If the consumer has not the will to make common cause with the worker – specifically, the willingness to spend more in acquiring less when such transactions are necessary to ensure that workers are able to earn sufficient wages to feed and shelter their families – then no other force on Earth can protect labor. A poverty of self-governance is no foundation for a popularly-elected government to build the onerous restrictions on business and trade that would be needed.
Is there any other delusion so cruel as imagining that reform of democracy – or worse, revolution – could compensate for a so basic a failure of brotherhood? Perhaps yes: the belief that free markets among selfish men might yield a condition of virtue.
1 comment:
so true. our lack of self-governance and failure to prioritize mutual good means that the elected government can oppress the people.
however a revolution based on sister/brotherhood. ie building community, self-governance, reducing needs and consumption together, can be successful. see grace lee boggs The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the 21st Century.
reform of the current system of government and electoral politics will NOT save us. only we can save ourselves by community-building based on mutual good, not profit.
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