I wasn’t exactly sure where to put this as analysis. Hopefully it fits here.
Buckle in; it’s 45 minutes but very helpful to understand where we’re at. I was linked on the local Discord and had never heard of this channel, but it’s now a new subscription.
He means mercantilism, not feudalism, which arguably never existed at all and was more a description of social contracts rather than economics in the first place at 2:06.
It kind of works, if you also substitute liberalism with capitalism but it’s not a great start. And then he jumps to sharecropping for some reason? It’s weird because it’s actually a pretty sensible point to make but only if you either understand the background or have been reading Freakonomics.
Or don’t understand anything and don’t want to admit that American chattel slavery was the purest expression of capitalism possible, which is why half the “libertarians” want it back.
You could argue that people generally understand the system even if they don’t know the terminology though. Colonial economics are simple and intuitive if brutal.
Edit: bro just called FDR communist 💀
W/e. As long as he joins the revolution.
Benn consistently makes awesome videos on a surprising variety of things, and this is no exception!
So much to noodle on. I have so many emotions about what’s to come, but suffice it to say that a full step back from exploitative economies is going to take a concerted effort from all of us to learn how we contribute to them. I don’t know if we’re all prepared to do that as now so few of us have resources to be discerning with our purchases. How do we make it easier for people that can’t make “considerate” choices toward a healthy economy… especially when critical thinking and free time are at an all time low? What a wicked problem we’ve woven. Is it just going to be us trying to barter with simple goods, participating in mutual aid networks exclusively to sustain ourselves in the near future? It’s not so simple to participate in modern life in the US without being a commodity ourselves, interacting with the systems that dress us down and rate our worthiness with a litany of traits deemed to have a value in this world according to those with power - income, living situation, gender, location, height, skin color - the list goes on. What’s the best way to fight against the commodification of humans in the labor force while simultaneously enriching small networks of communities interacting outside of the exploitative systems we are forced to interact with to survive? Who would be willing to trust their neighbors to sustain their livelihoods? So many questions from a soul that has been made weary from the forced lack of connection to their fellow humans.
These are important questions that we should be discussing as a society. But as you point out, people are so worn down, exhausted from work, that all we generally do is worry about the bottom of Maslow, with little energy left for anything else. This is by design, and it’s working.
