You wish you value was tied to your productivity. It would be a step up from this.
this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2025
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Right? Like Socialism's goal is to build a meritocracy, as opposed to the oligarchy we have now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_each_according_to_his_contribution
A big part of the problem is that we don't measure externalities well. Like teachers and artists produce way more value than they're paid for. Instead we only reward value that can be directly measured by your boss, and that value is compensated at as low a level as the boss can get away with.
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Like, y'all, i'm maximally confused.
How do i even put this ...
What even is a good life according to you? Is it one in which you constantly work and that defines your self-worth?
Meritocracies are still terrible and not the thing to strive for.
But our worth is already not tied to our protuctivity. It's tied to our perceived importance. Whatever the fuck that means.
Yeah, I'm productive as fuck and not valued much at all. Wtf is this comic talking about.
I value you. We all do. Fuck capitalism, return to socialism.
Thanks but you and whoever else "we" is valuing me doesn't pay my bills or help me reach my goals.
That's... literally the point? We want socialism, which means we want to help pay your bills and support you to reach your goals. That's what we want for everyone.
Great. How does that help me right now? You have no power to change society. If anything we're going backwards. We're not even a meritocracy like the original comic suggests. Comments like that are just empty platitudes.
"You have no power to change society." He said as global uprising of socialist communities continued fighting in union.
What do you think we have been doing the past 100 years?
Losing? Trump is ripping everything out at the roots and nobody is doing a fucking thing about it other than post snarky comments on the internet.
Right, nobody is doing anything. Absolutely noone. The 7 million people who protested at the no kings protest do not exist. And if you mean me, I'm not even american. And america is not the center of the world. No country is. American being the little fascist country it has always been doesn't really matter that much.
No Kings didn't achieve anything and the US is hardly the only country that's backsliding.
Right, didn't achieve anything. Which is why republicans are losing politically left and right at this time. Historically, politicians can not withstand a mobilization of 3.5% of the population. That's globally, not just the USA. Protest are only going to get larger from this point onward, with the no kings already reaching a cool 2%. New York just elected a socialist mayor, as New York has often set trends for much of the united states of america. I agree, america is in fall, and as such in shock, that's kinda inevitable at this point. But that doesn't mean fascism has to come and stay. You know, instead of being a doomer and just saying everything will go to shit and citing your feeling for it, maybe you could start listing some things, so we could have an actual intellectual conversation.
Alternatively you can wriggle in your pain and do not help out at all in any revolutionary way whatsoever. I couldn't give less of a care as I am not american, so go right ahead. I mean I don't even know what you look or sound like.
The democratic backsliding we are experiencing is sad, but it's by far not been the first time. Graphs go up and down. But just as you don't make money by analyzing graphs, you should watch our for movements in real life. How strong is the opposition, what basis is there? In ireland they're starting a gigantic mass movement that is pro-democracy, pro-humanity, anti-billionaire. Here in germany we have a gigantic underground community of highly educated leftist opposition. The actualy majority we see in the AfD is a populist movement, not the people actually wanting to kill jews again.
The west might fall, humanity does not. I feel with you when you might say that you hate losing your democratic home.
You can do anything... at least if anything means to get slingshotted at green pigs.
Kid just needs to go to zombo com
The only limit is yourself
the unlimited is possible
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels ... upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" - Mario Savio
You can try to change it... Put all your energy into it, until you're burnt out... and then you can finally find your place in this machine!
As raw fuel.
Existence is suffering.
I produce nothing, I create nothing. I just consume, travel, delve into my hobbies and enjoy life and don't give a crap about my "value" others might or might not attribute to me.
I refer back to a note I wrote myself during the depths of despair after crawling back out from a total loss and had to rebuild my life.
"There is no wrong way to live. Just being here, experiencing anything is a cosmic miracle, it's literally impossible to waste your life."
That is a mighty fine note you made mate :)
That's an awesome note. I often think the same thing and I wish I could spread that freeing realization to everybody I meet.
you ever do anything important though or just write notes about the cosmos?
Please describe to us what is important so that we may stand back in respectful awe and learn!
I knew those birds reminded me of something.
(Content warning? Like, this is a really weird animation... Body horror?)
This is a Monday comic.
but it has Tuesday vibes
what should it be tied to?
You mean the leisure society we could have built when we started sucking cubic miles of oil out of the ground?
Good luck with that.
Rules are here to be broken if society allows it.
Productivity is value creation.
It is inherent to the economic system. Any change will maintain that we judge people by what they create.
What the red bird most likely wants is that their actions are valued more. That requires an end to the market manipulations that devalue work. That's possible but difficult.
A society that looks beyond value is more difficult. But nothing is stopping the red bird from not caring about their value in society to stop the productivity judgement from being relevant.
The blue bird is right though, you can do anything within the parameters of this soulcrushing machine. But for most trades the soul will be crushed.
Like, what i don't get is that i see both people here on this forum, on lemmy, advocating for "communism means workers own the factories they work in" (i.e. workers are solely upheld by their own productivity, example) and "people's lifes shouldn't be tied to their productivity" (this comic).
Please, y'all, make up your mind. Do you define yourself as somebody who inherently works hard and out of that draws their self-esteem, or is your self-worth independent of your productivity?
I think the people you are refering to wants better wealth distibution. They want a fair share of the value of their work. So that they can live comfortably and work less at the same time.
I also find it a bit strange that people are not allowed to express their dissatisfaction with the current system without having perfect reasoning as to why AND a holistic solution to their situation. I think you should be able to say "I'm not sure this is working" without also having the burden of being the architect of the future world laid upon you.
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