I recently bought the family a new vehicle from an official dealer, needed for their contractor job and as a family car. The fucking sleazy salesperson used my contact information from the purchase to call me during dinnertime and try to sell me on this side hustle pyramid scheme FiNaNCiaL SeRviCeS seminar.
First of all, I just gave you a big-ass commission from buying this big-ass car with $10k of MarKeT AdJusTmeNtS. Then you have the audacity to use my PII from your job to insult my intelligence by trying to pyramid scheme me?
This got me thinking on the prevalence of the modern American "scam economy" and how it signals the ongoing collapse of the capitalist world. Not only are workers paid a penny for every dollar of profit their labor generates, they must take second jobs just to make ends meet (generating even more stolen profit) while being wrung out by seemingly endless scams.
Legalized online gambling, pyramid schemes, timeshare offers, payday loans, rent-to-own stores, endless side hustles, thrift store flipping, dropshipping tutorials, MLMs, crypto rugpulls, identity theft, US health insurance, TurboTax scams, student loans. I mean the list just goes on endlessly. Not to mention the "zombie economy" of simultaneous stagnant wages, increasing inflation, and decreasing quality of goods.
It's exhausting even while knowing exactly how these all work, I genuinely can't imagine how disappointing this must be for the average worker who can't even tell between a scam and a savior. Is ignorance bliss?
I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the topic - any relevant reading recommendations? Lived experiences? I am trying to find my footing with local PSL after a move, but my plan has always been to stay armed and hope my organization can fill the gap once the liberal "rule of law" fails. However, it does seem like imperial society is moving more towards technofeudalism enforced by advanced surveillance and extreme violence that will maintain that veneer of liberal rule of law thus preventing total collapse and wide-scale revolution.
Will the workers truly only wake up when the mass starvation starts? Can the miracle of the early CPC's struggle for survival be replicated in modern times?
"The workers" will not wake up on their own, ever. Concerted organizing is always required and even the successful movements never arrive fully formed. Expect overt violence and heightened contradictions. More fertile ground for organizing coupled with repression and 20 new kinds of Pinkertons. Trying to organize younger workers that won't recognize the dangers of organizing with their phones and spying cloud services until their friends start dying. There is no guarantee that "the workers" will succeed on any first round. The path may involve a fascisy takeovet, bourgeous revolution, and only then a socialist surge. The intermediary period could look like the status quo but with a higher prison population, lower pay, higher rent, worse education, and increased reactionary sentiment.
We do still need to organize, to build the best possible path. And hey, there might be a soft balkanization where we can organize more safely in certain states.