blackbread

joined 11 months ago
[–] blackbread@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 month ago

I assume from your phrasing you mean to say that "some industrialists will prefer human labour over cheaper machines". (But you could instead have meant to say that "in society, there will always be a role for human labour").

I think this proposition is false (in the long run) due to the the profit-maximization logic of capitalism. Even if some industrialists prefer human labour, in the long run they'd eventually be out-competed by those that didn't. But yes, machines cost a lot upfront which could delay the switchover (possibly even beyond the sunset of the industry!).

I think the "Rate of profit falls" theory doesn't matter. Assume it's true: machines lower the rate of profit. But, capitalists can't (as a group) decide not to use machines. Without control of private assets (e.g. capital) the capitalists cease to be, and become a purely rentier class again. It would no longer be capitalism but feudalism. I don't believe capitalists have the power (or desire) to cause such a transition.

[–] blackbread@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 months ago

I've been doing this with rclone. https://github.com/rclone/rclone

I manually run it to sync my important files (which I modify on my Desktop) up to Google Drive (which serves as a web accessible backup).

 

I know most people here regard electorialism as useless. I do too, but I didn't five years ago. And so I got roped into keeping a dying Electoral District Association on life support. I was the financial officer.

As part of the role I was supposed to file financial reports, but I discovered they must be done using some proprietary software (available for free) that ran only on Windows (which I don't have and haven't had for decades).

Long story short, I reached out for help (to the Green Party), mistakenly assumed they had taken care of it based on their email response... but now 5 years later the Elections Canada is likely fining me for failing to file these documents. Fine range is probably between $100 and $1,500 -- don't know yet.

Anyway, I'm annoyed that running Windows is a requirement for participating in our "democracy". Does anyone know any Canadian free software or other legal organizations that might be interested in filing a formal complaint?

[–] blackbread@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 10 months ago

I remember once getting a book of Murray Bookchin's collected works (or something from the library). I had assumed that his social ecology would fit well with my environmental interests (it was environmentalism that led me to anti-capitalism which led me to communism). Anyway long story short I couldn't understand a word of what he was saying. It was english words, but it's like it wasn't english sentences. To some extent it's similar in ML circles -- we use certain words in ways that are different. But it honestly just seemed like drivel. If anyone can summarize it for me or link an article that explains it I would appreciate it, as I've heard that Murray Bookchin's writings have also been adopted by some middle east factions (but I don't recall any details, so don't quiz me please).