Probably the number one mistake I see pro-market folks make when arguing with conventional anarchists is not recognizing that usually what they most desperately want is secure housing & food with as little labor as possible. Complex economic good provision is not even in scope.
I regularly see middle class libertarians being like "but you can't coordinate an economy with..." when the absolute utopia of someone constantly fatigued by minimum wage jobs is a squat the cops won't threaten and foodstamps that don't depend on endless capricious bureaucracy.
Like explain to an anarchist the complexity of the supply chain involved in making a wifi router and what they hear is "choose between not constantly being abused + worked to the bone to keep housing and food OR having wifi" and literally everyone is gonna choose the former.
When I handwave right out of the gate "sure, everyone should have basic necessities like housing and food" most anarchists consider any economic particulars beyond that (like whether markets are used to coordinate complex production) to be completely anodyne and esoteric.
While leftists often vastly misconstrue the class composition of libertarian rank & file, this IS a place where libertarian arguments often come from a place of ignorant privilege.
And this comes down to one's experience of precarity, etc. Are you constantly tired?
And this comes down to one's experience of precarity, etc. Are you constantly tired?
The middle class kid relates to rent & food as kind of rounding errors or a place for indulgence.
The kid in precarity sees them as a site of constant pain and looming fear.
The middle class kid lives entirely in the "wild stretch goal" space of the precariat.
The kid in precarity sees them as a site of constant pain and looming fear.
The middle class kid lives entirely in the "wild stretch goal" space of the precariat.
This is the source of a lot of currents in anarchist politics. If the most fanciful utopia you can imagine is GETTING TO REST, then who the fuck cares if that means sagging old rotten walls, compost toilets, and chicken shit instead of having gadgets.
Anarcho-communism works every single day in thousands of land projects and squats around the world.
"works"
In the sense that it provides people with an island of utopia -- the capacity to actually rest, not be shouted at by a boss, maybe even hang out with friends.
"works"
In the sense that it provides people with an island of utopia -- the capacity to actually rest, not be shouted at by a boss, maybe even hang out with friends.
That such schemes are completely incapable of scaling up efficiently in economic complexity to handle the mutation, production and distribution of wifi routers etc is not apparent and *not concerning.* Having such toys is a very distant *stretch goal* to most folks.
Now of course I think markets are incredibly important, incredibly necessary. But that's because I recognize the "stretch goals" are necessities too, that we'll choke and stifle without the ability to do nerdy stuff beyond sleep, eat, fuck, gossip on some subsistence farm.
But the average person just wants to be able to catch up on sleep for the first time in decades. The average person has a hard time seeing beyond the far-out-there absurd dream of not having a boss yell at you and threaten to make you homeless by week's end.
Market participation doesn't have to come -- like it does under capitalism -- through the violent removal of other options. It can be motivated by nerdy aspirations seeking useful efficient tools for building, but today? Most only engage cuz precarity has a knife to their throat.
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