subsistance farming doesn’t guarantee full-time job security nor does it entail that (for example) the farmer is able to pay for school or healthcare for the farmer or their family.
I’m not defending subsistence farming. We are scientific socialists, and we are all for developing the forces of production here. All I am saying is that these income comparisons suck.
What is considered liberalism here?
I’m attacking the myopia that liberals have when they are unable to comprehend economics on non-market terms. I even have a friend who argues me about how good minimum wage earners have it in the west because of stats like this. These stats were designed by neolibs to defend neoliberalism. It makes the western proletariat look ungrateful and greedy.
I must read about the 400 million people or more that escaped Capitalism!
Obviously, life isn’t idyllic for these people, but it is literally physically impossible to survive on less than 2 dollars per day if you are a western proletariat. My rent alone (not counting utilities) is 25 dollars per day, and I am living in a 20m^2 studio. I once lived in a room where I only had enough space to put a mattress on the floor and my bags on the side. I shared all facilities with 8 people. I still paid 15 per day for the rent (not including utilities).
I would joke that people in the global South must be living in cardboard boxes if they actually make 2 dollars (adjusted for cost of living) per day, but the homeless guy I helped out recently told me 14 dollars only gets him and his gf through 1 night/day.
That should tell that most global income comparison stats are garbage.
It makes some sense to compare incomes within one country (even then, there are problems), but across countries things get tricky, especially when you factor in countries that haven’t even fully transitioned to capitalism yet.
labour aristocracy
Not going to get into that, as the extent of imperialist plunder was not even the topic I was commenting on.
I’m not defending subsistence farming. We are scientific socialists, and we are all for developing the forces of production here. All I am saying is that these income comparisons suck.
I’m attacking the myopia that liberals have when they are unable to comprehend economics on non-market terms. I even have a friend who argues me about how good minimum wage earners have it in the west because of stats like this. These stats were designed by neolibs to defend neoliberalism. It makes the western proletariat look ungrateful and greedy.
There are actually 2 billion people living as “small holder farmers”. Their market income is terrible, but that is because they eat most of what they produce, and only sell on the market to aquire goods they cannot produce on their own.
Obviously, life isn’t idyllic for these people, but it is literally physically impossible to survive on less than 2 dollars per day if you are a western proletariat. My rent alone (not counting utilities) is 25 dollars per day, and I am living in a 20m^2 studio. I once lived in a room where I only had enough space to put a mattress on the floor and my bags on the side. I shared all facilities with 8 people. I still paid 15 per day for the rent (not including utilities).
I would joke that people in the global South must be living in cardboard boxes if they actually make 2 dollars (adjusted for cost of living) per day, but the homeless guy I helped out recently told me 14 dollars only gets him and his gf through 1 night/day.
That should tell that most global income comparison stats are garbage.
It makes some sense to compare incomes within one country (even then, there are problems), but across countries things get tricky, especially when you factor in countries that haven’t even fully transitioned to capitalism yet.
Not going to get into that, as the extent of imperialist plunder was not even the topic I was commenting on.