I’ve heard it said many times that people have trouble imagining what a post-capitalist society might look like. After all, all we have to go on is what came before capitalism, plus the few attempts at something different that we’ve seen over the last century or so. It’s hard to imagine something that doesn’t exist yet, right? Even those parts of the world that operate differently within their own borders, do so within a world controlled by capitalism, and operating under those rules.
So what do we have to compare? Is there anything in existence now, that most people know about, that we could expand use as an example of how things could work differently? Honestly, there are probably a few examples, but one of the best, brought to us by Andrewism, is that of the library. His videos are always pretty chill, and I find this description of what a “library economy” might look like to be inspiring:
No wonder conservatives hate them.
A couple of the public libraries near me have tool-lending branches, and I think they are really great.
Especially for people who are doing a one-off project (as opposed to a hobby or profession), people who don’t have the space/room to keep various tools, or people who can’t afford to purchase specialty tools.
I don’t use it too often, because I’ve got a small set of tools that cover most of the projects I do, but once in a while I’ll get something specific from the library that I am not likely to use more often.
In some ways, I feel it’s pretty much the opposite of Harbor Freight Tools, where people frequently buy some cheaply-made tool relatively inexpensively, that they only plan on using a couple times.
The comments on Youtube are full of people mentioning similar things from their towns. It feels like something that could get real purchase, at least prior to accounting for the inevitable Red Scare in response.