Because we are coerced, through the threat of violence, every night of our lives, into paying someone else for the privilege of laying our heads down to sleep. Because every alternative, every other option, has been made impossible or criminalized. We cannot legally eat food, sleep, or even defecate without paying another person for the privilege of doing so or risking the penalties associated with doing so illegally.
Sleeping [legal methods]: buying a home, condo, or other form of shelter.
renting a home, apt, condo, etc from its owner.
purchasing access to hotel facilities.
securing permission from someone who already does one of the above to sleep in their shelter. (indirect wage slavery)
camping (short term) on public lands where free camping is permitted.
[illegal methods]: sleeping in a shelter (home, car, RV, warehouse, apt) or on property owned by someone else without their permission.
sleeping in a public place other than permitted camping area.
sleeping in a car or other vehicle.
- All long-term, legal methods of sleeping require direct or indirect (dependent on those with direct) participation in the wage economy. All methods of sleeping not requiring participation in the wage economy have been criminalized thus forcing involuntary participation in the wage economy. Those who refuse to voluntarily participate in the wage economy are coerced into compliance by arrest and compulsary attendance at court proceeding. Those who refuse to voluntarily participate in the wage economy and also refuse to voluntarily participate in the "justice" system are locked up. Those who refuse to voluntarily participate in the wage economy, the "justice" system, and who actively and physically defend themselves by refusing to submit to being locked up, are beaten, shot, and/or killed.
-The eventual outcome of refusal to participate in all levels of the wage economy is violence perpetrated by the state.
(This applies to long term LIVING. Yes, one can sleep, defacate, and eat legally without participating in the money/wage economy on a short term basis on certain public lands. However, even public lands have occupancy limits after which one can be ticketed, fined, and/or arrested for continuing to occupy a campsite. In addition, primitive hunting and trapping is illegal and thus hunting for food requires participation in the wage economy for the purchase of weapons and permits. And yes, many thousands of homeless people sleep unperturbed by the "authorities" every night all over the county. The fact remains that they are doing so illegally and at some point, if/when confronted by a law-enforement agent, they must submit or suffer the consequence.)
For entertainment, do this excercize with drinking clean water, eating nourishing food - see what you come up with.
That's certainly one way of organizing things, and it may work for some people, but should we all be coerced by threat of violence (in other words - violently coerced) into trading the hours of our lives for a wage? or are there other equally (or more) satisfying ways to live and organize our lives?
ReplyDeleteNot participating in the wage economy doesn't mean doing nothing. My point is not that I want to do nothing while still partaking in the goods and services of the wage economy, it is that I want the freedom to decide whether or not to participate in this specific system of doing things. I love to work, but freedom, to me, means working on my own terms. And the type of work that can be traded for a wage is not necessarily what I consider "good" work. For *most* people being forced to do the type of work that can be traded for a wage means doing things they don't want to be doing and doing work that generally is detrimental to both their health and the health of our collective habitat (the planet). I want the freedom, as an animal inhabiting this fabulous planet, to live a free life, a life where my work can be work that sustains me directly if I so choose (e.g. hunting/gathering my food, building by own shelter, drinking clean water - without being forced to pay someone for those privileges) , rather than work performed under the threat of violence that must conform to a narrow and specific set of guidelines written by those who claim to have authority over me.
I recently posted on facebook a link to an article about the Hadza people of East Africa (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/hadza/finkel-text). The Hadza work - in the sense that they do what they need to do to survive and thrive. And just like all of our ancestors of long ago, they do this work on their own terms - and they are completely free of the wage economy. There is no boss, there is no property tax, there is no rent. Thay ask nothing from the wage slave society. They work directly to supply themselves with the food, shelter, clothing, and community they require. When they are tired, they sleep. A cop isn't going to come by and tell them to move on or go to jail. (at least until the more "civilized" elements succeed in claiming the free land on which they roam and destroying their autonomy.)....
And sure, if somebody Wants to go out and get a JOB to make the money to pay for a place to legally sleep, that's fine by me - but it should be a choice and not a mandate backed by the threat of state violence.
ReplyDeleteSleep isn't something that I must purchase from someone with the means to produce it. In this it fundamentally differs from your examples of car and heating fuel. Those are goods which are produced in the wage economy and consumed by wage earners and their use is not mandated - deciding not to own a car, or to live in a cold house has not been criminalized. Deciding to sleep without engaging in a narrowly defined concept of work that can be rewarded with a wage, however, has been criminalized. (Or, to put it more simply - deciding to sleep without paying for it is grounds for arrest).
I want to clarify that I'm not saying that I want the goods and services that society provides without having to work for them. What I'm AM saying is that I want the freedom to live outside of the wage society, both its prodcution and consumption ends. You used home heating and car above as examples of things that you can't get without trading something of value for. I have no argument there. My point is that even if I never wanted to buy a car (I can walk), or a house (I can make my own), or bed (why buy a bed when i can make one for myself just like my ancestors have done for hundreds of thousands of years?) - even if I don't want to buy those things, I am STILL forced into the wage economy because I must pay someone for the privilege of simply sleeping without fear of arrest.
To clarify even further - I am fine with paying for goods and services produced by others, I am against being coerced into participating in a highly controlling economic system simply to be allowed to provide for myself.
Thanks for commenting by the way! I don't get many comments and I enjoy the verbal wrangling!