Memes of Production

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Seize the Memes of Production

An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the “ML” influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.

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Deceptichum@quokk.au

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another world is possible (quokk.au)

submitted 3 days ago by Deceptichum@quokk.au to c/mop@quokk.au

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[–] for_some_delta@beehaw.org 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I have grown up near and worked in orchards, potatoes, beef and dairy cows. Even with that experience, I do not tell experts how to do their work. Workers are better at managing resources than bosses who haven't spent a day in the field.

Food is wasted due to being commercially unviable. There were potatoes that were too big left to rot in a field. The potatoes were bagged by the community separate from the commercial entity and handed out as gifts. I produce too much fruit to preserve and have to give it away. Gift economies predate capitalism.

I find the argument strange that under anarchy there would be no technology or infrastructure. The form may be different to decentralize power. Technology and infrastructure under capitalism is designed to benefit the capital class.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Workers are better at managing resources than bosses who haven't spent a day in the field.

But a worker who works in e.g. growing potatoes is not better at managing distribution across multiple counties. Those are different task areas, and logistics networks are not flat organizations, they require management.

If you'll re-read my previous post you'll see that my point is mostly about infrastructure, not about the expertise in producing any particular food. It's the infrastructure that allows production and distribution scale, to the point where agriculture represents ~1% of labor. A lot of people (99%) are able to spend their time doing other productive things besides growing food, and are still able to eat. That is a highly successful system.

Food is wasted due to being commercially unviable.

Food is also wasted due to logistics problems. It's great that you can produce so much food that you can give some of it away, but can you give some of it away two states over? The people who would most benefit from the excess food you produce don't live in your zip code.

I find the argument strange that under anarchy there would be no technology or infrastructure.

I said nothing about technology. I'm addressing that here and I'm going to ignore it as a straw man.
Infrastructure never works as a flat organizational structure. It requires management and oversight. It requires overall design, a broad range of skillsets, and long-term maintenance. At some point someone has to make decisions about which experts put their expertise where and when, and which spare parts are most critical for which areas, and you cannot wait for the entire community affected by those decisions to make a collective decision. The infrastructure will rot before useful choices are made. Someone (one) must make management decisions about where other people spend their time and effort on which resources.