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The key idea is to expand the reserve army of labor by engineering mass unemployment and flooding the labor market with desperate workers. Availability of surplus labor suppresses wages, erodes workplace rights, and dismantles collective bargaining power. This forces workers into accepting worse conditions allowing the rich to maximize their profits. The 2008 financial crisis serves as a recent example where mass layoffs and austerity measures significantly weakened labor power.

Rising cost of living also forces people to let go of their assets such as homes and businesses as workers and small businesses start defaulting on their debt. Oligarchs, insulated by their massive capital reserves, swoop in to acquire these assets at a fraction of the cost. David Harvey referred to this process as accumulation by dispossession.

During the 2008 housing crash, private equity firms like Blackstone purchased over 200,000 foreclosed homes, converting them into a rental empire. Similarly, during Covid, billionaire wealth surged by $4 trillion while millions faced eviction and bankruptcy.

Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine provides a solid analysis of how disasters are inevitably weaponized to privatize public goods, slash taxes for the wealthy, and dismantle regulations. As an example, the bailouts in 2008 prioritized banks over homeowners further entrenching “too big to fail” institutions. Similarly, corporate lobbyists pushed for liability shields and austerity during Covid. Such policies consolidate oligarchic control, ensuring future crises disproportionately benefit the elites.

Finally, political volatility during a crisis can be leveraged to promote right-wing populists, and justify increasingly draconian measures such as measures forcing striking workers back to work. Just as fascist politics gained momentum during The Great Depression, modern oligarch funded politicians and media weaponize xenophobia and anti-labor rhetoric to fragment working-class solidarity.

The main thing to keep in mind is that the oligarchs are able to easily weather the crisis by moving their vulnerable assets into offshore tax havens, getting to state bailouts, and so on. Their wealth will not suffer during the collapse. Bezos saw his wealth grow by $75 billion during Covid lockdowns, while the working majority was pushed further to the margins. Likewise, quantitative easing after 2008 crash inflated asset prices, enriching shareholders while wages remained stagnant.

Each time a crisis happens, the oligarchs only emerge stronger with and with deeper control of the restructured economy. The collapse that’s currently being engineered through the trade war is an an opportunity for the rich to reset the system in their favor.

@yogthos Yep #TheShockDoctrine

@mr_jj_cakes @yogthos

We're in a massive game of musical deck chairs. Every time there's a crash, the Mad Hatter screams again, "CHANGE PLACES!!" and everyone scrambles around the table stealing chairs. Those who lose their seats slide screaming down the ever more steeply sloping deck into the dark waters below. And the band keeps playing...

@yogthos @violetmadder And still heading for the iceberg….

@mr_jj_cakes @yogthos

Well, more icebergs somehow.

@simon_brooke ultimately I agree, but realistically we can't just flip a switch and go to a Star Trek society from where we are today. People are a product of their conditions, and people who've internalized capitalist relations require a transitional period which is what a socialist stage would be.

@yogthos I'm not sure that works. I think it's cold turkey, or we don't, as a society, break the addiction.

And the addiction WILL kill us all.

@simon_brooke I don't see any path to society going cold turkey, seems a collapse is the most likely scenario at this point.

That said, I'm fairly optimistic with what's happening in China. So, perhaps the collapse will only be unfolding on our side of the world.

@yogthos @simon_brooke what's happening in China? From my very limited point of view I only see another capitalist superpower.

@istar @simon_brooke it's the opposite of that. I can highly recommend reading this book if you want to understand China https://redletterspp.com/products/the-east-is-still-red

@yogthos @simon_brooke I will read the book with an open mind. But I have some serious concerns about China's handling. To start the way it addresses any thought that doesn't follow allegiance to the CCP, is not very socialist. Then, factual metrics like those regarding the collapse of its demographics show that China is affected by the same disease western countries have. Namely capitalism has taken control over private life.

@istar @simon_brooke it really sounds like you need to read up both on China and socialism. China is a Marxist state that practices democratic centralism.

There is plenty of debate and bottom up governance happening in China.

https://www.noemamag.com/what-the-west-misunderstands-about-power-in-china/

Also, not sure what demographic collapse you're talking about. The factual metrics don't support your assertions.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2108900118

https://asiatimes.com/2023/07/chinas-demographic-doomsayers-cite-the-wrong-data/

@davevolek @yogthos are there historical examples of this?

@UnionizedNetizen @yogthos

Just like we learned how to break free of feudalism, we need to break free of western democracy.

To make this new way work, we have to learn some new skills. Some of us already have some of these skills.

https://tiereddemocraticgovernance.org/blog_details.php?blog_cat_id=30&id=12

@yogthos the concentration of capitals during the crisis benefits the oligarchs but do not solve the crisis. I think the key point would be to watch where the capitalist structure (where finance is in the chain) is not compatible with an optimal developpent of technologies for instance.

@bluevelvet321 that's correct, ultimately the whole house of cards is destined to collapse, but there's still a long way down

@davel haha I guess I could, but I kind of want to try to keep my stuff shorter as a rule :)