I don't know what the polls here are on what everyone believes, but I am someone who is not a Marxist, or a Communist. From what basic reading I've done, I believe Marx did have some legitimate criticisms of capitalism, and I find modern work culture completely distasteful–I am also grateful that we have a vent here to discuss the things we hate about capitalist culture, but I feel like this subreddit ought to recognise that there are many people of many different stripes and experiences who are finding themselves spat on and chewed out by the system and you do not need to be a Sociology major to have a qualified opinion.
I am not pointing out fingers at anyone in particular, but I feel like this subreddit should be more open to people with different points of view. For instance, unionising, making cooperatives aren't the only solutions we have to modern capitalism. And the idea of a 'worker's revolution'–how about instead, we have the opposite? We try going back to days when things were simpler? In general, we should be living in a culture that does not gear us up to fail. We should live in a society that realigns our expectations with reality. One that does not send us to University without asking what we plan to do while we're there.
I am not someone who is opposed to the idea of 'work' in principle, because personally, I think without any kind of work–we have no real meaning.We should all be striving for something that we consider meaningful. I'm only opposed to modern work life because it is simple not meaningful at all. It's become unbearably toxic, and inflation and wage stagnation are not even the start of it. What I hate about 'working', is the nature of what 'work' has now become. The idea of working for an honest living has been corrupted; and means competing with an expanding pool of applicants for a shrinking window of vacancies–and we're being told that this is normal.
We live in a society that worships the economy. Anything is justified as long as it cuts costs, and maximises profits. You're only worthy insofar as you contribute to the system that generates money and trade. But as an individual, nobody cares about you. And it isn't just bosses who act like this. To some degree, we all feel this way. We all compare ourselves to another and clamour for higher status, because the system does this to us. This is the essence I have with the problem. And honestly, I don't think you have to be a Marxist to understand that.It has gotten worse in recent years.
First of all, why work on a Sunday? This is a change that literally happened in my lifetime. Why is Christmas such an overblown commercial holiday? Don't these things seem to convey the idea that buying things=happiness, and is this mentality not intertwined with modern work culture and capitalism? What is Easter even for now? I bet if you polled thousands of younger people, they would just say 'Chocolate Eggs', and that's it. But then how can you blame them? In a material world like this, that's all Easter is really for.
If you ask me, the big bosses who own billions of dollars-the capitalist class; they aren't responsible for this system. They simply benefit from it, but they did not create it. The system just kind of came into existence on its own, and in my honest opinion, it started really getting worse in the 1980s, under Thatcher and Reagan, what we now understand as Neoliberal Capitalism. We've lost sight of what it means to be human. We should celebrate the fact that not everyone is smart enough to go to Oxford/Harvard-celebrate the fact that we all deserve a place in this world, irrepsective of how 'useful' we are to this global economic system. If we live in a world where too many people are unemployed, we shouldn't blame those people for being 'useless', maybe we should change the system itself?
Anyway, these are just some of my thoughts.