It seems as if whenever someone discusses the issue of having to work for a wage so that they can (barely) maintain a standard of living above poverty, or, homelessness, there is a growing understanding between the general public and run of the mill Radicals that the wage labor system isn't cutting it anymore.
On top of wages being just enough to partially sustain yourself, the public has to deal with the vague, amorphous, entity we know as "the economy" and it's tendency every now and again to collapse in on itself and subject millions into having to fend for themselves and their families whenever the "business cycle" decides that it wants to trend downwards, because a slew of numbers in Wall Street and the world's other cathedrals of useless capital reported that their lines are no longer going up into infinitude.
We currently live in a situation that's suspiciously similar to the sociopolitical conditions that led up to, existed during, and came on after the 2008 global financial crisis: Despite millions of qualified scholars doing everything that society told them to do by the book, and, upon receiving their degrees, they charted out into the untamed, cutthroat wilderness of the job market, with millions of companies publicly welcoming these graduates with open arms, privately, it's a different story.
These supposed job opportunities appear to be nothing other than phantom positions that are relentlessly being chased by desperate job seekers in a futile attempt to avoid the socioeconomic stigma of being unemployed. Unfortunately for you job seekers out there, this emotional and financial turmoil is even affecting job openings in entry-level positions, so not even the "over-qualified" have the liberty of being stuck at a dead-end job. This situation is bound to reach a breaking point as the Trump administration seems focused on implementing austerity and destroying the welfare state.
In even worse news, the American economy looks poised to shit the bed yet again sometime in the near future, so the scant amount of jobs available out in the world could become scarcer still.
What becomes of those people who can't find Blue Collar/White Collar work? They understandably find opportunities in the "Informal" economy (as if the act of exerting yourself in exchange for money isn't a formal agreement), or, they resort to a life of crime.
With social tensions being where they are right now (for example, as of writing this, there's currently a show trial going on right now of an individual named Luigi Mangioni where the state is looking poised to deprive him of his constitutional right to a fair trial just because he's accused of killing a Billionaire, a death, which, generated 25,000 laughing emoji reactions on Facebook), only the truly foolish would blame the working poor and the unemployed for their current position in life. Besides this, any so called "Radical" who's worthy of the title would see these "declassed" individuals as a target audience for anti-Capitalist agitation.
That's why the main topic of today's free report focuses on one subsection of the Black market economy: Sex work. What it is, and, the relations of it's different class dynamics.
Before this analysis is started, this publication would like to emphasize that we see sex work as no different than wage labor performed at a 9-5 job. Before certain conclusions are drawn by any supporters of sex workers or it's critics, we'd like to clarify that the point of this report goes far beyond being "pro" or "anti" sex work. Our aim with this report is to take the entirety of labor as a means of living and putting it under an anti-Capitalist lens of critique.
First, we have to point out that "sex work" is a range of different operations, it goes all the way from individual Men/Women putting masturbation videos behind a paywall on OnlyFans and who basically own their own means of production, to workers "on the blade" making money for specific pimps who take the Black market role of being the bloodsucking, exploitative, and violent Capitalists. Despite this distinction, from now on in this article, we shall use "sex work" as shorthand for prostitution as it's the most stigmatized, illegal, and common form of sex work.
Since the main struggle of Capitalism is between workers and Capitalists, we're going to take the time to talk about just who pimps really are. For anyone with even a passing knowledge of the sex trade, they know that anyone, male or female, gay or straight can be one, and that pimps like to self-segregate into two broad camps: First are the "boyfriend pimps" who usually like to use psychological manipulation on their victims in order to get them to fall in love with them pimp. During this process, the pimp slowly isolates their victim from friends and family until they gain full control over their lives. The other type of pimp is the "gorilla pimp" who lures in victims with the offer of money or drugs and frequently uses violence to keep their girls in line.
Now, with that basic information out of the way, it's time to discuss the main issue that's been controverted by countless people, inside and outside of the lifestyle both in favor, and, against it: Should sex work be legalized?
Before we get ahead of ourselves, our opinion on the matter must be informed by facts: Please consult these videos where youtuber Philip DeFranco cities that cases of rape and gonorrhea decreased when Rhode Island essentially legalized indoor prostitution, yet rates of trafficking victims weren't accounted for in the study, and this segment of MSNBC with the owner of Las Vegas' Cathouse where the host reveals that a sizable number of sex workers said that they planned on getting out of the industry.
With all that in mind, Black Label Detroit has to admit that it's official stance on the issue may come as a disappointment to some readers, but, we don't see a need for the legalization of sex work as there is no true form of Liberation that can come from wage labor itself, we have the means currently to ensure that wage labor is eliminated as a requirement to living life forever.
Of course, however, the critics of Black Label Detroit will be bound to argue that this position in and of itself is backwards and sexist, since, since, for example, there have been many social gains made by women for in the labor market once they started to work en-masse during World War II.
The response to this criticism is simple: Women have been in the workforce for eighty years, have been elected to the halls of government, and, fill various spots along the corporate ladder, but, these small gains have done nothing to eliminate systemic violence against women or dissipate embedded patriarchy. This is why Black Label Detroit proposes that the only way to allow Women to truly be the equal of Men, there must be agitation from both sexes for the abolition of the need to work.
Unfortunately, our dissidents will suggest that this publication has lost the plot. After all, the idea of "work" and what needs to be done in order to survive in this world has been a reality since the beginning of history. However, Black Label Detroit has to burst this bubble: Before the invention of Capitalism, humans have done "work" in radically different ways as opposed to how we work in our post-industrial society. There are studies that suggest we work more hours than Medieval peasants did in the past, putting to bed the idea that Capitalism has liberated the people from useless toil. This publication would delve into what exactly we could be doing in a post-scarcity society, however, that analysis will come at a later date, and that vision relies upon popular Leftist literature that has not been consulted yet (so stay tuned for those future book reviews, and we'd encourage all of you to read the likes of Karl Marx, Yanis Varoufakis, Murray Bookchin, and Peter Kropotkin as well as read Black Label Detroit's report on Luxury Communism which deals with similar ideas).
Back to the subject at hand: What exactly would happen to the dynamics of the sexual economy if people no longer had to work to live? Surely the field of sex work would fade into distant memory? Yet, this publication would argue the opposite. People often confuse a post-scarcity society with a Utopia, post scarcity doesn't mean that sex trafficking would end, it doesn't presuppose the end of different forms of sexual exploitation or the elimination of incels, nor, in this context, does it argue that all sex workers are unable to have agency in their own lives.
We will suggest, however, that post-scarcity society would end the artificially vacuous power dynamics between men and women. No longer would there be an emphasis upon men to become "providers" regardless of their financial position, and women would no longer be pressed to follow "traditional" forms of domestic servitude in order to find a "good man". There would emerge a greater understanding of the physical and psychological needs between both sexes as to how to build bonds that'll last for a lifetime.
In conclusion, the sexual dynamics that exist under Capitalism only exist artificially, and, we live at the cusp of a truly transformative era in the history of humanity. Many of our established relations will change as our perceptions of sexual duties fade into irrelevance and, eventually, distant memory. It is the duty of all modern Radicals to get the word out about this brighter future and organize the most exploited sections of our society so that there is a general groundswell of agitation for a new economic system, and we must build that new system, come hell or high water.
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