How Do You Live In Capitalism?

I will survive! Gloria Gaynor.

Right now, I'm a student. Previously, I've held various minimum wage jobs. I worked hard, paid the bills. You know what I mean? The stuff regular people do?

How do you capitalists live under the system? Looking for children to steal candy from? Calculating the lowest possible wage you can pay your employees? Colluding with the fat cats in the back room?

Except for the second point, you probably behave like everyone else. Well, maybe the third if you work in oil. It's the system that's a problem.

Socialists in capitalist societies can't help but be forced into hypocrisy, but there's no way around it. The best bet is to try to limit the hypocrisy as much as possible.

I work, I got to school...most of my money is tied up in bills...but when I shop, I only go to stores that are unionized.

Every now and then I'll buy a book or a movie, but mostly I just download movies and music and the like for free.

You know that computer you're typing on, my sweat-shop factory in Bangladesh made it. I got the shop through a sweet deal a buddy of mine in Century 21 gave me and now he's helping me get the deed to your house.

Yay.

Right now I'm working on finding a job (preferably as a firefighter or paramedic) that I can use to get my Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate, which will let me travel all over and teach people English and learn from different cultures. I intend to live in a car or a squat too. Most of what i do for entertainment is video games, so by pirating I've already pretty much severely limited my consumerism. The only recreation I use money for is trading card games, which are imo one of the coolest parts of capitalism that I don't see being quite the same afterwards so I want to enjoy it while I can.

Dunno about yall but I like to practice what I preach.

^^ you cant boycott capitalism mate. tackling it from the wrong end of the wedge. if youre not bourgoisie you cant really be accused not practising what you preach

Sure I can, it makes no sense whatsoever to willingly participate in a system and then go online to complain about how exploited you are.

no you cannot, its impossible. we live in a capitalist world. the only way to choose not to 'participate' is to commit suicide or live a hunter gather life in the middle of nowhere. im sure there are many threads explaining how lifestylism is fruitless already

Lifestylism is fruitless if it's all you do, you have to actively revolt in the mean time. If you look at Che/Lenin/any revolutionary ever they didn't overthrow the world order by going to college and getting a cushy job as a white male in the first world.

humm, whut?

che/lenin where highly educated. please choose another revolutionary and
press enter.

While waiting for the revolution (I hate saying waiting as if it will come out of the blue...):

1/ I'm working hard to give freelance guitar and languages lessons next year.
2/ I promote and live as much as possible on DIY and anything that is free.
3/ I spread the word.

As someone has previously mentioned, it's almost inexorable that anyone living under the capitalist system will have contributed to its subsistence, no matter how hard one tries to avoid it.

Libertarians and several fiscal conservatives feel that the welfare state is morally deplorable, but the overwhelming majority of them still pay taxes to maintain the same "collectivist tyranny" that they so despise. We just have to deal with the harsh reality that sometimes our everyday actions will inevitably contradict our moral outlooks.

I wouldn't consider libertarians or fiscal conservatives revolutionary either. Guess why.

That's correct, and neither of them did anything for the revolution until they realised that what they were doing was bullshit or futile and dedicated themselves to the revolution. Both of them spent most of their time afterwards living in poverty.

I'm a useless aristocrat. I live in luxury and never have to do a day of work in my life.
I'd still get more out of socialism than i get from capitalism.

Capitalism only benefits a tiny tiny minority, even people like me who seem to live the high life are worse off under it than they would be under capitalism. I may not be exploited like the vast, vast majority but i am in a far more precarious position than I'd like.

I don't believe the system is immoral; that would be like calling cancer or a fire immoral. I believe it is an unsustainable system that oppresses people in order to function; it is harmful to me an everyone I know. I am a materialist so I deal with reality and that means playing the game we have (i.e. being a worker in capitalism) while trying to build for a world where I can help others like me win control of our own lives and live together democratically and without oppression.

What I do on a daily basis is work because I have to in order to have a place to live and a computer. I try to sustain myself so I can have a much fun as possible and can use my skills and free-time to try and build a better world. Oh my god, radicals are regular people - run, we may be sitting next to you on the bus or serving you your lunch or driving trucks that bring your food to the store!