, this leads to equalization of the rate of profit on a global scale. But for profits to be (approximately) equal, that additional value for "first world" capitalists has to come from somewhere. It comes from the rest of the world, where prices for exports are lowered in turn below their value. This means, that capitalists from countries with a lower organic composition of capital (like Bangladesh) subsidize capitalists in countries with a high organic composition of capital (like Germany). Some of those profits might be passed on to a labor aristocracy, if labor is organized enough to demand it.
This is why China is shifting to high tech production and this is why the US is raging against that.
Also, when Marx considers average socially necessary labor time, he doesn't mean necessary in a hypothetical ideal communist society, but necessary for the actual, contradictory, capitalist society to reproduce itself. Lots of office labor seems pointless and soul crushing, but don't think you can get rid of it within capitalism. Idealists might think so, but we know better. You can't. It's necessary for this sick system to go on. Capitalists who invest in seemingly "pointless" labor react to pressure from contradictions they have no way of resolving within capitalism.
real talk though how am i meant to seize the means of production when i dont live or work anywhere near them?
Organize. It’s definitely more difficult with remote jobs, but it’s not impossible. Add labor friendly people you know from work to a group chat. Get the wheels spinning.
If you work an office job isn't your means of production just you. It's not like office software or computers are hard to come by in the way that like a steel mill is
i do have an office job but my work produces nothing of value. if my job and the jobs of my entire department were eliminated, nothing would change. there is no real production at my job to begin with, so there are no means of production to seize
that's rough
eh it could be worse. it pays well and i can work from home, i cant really complain too much
I feel that, I'm in the process of switching my career path so that I can at least build skills and and put myself in proximity to resources that will be necessary to support my comrades in our efforts.
FirSSt World """WhitKKKer""" SSeizing the meanSS of """production""""
That's produKKKtion to you
They steal my time, I help myself to free AAA batteries and pens
Isn't this like a step or two away from saying baristas aren't workers too?
I think it's already past that.
lol I remember this from way back, it's the work of a Maoist Third Worldist group
I'm still using the printer paper I stole from my last job.
Typesetters traveling job to job with their tools were incredibly important to the spread of radical ideas, between jobs they would produce radical pamphlets and newspapers.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24571490
So literally, yes, seize the photocopiers
Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.
No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
Slop posts go in c/slop. Don't post low-hanging fruit here.
