Excellent article though I’d like to add 3 more points.
Hostels are also a valuable addition when people are in housing transition, or just touring on the cheap. Generally, 2 hours of pushing broom or whatever covers a night in a dorm room with a locker and a mailbox so folk can have an address to receive a paycheck. International Youth Hostel Federation and hihostels.com has a lot of information. Most of the world is covered better than the US and many for profit hotels and motels use the term ‘hostel.’ Many locations do need some government support to be viable. Sometimes, the first patrons are the crew remodeling the location.
American income tax structure, especially designating a Head of Household, helps to atomize families. When the highest income in a household is a child of a retired parent, the divisiveness shows.
Darwin never wrote “survival of the fittest.” He wrote “survival of the fit.” A budding laissez faire economist suggested ‘fittest’ and after much thought, Darwin rejected the phrase. A fit animal can generally evade a predator, and herd numbers and community partnership and nurturing help a lot, which is very different take from the laissez fair, dominance and submission view.
Hey Walt! Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. I think your suggestion is a good one, and perhaps an oversight on my part. I agree hostels could be a form of mutual aid, and we could use more hostels in the US.
As for programs that require government intervention, I may not cover them in this series. I started with mutual aid because it will be necessary to facilitate a workers' revolution. One can have mutual aid without revolution, but not a revolution without mutual aid. It seemed necessary to cover this topic first. I did community organizing very intensely a few years, and I found needs don't always get met in that struggle. I didn't realize though until I was already deep in it.
So I do agree it would be better to have systems that meet human needs. I doubt capitalism will meet those needs. While we work towards liberating everyone, I think mutual aid will be a necessity to facilitate that process. In this way, mutual aid is a transition strategy until we systematize them.
As for Darwin, he may not have advocated for the "survival of the fittest" individual, but popular culture perceives that he did. That's why I address it so pointedly as well as reiterate from time to time. Capitalism quite skews our worldviews. The idea of mutual aid emphasizes that cooperation is a better survival strategy than competition. I referenced the BPP towards the beginning because they were so successful despite a system that wanted to end them.
Good to hear your perspective, Walt. Stop by any time.
Excellent article though I’d like to add 3 more points.
Hostels are also a valuable addition when people are in housing transition, or just touring on the cheap. Generally, 2 hours of pushing broom or whatever covers a night in a dorm room with a locker and a mailbox so folk can have an address to receive a paycheck. International Youth Hostel Federation and hihostels.com has a lot of information. Most of the world is covered better than the US and many for profit hotels and motels use the term ‘hostel.’ Many locations do need some government support to be viable. Sometimes, the first patrons are the crew remodeling the location.
American income tax structure, especially designating a Head of Household, helps to atomize families. When the highest income in a household is a child of a retired parent, the divisiveness shows.
Darwin never wrote “survival of the fittest.” He wrote “survival of the fit.” A budding laissez faire economist suggested ‘fittest’ and after much thought, Darwin rejected the phrase. A fit animal can generally evade a predator, and herd numbers and community partnership and nurturing help a lot, which is very different take from the laissez fair, dominance and submission view.
Hey Walt! Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. I think your suggestion is a good one, and perhaps an oversight on my part. I agree hostels could be a form of mutual aid, and we could use more hostels in the US.
As for programs that require government intervention, I may not cover them in this series. I started with mutual aid because it will be necessary to facilitate a workers' revolution. One can have mutual aid without revolution, but not a revolution without mutual aid. It seemed necessary to cover this topic first. I did community organizing very intensely a few years, and I found needs don't always get met in that struggle. I didn't realize though until I was already deep in it.
So I do agree it would be better to have systems that meet human needs. I doubt capitalism will meet those needs. While we work towards liberating everyone, I think mutual aid will be a necessity to facilitate that process. In this way, mutual aid is a transition strategy until we systematize them.
As for Darwin, he may not have advocated for the "survival of the fittest" individual, but popular culture perceives that he did. That's why I address it so pointedly as well as reiterate from time to time. Capitalism quite skews our worldviews. The idea of mutual aid emphasizes that cooperation is a better survival strategy than competition. I referenced the BPP towards the beginning because they were so successful despite a system that wanted to end them.
Good to hear your perspective, Walt. Stop by any time.