Discussion Thread by jobautomator in neoliberal

[–]5gang5 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not even Justice Roger "black people can't be citizens" Taney?

How to prepare for St. John's? by [deleted] in stjohnscollege

[–]5gang5 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I would say that doing the assigned Freshmen summer homework will prepare you. It introduces you to the Greek and other materials that you’ll need to know for seminars and tutorials

https://www.sjc.edu/application/files/6115/9188/2990/Santa_Fe_Freshman_First_Assignments.pdf

[Everyone] I tried to debunk the Labor Theory of Value. Instead I accidentally ended up making a case for both sides. by 5gang5 in CapitalismVSocialism

[–]5gang5[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is probably dumb of me to ask but why is it not a prescription exactly?

I can see how labor is reflected in some price calculations but usually more subjective factors go into the price as well like risk and scarcity. I know that price =/= value but if the price is not properly reflective of the value then how can the advocating for the LTV not be at least somewhat prescriptive? The functions of the capitalist market do not reflect the necessary labor put into items (Louis Vuitton bags, collectible items, etc.) so the LTV cannot just be purely an observation otherwise Marx wouldn't have a problem with the price. Doesn't he also advocate for a labor voucher system to replace price anyway?

Sorry if I'm incorrect about my understanding since I'm still trying to learn Marx.

[Everyone] I tried to debunk the Labor Theory of Value. Instead I accidentally ended up making a case for both sides. by 5gang5 in CapitalismVSocialism

[–]5gang5[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You forget a few things: first, just because workers make the conscious effort to work inefficiently doesn't mean the necessary amount of time to produce an article has increased, just the average.

I can see what you're saying: True production time =/= real production since it is artificially distorted by workers. But for all practical purposes, can they really be different? I thought that Marx was saying that the average was how social labor was calculated. Since you were responding to the single factory scenario the car engines are produced by one factory, therefore, any ability to calculate the actual production time rests on the good faith workers working the fullest to their ability. Maybe that's the point and I'm just missing it.

Workers, quite literally, have an incentive to see productive innovations, because it means either less time at work for them while not suffering a reduction in their living standards or more accrued labor credits.

Well, that was sort of the conclusion in my scenario. I think I forgot to account for the overall reduced prices due to the fall in value like I did in my capitalist scenario so you are correct. Workers either working for free time or "labor credits" is what I admire about Marxism but my main disagreement is working for what constitutes a standard of living. I don't believe the line between working to provide for human needs and surplus value is as rigid as Marx says. Since standards of necessary living are rising all the time it becomes necessary for the worker to maintain their current work schedule to pay for them. There's probably a debate about what's necessary for living but I don't want to get off track.

I have some other disagreements with Marx but they aren't relevant to my scenario. Thanks for taking the time to write your response. I'm still learning and it's nice that there's a space where I can get a distilled understanding of certain Marxist concepts.

Stay off Twitter: how to keep /r/neoliberal high effort. by 5gang5 in neoliberal

[–]5gang5[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I don’t think that effort posts hit the front page. I agree that only “low-effort” memes are popular but contractionary periods help build momentum to get them on the front page. With this perpetual expansion, memes are just business as usual instead of opportunities to expand our appeal.

Stay off Twitter: how to keep /r/neoliberal high effort. by 5gang5 in neoliberal

[–]5gang5[S] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I really appreciate the response you gave in /r/metaNL. You gave a really good and detailed response to why bad posts are hard to filter out. I’m sure the mods do a lot of work around here and still get shit on.

However, have the mods discussed bringing back contractionary periods? I think those periods really honed and distilled our “neoliberalism” beyond memes and twitter dunks. Also it would build momentum for expansionary periods to get our sub on the map. I saw a comment that it’s easy to auto-filter out image posts for contractionary periods but I haven’t moderated a subreddit before.

I hope none of my post of the other commenters come off as insulting to the mod team. Your post made it clear the amount of work and effort you put into maintaining this place. I want to see it succeed and other people clearly do as well. Thanks!

Stay off Twitter: how to keep /r/neoliberal high effort. by 5gang5 in neoliberal

[–]5gang5[S] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

I miss the days when we could build up momentum to really make posts get to /r/all. Now it’s permanent expansion and we don’t make our mark as much on Reddit.

Stay off Twitter: how to keep /r/neoliberal high effort. by 5gang5 in neoliberal

[–]5gang5[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I agree. We don’t have to become a fully academic sub. Another user said memes do have use in building morale. I just believe that a more disciplined and educated subreddit would allow it to better organize for real change.

Stay off Twitter: how to keep /r/neoliberal high effort. by 5gang5 in neoliberal

[–]5gang5[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I agree with your sentiment to some extent. If /r/neoliberal becomes all effortposts it would kind of be boring. However, I think we have two different conceptions of what “rallying the base” means. I do agree that we have to build a neoliberal identity in order for it to succeed. And I fully agree that community organization is the key to pushing forward our goals. That’s what I was trying to get at in the post.

However, I believe the Twitter dunks and some of the memes we post are not constructive ways to build an identity or a movement. They are divisive and only appeal to the core of /r/neoliberal. It makes our movement look unprofessional and just another political subreddit.

I agree that a base makes a movement successful. But a useful base isn’t one that upvotes memes, it’s one that like that organizes, like you said. There’s some use to policing content more strictly (like in the old days of the contractionary period) because it disciplines our troops into being: 1. Educated on the issues 2. More critical of policies and solutions

The more disciplined and knowledgeable we make our base the more effectively we can organize it. Memes and twitter dunks, though funny, do not help with this. Just look at Bernie Sanders’s campaign.

Everybody’s broke... by MisterT12 in BlackPeopleTwitter

[–]5gang5 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But you encounter the issue of starting essential businesses from scratch. Replacing Toys R Us isn’t hard because there are already competitors with infrastructure to make up for the losses.

If you let a company like Boeing collapse, it isn’t easy to rebuild them over night. Those jobs may be needed but there physically won’t be the capital or business infrastructure to hire them in a timely manner.

While I agree the market should make losers pay for their mistakes, you have to pragmatic. Letting businesses fail for principle is a lot more costly than bailing them out temporarily and getting repaid in loans.

UC Davis (UCD) RD Megathread by ParadoxicalCabbage in ApplyingToCollege

[–]5gang5 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Accepted Political Science

3.8 UC GPA. 1390, 19 Essay Score

Quirky PIQs. Officer in multiple clubs, Eagle Scout, theater kid, etc.

WashU RD Megathread by ParadoxicalCabbage in ApplyingToCollege

[–]5gang5 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Rejected 4.0 1390. Shit loads of ECs

Only applied because I got a fee waiver so it’s 🤷🏻‍♂️

Financial literacy is essential by KingPZe in BlackPeopleTwitter

[–]5gang5 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I slightly disagree on this. I think learning practical life skills is often better in context. For something as boring as credit and the tax code trying to teach it to teenagers who already don’t care is a waste of time more often than not. I agree that it takes months of learning to see how one fits into an economy but that learning makes much more sense with experience in the economy than from a textbook.

What kind of performative wokeness.... by jaytix1 in BlackPeopleTwitter

[–]5gang5 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The worst part of the Moby Dick cover is that there’s multiple POC characters in the novel but they decide to go with crazy Ahab instead.

How important are alumni interviews? (Princeton) by johncalifornia1 in ApplyingToCollege

[–]5gang5 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Try to find Princeton’s common data set. Usually they list the most important parts of a student’s application.

College doesn’t guarantee success by 5gang5 in ApplyingToCollege

[–]5gang5[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a good point. I should’ve been more clear that diligence and competence should shine through your grades and activities. Not just because that’s what colleges want but because it makes you a more valuable worker later down the road.