updated 9mo ago
Salvage Accumulation, or the Structural Effects of Capitalist…
- “[...] The distinctive feature of the societies to which this historical process [i.e. capitalism and industrialist mass production] gave rise is that productive activity is mostly governed by a logic that tends to strip it of things like meaning, playfulness and sociability.”
from Aliveness: Reframing Productivity by Thomas Klaffke
Nicole Woods added
- As economic anthropologist Jason Hickel has explained,“under capitalism, ‘growth’ is not about increasing production to meet human needs. It is about increasing production in order to extract and accumulate profit. That is the overriding objective.”
from Against Managerialism by Current Affairs
Thomas added
In most Western Economic Systems, we tend to take for granted that natural resources can be used for human benefit with little regard for their well-being and longevity. These beliefs are deeply ingrained in our beliefs and legal systems.
from What if We Gave Nature Legal Rights? by Matt Orsagh from Degrowth is the Answer
simon added
The capitalist economy absolutizes survival. It is not concerned with the good life.30 It is sustained by the illusion that more capital produces more life, which means a greater capacity for living. The rigid, rigorous separation between life and death casts a spell of ghostly stiffness over life itself. Concern about living the good life yields t
... See morefrom The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han
baja added
- Capitalism is an insecurity machine, though we rarely think of it as such. Alongside profits, commodities, and inequality, insecurity is a fundamental output of the system. Neither an incidental byproduct nor a secondary consequence of the concentration of wealth, it is one of capitalism’s essential and enabling creations. “The bourgeoisie cannot e... See more
from The Insecurity Machine by Astra Taylor
sari added
Capitalism is not simply a system of market exchange - it is a system that measures and reduces the value of Life including human labour, living ecosystems, relationships and life-force.
from Post Capitalism and the Five Elements Mandala by Stephen Reid
Keely Adler added
This all points to a higher analysis; money itself is not the most important aspect of capitalism. Nor is trade, nor markets, nor profits, nor even assets, but capital. Goods that are used to create consumable goods are a form of capital, but really, we mean something less tangible than any of the former; a kind of economic potential energy stored
... See morefrom Bitcoin Is Venice: Essays on the Past and Future of Capitalism by Allen Farrington, Sacha Meyers,