“Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society.
This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.
Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.”
— Albert Einstein
“What does the money machine eat? It eats youth, spontaneity, life, beauty, and, above all, it eats creativity. It eats quality and shits quantity.”
— William S. Burroughs
i hate the idea that americans won’t revolt bc we’re ”lazy” and not because our government has spent the better part of 100 years and trillions of dollars /perfecting/ the art of global counterrevolution and repression. this is literally the final boss lmao
Communist society will look back on our way of life and will struggle to comprehend its barbarism. The wars, misogynist violence, racist castes, exploitation of humans, animals and the environment.
Capitalism will be as incomprehensible to them as chattel slavery is to us.
The United States has the largest prison population on earth.
Not per capita.
Total.
More people in cages than China.
More than Russia.
More than every "authoritarian" state it condemns in its annual human rights reports.
1.8 million people.
Disproportionately Black.
Disproportionately poor.
Disproportionately from the zip codes with the worst schools, the fewest jobs, the most abandoned infrastructure.
This is presented as a "criminal justice system."
It functions as a labor system.
Prison labor, paid between 13 cents and $1.15 an hour in most states, produces goods for McDonald's, Walmart, Victoria's Secret, Whole Foods, and the United States military.
The 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, contains an exception clause:
"Except as punishment for crime."
That exception has never been closed.
It has been expanded.
The plantation did not disappear.
It received a different name and a legal foundation.
Capitalism gaslighting people into believing that more money = hard worker, making homelessness and being poor out to be personal failures instead of systemic ones.