veteran of the skeleton war
regect modernization • embrace tradition
take me back to the good old tumblr
regect modernization • embrace tradition
take me back to the good old tumblr
Capitalism produces scarcity artificially where there is none.
There is enough food (in fact there’s currently massive amounts of “overproduced” grain being left to rot)
Even without changing the horribly designed production systems, there is no real shortage. People don’t starve, have no fresh water, have no houses to live in, etc. because there are not enough of these things. People don’t have access because capitalism denies them it.
There’s enough to share for everyone. It’s not a zero sum game for poor and oppressed peoples.
I known the argument that only GMOs can save us is untrue for the reasons above, but is overpopulation draining resources and killing the earth a lie promulgated by capitalists as a diversion as well? Would we be fine with this many people under a different economic/social system?
Yes, overpopulation is a capitalist/racist myth too. It originated in racist eugenics theory and ignores issues of distribution, infrastructure/technology, and disparate impact in favor of fearmongering about poor/brown people having too many babies.
This one pops up a lot, so I’m going to post some links on it here:
Here’s a website dedicated to debunking overpopulation. It’s 101 and simple, but might be a good intro point for some.
It’s impossible for developing countries to generally adopt Western style energy consumption development models on a large scale. And China, one of the larger developing countries whose government is a bit less under the thumb of Western imperialist powers, doesn’t intend to keep trying that either (instead investing in more renewable energy).
So, yes, it’s absolutely not the number of people that’s the main problem, but how resources are used and environmental management practices are done. If you were going to get rid of people to fix environmental problems, you would start with rich white Westerners, the opposite of who gets targeted by “overpopulation” panics.
I’m reblogging this post from last year, because I see so many opinions about the environment that repeat this nonsense.
It’s racist imperialist capitalist bullshit, and it leads to the exact opposite of real solutions.
(via goldfish-at-sea)
“Yes, I’m strong, but I am so damn tired too.”— (via smoking-black-world)
(via developing)
“—you are the knife I turn inside myself, this is love.”— Franz Kafka, from Letters to Milena (via horaetio)
(via softwaring)
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”— Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (via fyp-psychology)
(via reckless0810)
Mark Zuckerberg lost $119 Billion dollars on the stock market today (7/26/18). This is the largest loss of wealth in a single day in modern stock history.
This will literally not change his lifestyle or effect his livelihood at all. He is still a multi-billionaire.
If I worked every single day, for the rest of my life, at $15/hr - which is more than twice the national minimum wage - I would never make even 1/1000th the amount of just the money that Zuckerberg lost today.
If I worked every single day, for the entirety of the time that anatomically modern humans have existed (200,000 years) - at $15/hr - I would still not make one tenth of the amount of just the money he lost today.
And he is still a billionaire and will lose literally zero luxury or well-being from what happened today.
You want to know how absolutely grotesque modern wealth inequality is?
There you go.
(via mens-rights-activia)
‘The retailer, which last year made more than £6bn of revenues in Britain, has a disciplinary system under which points are accrued for illness. Workers are issued a penalty point for each episode of sickness.
Workers are told that more than one point will result in a “series of counselling and disciplinary meetings” and between four and six points can result in dismissal.
In one case, a woman who spent three days in hospital with a kidney infection was docked two points, reduced to one on appeal, despite providing a hospital note.
The system has been revealed in an investigation by The Sunday Times at Amazon’s sorting depot in Dunfermline, Scotland.
The undercover reporter was paid £7.35 per hour by an agency that supplies workers to Amazon, but was left with less than the minimum wage after paying £10 for the agency’s bus which took her to the site 40 miles from her home in Glasgow.
It emerged this weekend that some low-paid workers are camping out in woodland near the sorting depot to avoid paying the bus costs and ensure they are left with more than the minimum wage…
The reporter obtained a job with PMP Recruitment, one of the two main agencies that hires and supervises workers at the Dunfermline depot. The investigation found:
- Workers being threatened with dismissal if they accrued too many points for illness, late attendance or absence, or for making too many errors or failing to hit productivity targets.
- A claim from a worker in Amazon’s on-site first-aid clinic that workers were under pressure to hit targets and were suffering injuries in the rush to collect products
- Workers were expected to cover more than 10 miles a day in the warehouse collecting items, but water dispensers to ensure they avoided dehydration were regularly empty
- The reporter was told she had to sign an opt-out of the working time directive, which limits weekly hours to 48, in order to get a job.
The reporter was employed as a “temporary warehouse operative” at Amazon’s vast plant in Fife. She worked in the “picking” department, which involved retrieving items from across several floors of the sprawling warehouse, according to orders displayed on a handheld scanner she was given. She worked at least 10 hours a day, with an unpaid 30-minute lunch break and two 15-minute paid breaks….
Under the system set out in the Amazon temporary associate handbook, half a point is issued to recruits who are late to work or late back from a break; one point for “one period of sickness”; and three points for “no call, no show”. The undercover reporter was told that anyone who was more than 30 seconds late in arriving at work or returning after a break would be subject to the half-point penalty.
Workers were also told that if they made more than one error a week in collecting items or failed to hit productivity targets they could be subject to a disciplinary process, which could result in dismissal.’
how the fuck are the unions allowing this???? disgusting
Support the Amazon general strike today, July 10th - do not buy from Amazon! Even if your intention is to make some kind of statement with your purchase - don’t, this is (as other bloggers before me have said) the equivalent of crossing a picket line and still handing them profit!
(via candle-lion)
there’s so much hatred in the world and i never believe we could ever live in a society where political and social decisions are made for the good of man. like we talk in circles about communist theory and action against the state but thousands of years of “advanced” civilization and we still can’t get the basics of loving each other????????
(via reverseracism)
I’m sorry but homophobia and racism aren’t opinions
(via dovies)
