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Antiwork

You have a fiduciary duty to yourself

The reality pretty much every boss doesn't want you to realize: you have the same financial (fiduciary) responsibility they have, but to yourself rather than the shareholders. We complain about caring about shareholders over employees a lot here. They care about extracting as much wealth from labor as possible to enrich themselves and other capitalists (shareholders). It's rational self-interest. Here's the thing: working-class people should also practice rational self-interest. The product you sell is your labor, and just like a capitalist your goal should be to extract the highest amount of money possible for the smallest amount of your product possible. Whatever the market will allow that's what you should charge. If you can get away with doing less at your job and get paid the same you should do it. If you can produce lower-quality work and get paid the same or more for it (perhaps because a boss…


The reality pretty much every boss doesn't want you to realize: you have the same financial (fiduciary) responsibility they have, but to yourself rather than the shareholders.

We complain about caring about shareholders over employees a lot here. They care about extracting as much wealth from labor as possible to enrich themselves and other capitalists (shareholders). It's rational self-interest.

Here's the thing: working-class people should also practice rational self-interest.

The product you sell is your labor, and just like a capitalist your goal should be to extract the highest amount of money possible for the smallest amount of your product possible. Whatever the market will allow that's what you should charge.

  • If you can get away with doing less at your job and get paid the same you should do it.
  • If you can produce lower-quality work and get paid the same or more for it (perhaps because a boss or client values speed over quality) you should do it.
  • If you can find loopholes to get paid for doing nothing you should utilize them to the fullest extent.

The goal of any socialist project is to get the working class what they are due, which is the full value of their labor. That's why we and capitalists are “contending classes” and we are in “class conflict.” We both want the same thing – money and power. We just so happen to be on the right side of history because it is us who provide the actually valuable product.

Make them pay through the nose for it.

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