Israel and Hamas have signed a ceasefire: “we” finally have what we have been chanting for.
So what now? Business as usual? Move on with our lives?
Many people are eager to do so, and many are already doing so.
But this is unacceptable.
So what do we do?
The miserable truth is that the worst kinds of injustice can often not be undone: we cannot raise 100,000 Palestinians back from the death.
This post is part of a series about the alleged return of feudalism with the advent of Big Tech.
What is capitalism? What words, ideas and/or concepts would you generally associate with it?
Some might say it is all about “technological development” driven by the “desire to be rich”. Others might say something like “greed” and the “naked pursuit of power”.
But greed, lust for power and even technological development have been around for much longer than capitalism.
This post originally appeared on the website of OpenTech(AUC).
Imagine you’re at a house party, and people are getting drunk. Slowly but steadily, they are raising their voice. And as more and more people do, you are going to have to raise your voice as well. At the end of the night, everyone is screaming in each others’ ears, without being any more audible than when everyone was talking at a normal volume.
“We only have to internalize the externalities”.1 That’s what “environmental economists” say. For example by imposing a tax on the production/consumption that damages the environment, or by requiring producers/consumers to buy tradable emission rights.
But there are some fundamental issues in their way of thinking:
This blog post first appeared in February 2024 on the website of OpenTech(AUC).
Normally, when you feel you’re getting the short end of a stick, for example when the supermarket sells you expensive mushy cauliflowers, or when the organization you volunteer at treats you disrespectfully, you go and find what you need somewhere else.
This ability to “defect” to an alternative when you feel you’re not getting a good deal, is an important “power” that helps you get reasonable deals.1
Mensen willen sneller en beter geholpen worden in de winkel, maar niet meer werken, geen hogere lonen betalen, en geen migratie.
Nederland is een groot terras waar iedereen elkaar geld aanbiedt om een schort om te doen en bitterballen te halen, maar iedereen - voor dat geld - uiteindelijk gewoon eigenlijk liever blijft zitten mopperen op de onderbezette bediening (“en ze spreken geeneens Nederlands!”).
Misschien is het een soort ontgroeipijn, en gaan mensen zich langzaam realiseren dat ze de tijd en het geld die ze op dat terras hadden willen uitgeven aan andermans diensten/producten, ook kunnen gebruiken om wat leuks voor zichzelf of voor een ander te doen/maken. Zonder product of dienst te consumeren.
Every day a certain amount of work is done. Food is grown. Machines are built and operated. Stuff is transported. If I would add up all the time - the seconds, minutes, hours - that other people work to provide me with the things that I consume, would I arrive at 1 FTE? 2 FTE? 5?1 In other words: BP may have tricked me into thinking about my carbon footprint cite:kaufman2020, but what is my labour foot print??
Als je in Amsterdam een gestolen fiets koopt, dan is dat mooi goedkoop, maar ben je ook strafbaar. De lage kosten van de fiets komen immers direct voort uit een onderliggende diefstal, die je met de aanschaf van de fiets bovendien in stand houdt. Dat heet heling.
Maar als de spullen die we uit Colombia importeren goedkoop gehouden worden doordat de mensen die misstanden aankaarten worden vermoord, mogen we daar gewoon iedere dag ongestraft van profiteren. cite:alberts2013,koopman2013,water2014