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What would you do if Capitalism didn't curb your potential and force you to sell most of your time? (lemy.lol)

submitted 1 year ago by matcha_addict@lemy.lol to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I often daydream about how society would be if we were not forced by society to pigeon hole ourselves into a specialized career for maximizing the profits of capitalists, and sell most of our time for it.

The idea of creating an entire identity for you around your "career" and only specializing in one thing would be ridiculous in another universe. Humans have so much natural potential for breadth, but that is just not compatible with capitalism.

This is evident with how most people develop "hobbies" outside of work, like wood working, gardening, electronics, music, etc. This idea of separating "hobbies" and the thing we do most of our lives (work) is ridiculous.

Here's how my world could be different if I owned my time and dedicated it to the benefit of my own and my community instead of capitalists:

more reading, learning and excusing knowledge with others.
learn more handy work, like plumbing and wood working. I love customizing my own home!
more gardening
participate in the transportation system (picking up shifts to drive a bus for example)
become a tour guide for my city
cook and bake for my neighbors
academic research
open source software (and non-software) contributions
pick up shifts at a café and make coffee, tea and smoothies for people
pick up shifts to clean up public spaces, such as parks or my own neighborhood
participate in more than one "professions". I studied one type of engineering but work in a completely different engineering. This already proves I can do both, so why not do both and others?

Humans do not like the same thing over and over every day. It's unnatural. But somehow we revolve our whole livelihood around if.

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[–] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We only got to producing more advanced things like tires because of how technology made things so much easier to produce with a fraction of the labor time. This is a continuing trend in history.

And yes I do think that society is oriented around profits (and pleasing capitalists, which happens by producing profits. I find it ironic that you chose this truism to argue against lmao). I hope you don't expect a response to that second part, because it is not argument and not worth responding to.