Marxism #14 But what exactly IS poverty

[Caesercel]

Instead of writing more theory I wanna share some personal thoughts here.

When we think of poverty we think of it as not having enough money in our bank accounts to buy the stuff we want/need.

But what does that mean exactly? Everything that can be bought in a market comes from Labour of other people. And if you are a working person, then your own labour ends up as a commodity in the market. That means poverty is fundamentally a lack of access to output of other people's labour. This sounds water in retrospect but I never though of it that way before.

So what creates the material conditions of poverty in an individual is the fact that he doesn't quite get enough labour output from society to fulfill his varied needs.

Coincidently, what makes someone rich is their ability to command a greater quota of the combined human labour force for their own luxuries.

 

[IWWorkER]

Poverty is the default state of all humans.

 

[Caesercel]

Poverty is the default state of all humans.

I'm not sure what that's even supposed to mean.

 

[IWWorkER]

I'm not sure what that's even supposed to mean.

It means there's no point looking at a cause for poverty, as there is none.

 

[Caesercel]

It means there's no point looking at a cause for poverty, as there is none.

It's how I understand the state of poverty. Not trying to find a cause here. What counts as poor changes with time period. And different poors are poor for different reasons. But the underlying concept is the same, not being able to have society/other people labour for you.

 

[IWWorkER]

It's how I understand the state of poverty. Not trying to find a cause here. What counts as poor changes with time period. And different poors are poor for different reasons. But the underlying concept is the same, not being able to have society/other people labour for you.

Sure, I agree. I just disapprove using the word "create" here:

what creates the material conditions of poverty

because I dont think poverty, nor the material conditions for behind it, are created.

 

[Caesercel]

because I dont think poverty, nor the material conditions for behind it, are created.

Yeah by "create" I meant that this IS what poverty is fundamentally.

As for wheather those conditions are deliberate or not. I would say they are, atleast in the modern sense we define poverty. I don't see it as a constant state of the world but rather as a systematic failure.