A Future of Leaseholders

[vershy versh]

Well that's what they say. You reach saturation point. Everyone has a tv, a fridge, a phone, a home computer, a microwave, a vcr, a car, and then your economy goes into speculation mode, money making money. This is one reason why countries like China have those kind of growth rates because not everyone there has a cheese toastie machine yet. I think that's how it goes?

Jameson goes on about some bloke called Arrighi who said as much.

We have had to wait for a remarkable book by Giovanni Arrighi, The Long Twentieth Century, for a brand-new theory of finance capitalism which completely rewrites our picture of the stages of capitalism itself. Arrighi begins with a remark of the great world historian Fernand Braudel: “Every capitalist development of this order seems, by reaching the stage of financial expansion, to have in some sense announced its maturity: it is a sign of autumn.”3 The yellow leaves of capitalism are apparent when a specific market has been saturated: production slows down, there is no longer any burning need for refrigerators, automobiles, personal computers, there is no expansion possible in the area of production in general; and at that point financial speculation must begin and profits be made in this higher-level or more abstract fashion, capitalism now as it were profiting from itself and speculating on itself, feeding on itself, by way of the stock market and its allied institutions. Arrighi’s insight in fact proposes a three-stage theory of evolution, first a specific market is opened and colonized; then the great moment of production saturates it; and finally, in some third autumnal stage, finance capital sets in and takes over a stagnating economy.

But this account must be supplemented by a geographical one, in which the emergence of capitalism is mapped and charted by a systematic displacement and enlargement of its centers: from Genoa and the Italian city-states to Spain, from Spain to Holland, Holland to England, and thence ultimately to the United States. Each of these stopping points runs through the entire cycle of the three stages before capital, having exhausted its financial moment, takes flight and moves on to greater possibilities elsewhere. We are now, in the United States, obviously in our financial stage, the stage of speculation of all kinds; and we must, with Arrighi, remain uncertain as to what will follow once that stage is exhausted. (But Chinese production and the immense Chinese market cast a suggestive shadow on the longer future.)

 

[vershy versh]

I think you have to differentiate between digital resources with one off or limited uses and essentials like housing.

It's definitely most concerning when it comes to stuff like housing, but I think it's a clear trend in general and I don't think it's a great development for either category.

 

[vershy versh]

Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware

To avoid the draconian locks that John Deere puts on the tractors they buy, farmers throughout America's heartland have started hacking their equipment with firmware that's cracked in Eastern Europe and traded on invite-only, paid online forums.

Tractor hacking is growing increasingly popular because John Deere and other manufacturers have made it impossible to perform "unauthorized" repair on farm equipment, which farmers see as an attack on their sovereignty and quite possibly an existential threat to their livelihood if their tractor breaks at an inopportune time.

"When crunch time comes and we break down, chances are we don't have time to wait for a dealership employee to show up and fix it," Danny Kluthe, a hog farmer in Nebraska, told his state legislature earlier this month. "Most all the new equipment [requires] a download [to fix]."

Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware

A dive into the thriving black market of John Deere tractor hacking.

www.vice.com

 

[vershy versh]

It reads like The Onion, but apparently it's legit. William Gibson eat your heart out.

"What you've got is technicians running around here with cracked Ukrainian John Deere software that they bought off the black market"

 

[luka]

Serfdom to corporate overlords. That future. What sci-fi does that? Must be a tonne.

 

[Leo]

uber/lyft is a variation on the concept: pay-per-use as opposed to monthly fee for unlimited access, and alleviates the need for some people to buy a car and have to pay car loans, insurance, gas, repairs/maintenance, etc.

 

[vershy versh]

Those ATMs that charge you. Pisstake.

 

[vershy versh]

Neofeudalism: The End of Capitalism? | Los Angeles Review of Books

Jodi Dean considers what comes after capitalism.

lareviewofbooks.org

 

[luka]

 

[Leo]

another reason not to use those cloud fuckers. long live physical product!

 

[IdleRich]

This was many years ago by the way. I can't stress enough how ahead of version I was here.

It feels like yours was Betamax to Version's VHS.

 

[luka]

story of my life

 

[IdleRich]

uber/lyft is a variation on the concept: pay-per-use as opposed to monthly fee for unlimited access, and alleviates the need for some people to buy a car and have to pay car loans, insurance, gas, repairs/maintenance, etc.

Yeah was gonna say; uber has no cars, air bnb has no property, Amazon has no shops and relatively few books - but they are making it work for them cos they're on opposite ends of the process.

 

[vershy versh]

"Lloyd's bank to buy 50,000 homes by 2030 and become one of the UK's biggest landlords."

 

[luka]

old news that was doing the rounds on twitter months ago

 

[Leo]

luka's cranky today. probably due to the ankle, don't take it personally, version.

 

[luka]

its true that its old news (it came out at the same time as the blackstone news) its true im cranky its true its the ankle and its true that its a running joke.

as a tenant its not certain banks will be worse landlords than the current bunch of degenerates but it has a dystopian feel to it partly becasue
buy-to-let is the main path the little man has to financial independence so closing that down feels like a major step on The Path to Serfdom.

 

[luka]

what might also get squeezed in the long term, is, to put it bluntly, slum accomodation
and the options for people prepared to put up with filth, squalour and health and safety hazards in return
for low costs and minimal supervision/expectations.

 

[vershy versh]

... it has a dystopian feel to it partly becasue buy-to-let is the main path the little man has to financial independence so closing that down feels like a major step on The Path to Serfdom.

The same goes for Brexit and lockdowns, according to some. They're both fantastic methods of smashing small businesses and allowing the big boys to come in and hoover everything up.

 

[luka]

yes, that seems to be the aim of the game. Path to Serfdom. corporate feudalism.