• driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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    1 year ago

    I think you can say is a pyramid scheme in the way you can’t really make money if you aren’t making money for someone upper on the ladder, even if are an independent business owner, you still have loans to pay or equipment that is sold by a corporation.

    • EhList@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s called trade. If you “trade” with someone and you do not give them something in return for what they gave you then you either robbed them, swindled them or it was a gift. There is no economic system that does not work this way

      • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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        1 year ago

        Everywhere around you, you can see work that need to be done, from streets that need to be fixed or land that could be cultivated, and all those work keep undone, because nobody up the ladder would get money from it.

        • EhList@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Fixing the road is a service. People exchange goods and services in trade. This is the basis of every single economy regardless of philosophy.

    • w2qw@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      Generally the idea is that both parties need to benefit from any transaction if it is voluntary.

      • migo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        When you have to eat and the means to feed ourselves is held by few, no transaction is voluntary.

        • hemko@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Of course it’s voluntary. You choose what you buy, when you do it, how much and from whom.

          If someone held you on gunpoint and told you to buy their product, that would be involuntary.

          • Ranolden@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You can choose what, when, how much, and from whom, but you are still are still forced to do so. Choosing which person puts me at gunpoint doesn’t make it voluntary

            • hemko@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              You can also feed yourself by growing food or hunting. Neither of those are banned, just more inconvenient and you probably have some other skills to sell and buy food instead

              • Ranolden@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I can only do so on land that I purchased. Or on someone else’s land I purchased the right to do so on

          • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            You are forced to buy food, shelter, healthcare, a vehicle (US). You are forced therefore to have a job to pay for these things. Employers know this, and suppress wages with those together, the proverbial gun.

      • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Generally speaking, slavery is also benefitial to both parties, you’re either a slave out you get killed. While technically voluntary (because a slave can still choose stand up to the oppressor, even if it’s guaranteed to fail) we don’t consider slavery voluntary. We can say that in this day and age our work is voluntary, but it’s debatable.

        You can look to this year how “voluntary” it is when the Hollywood execs literally said they will wait for the protesters to starve so they’d get back to work. When there’s such a severe power dynamic it becomes almost no different to slavery, because you, individually, can be effectively forced back to work. The only reason Hollywood protests have any chance to have impact is because they collectively oppose the oppression. The power dynamic is being balanced (or dipped in the favor of labor) by sheer number of protestors / workers.