A post-capitalist democracy would allow us to automate labor wherever possible, cut out unnecessary work that only exists to line the pockets of the already-rich, and divvy up the otherwise necessary jobs among the population so that each person has a greatly reduced workday/week.
Production-for-profit means that the rich scope out profit in every avenue of life and privatize and accumulate at the expense of the rest of us. That means arbitrary workloads (for the boss’s benefit) and warped ideas about what “contributing to society” means. A robot that can exponentially improve upon productivity is a threat used to keep the working class in their place, but in any truly rational society the increased productivity would mean vacations and a less grueling workday. Capitalism puts the accumulation of capital (by a small elite) ahead of the needs of human beings, in theory and in practice.
Production-for-use bypasses all of that, especially when people are granted agency and democratic say in the social bodies they contribute to. Cover the material necessities of people within a directly-democratic use-based economy and then step back and watch the magic happen. Art, scientific pursuits, culture, education – there would be constant creative booms in a society where most people weren’t weighed down by resource insecurity, long/alienating workdays, and harmful social hierarchy. For all its talk of innovation, capitalism deprives the grand majority of the means to innovate – whether it be a lack of education, limited free time to pursue interests, or a class system that reproduces cycles of wealth and poverty, capitalism does *not* cultivate innovation and creativity among the general population unless it is profitable for the rich to do so (and it usually isn’t). Technologies that help humanity and reduce toil would be a major facet of a use-based system beyond capitalism.
The fight for life is recognizing that only a system change can liberate us; it’s recognizing that there is so much more to life than productivity and competition. The fight for life is a fight for genuine human freedom.
