You will own nothing and be happy

Blue Mist said:
Communism is a brilliant idea...as long as it stays as an idea. Communism in real life does not work because those down there (us) have nowt and those running the show have everything. At least with Capitalism you have a choice.
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Would tend to agree but one problem is that capitalism is now frequently presented as the only viable economic system, given that Marxism lost so much credibility in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dilution of Communism in China. According to the late Mark Fisher (a blogger known as K-Punk), the quotation “it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism” encompasses the present state of affairs.

In his global history of ethics The Quest for a Moral Compass, Kenan Malik also makes the same point, observing that:

‘By 2008…the possibility of change, at least in the way that Marx would have understood it had become negligibly small. The depth of the economic crisis led to talk of ‘a crisis of capitalism’. And yet there was no political challenge to capitalism. Worker’s organisations had been destroyed, the left had imploded, as had the idea that there could be an alternative to the market system. The resurrection of Marx challenged none of this. Those who turn to Marx these days look upon him not as a prophet of capitalism’s demise but as a poet of its moral corruption.’

Personally, I prefer the vibrancy and dynamism of capitalism to Marxism, but not the neoliberal, unregulated, off-the-leash version of it favoured by Truss and many of her predecessors, including Blair and Thatcher, one that has had such a damaging effect on economic equality, social mobility and cohesion wherever it has been introduced.

The unopposed spread of this deleterious form of capitalism to so many parts of the world and the hegemony that it currently enjoys is what is causing people to think that there must be some kind of conspiracy going on in my view.

For me, the economy should serve the needs of society, not society the imperatives of the free market. Unfortunately, neoliberals take the latter view.

For anyone who has a wider interest in this I would recommend two publications; False Dawn: the Delusions of Global Capitalism by John Gray (the 2009 edition with a new foreword and postscript) and 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism by Ha Joon Chang.

Both are very readable, proper page-turners, and assume no prior familiarity with economics.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
Fascinating story mate. So how long have you lived this life?
I am assuming that you were wealthy enough to fund this lifestyle or do you still work?
Do you ever consider moving to another country or is Greece now your home.
Sorry for being a nosy b. Just sounds so idyllic, there must be some downsides?
Btw. If you left a few years ago, things have got very significantly worse other than our magnificent blue boys.
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Best part of 3 years now. Id say poker is probably my 'job' but its super cheap to live out here anyway. I checked out a few other countries first but settled here. Im not a fussy guy i just wanted somewhere hot by the sea and not overly expensive. And yeah i still read about UK. Those elec bills seem comically ridiculous now. The average elec bill of my mate in UK was more than my entire rent and all bills combined here. There is a weird thing i was thinking about....one day, like all of us, i shall die. However when i die ill just be a random body where nobody knows who i am other than my first name. Thats strange. I wouldnt say its a downside as by definition i wont care as well....ill be dead them lol. Other downside is i do miss City. Obv still watch on tv but miss (and this sounds ridiculous) going Mary D's pre match getting drunk, eating some god awful chippy food then stumbling into etihad!
 
An odd thread from from fantasy land has turned out to be rather interesting!
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
In this new system, you can’t rent anywhere to live as there’d be no landlords. It’s a first come, first served type of policy.

I‘m not sure it’s been thought through very well.

Your lifestyle sounds lovely though!
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On a side note i think we may have met once in my old life and got drunk together. If you are who i think you are that is. Prob around 2009 in a bluemoon meet up at shambles square. I know Ric was there and Bill. Some young lads who used to post on here i think whose user names were philbo and anton don juan. It seems a literal lifetime ago now.
 
mtinadids said:
I found this thread title interesting as i pretty much do own nothing yet am as happy as ive ever been. A few years ago when i was 40 i packed up, sold everything and moved to Greece. This morning, like most mornings, i got up and walked down to the sea for a swim.Now im in a cafe watching the tide roll in, chat to a few tourists and later ill play a spot of poker on the crap old laptop i have.An alternative lifestyle really is possible if people really want it. When covid happened the rules were in place here but i noticed absolutely nobody followed them. Ive not once seen a police car here and in fact i very much doubt anybody even knows my surname here so im pretty much as free as can be. My only possesions are clothing, laptop and phone. Money doesnt make a person happy but freedom sure as hell does. The point of this waffle is because a v large part of me leaving the UK was my increasing anger that the Government. I met many of the MPs in my old line of work and didnt like the vast majority. They would in a meeting and id listen to them say blatant lies and ignore all facts as long as they were personally ok. I therefore left and effectively became ungovernable. Id suggest others do the same because its only going to get worse in the UK depressingly.
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Corruption is rife in Greece, almost every Greek person I have met since the 1990s left because of it (or avoiding national service).
 
Corky said:
Corruption is rife in Greece, almost every Greek person I have met since the 1990s left because of it (or avoiding national service).
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I agree its totally corrupt to a staggering extent. Just that it aids me not have to worry tbh as i dont exist on paper anyway really. You are correct mind in that pretty much everything here can be bribed out off (not that i personally break any laws but im aware that anyone here can be bought). My life doesnt get affected by any of it thankfully.
 
Seems quite apt for this thread. Depressing its older than i am yet still applies to the world now, perhaps more than ever..
 
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