- 10 Jul 2014 14:52
#14435299
I am posting this note to the Libertarianism group because this group had been my "home" for the past few years. Most of the people with whom I debated most frequently are active on this group.
For the past 23 years or so, I have had a career based on being an employee. For most of this period, it was in the financial industry and, for the past 11 years, working as s risk manager, usually for a hedge fund.
Tomorrow is going to be my last day "in the office". My wife and I have purchased a retirement business - boarding kennels in Scotland. We are going to run the business, do some of the work ourselves while employing 4-5 people on either part-time or full-time basis.
Thus I am making a transition from a "wage slave" to an "exploiting capitalist". I am using these Marxist-inspired labels not just for fun, but also because I want to tie the move to another Marxist concept - that of "alienation". In the past several months, as I was planning this transition, I found a sharp difference between the level of care I had for my official, paid job, and the one I felt towards the business I was about to own. I felt alienated from my current job, while being deeply concerned, interested and caring about the new business.
Based on that personal experience, I believe Marxists have got things half-right. It is true that wage labour can be alienating. That people may not necessarily feel any positive emotional attachment towards their job as employees, with both job performance and personal emotional well-being suffering in the process. On the other hand, I don't believe being employed as part of a syndicate would have made much of a difference. Being self-employed, on the other hand, makes a huge difference. It makes you care in ways that, as an employee or even syndicate member, you are unlikely to.
Naturally, in a modern economy, not everybody can be self-employed. Many regulations, tax laws and other government practices (from zoning to corporate welfare measures) make it more difficult to start a new business than it ought to be. [This last statement helps anchor this post to the Libertarianism group]
In any event, I anticipate I will have much less free time, in the near future, to visit these forums. When I do, my first priority will be to reply to any personal messages. I hope to come back and tell more of the experience of running one's own business.
This being a partial good-bye, I would like to thank the many people who responded to my posts over the years, with a particular emphasis to a few who, despite deep disagreements, have maintained a civil conversation and, in the process, taught me much about the issues we discussed and helped me improve my understanding of my own point of view.
For the past 23 years or so, I have had a career based on being an employee. For most of this period, it was in the financial industry and, for the past 11 years, working as s risk manager, usually for a hedge fund.
Tomorrow is going to be my last day "in the office". My wife and I have purchased a retirement business - boarding kennels in Scotland. We are going to run the business, do some of the work ourselves while employing 4-5 people on either part-time or full-time basis.
Thus I am making a transition from a "wage slave" to an "exploiting capitalist". I am using these Marxist-inspired labels not just for fun, but also because I want to tie the move to another Marxist concept - that of "alienation". In the past several months, as I was planning this transition, I found a sharp difference between the level of care I had for my official, paid job, and the one I felt towards the business I was about to own. I felt alienated from my current job, while being deeply concerned, interested and caring about the new business.
Based on that personal experience, I believe Marxists have got things half-right. It is true that wage labour can be alienating. That people may not necessarily feel any positive emotional attachment towards their job as employees, with both job performance and personal emotional well-being suffering in the process. On the other hand, I don't believe being employed as part of a syndicate would have made much of a difference. Being self-employed, on the other hand, makes a huge difference. It makes you care in ways that, as an employee or even syndicate member, you are unlikely to.
Naturally, in a modern economy, not everybody can be self-employed. Many regulations, tax laws and other government practices (from zoning to corporate welfare measures) make it more difficult to start a new business than it ought to be. [This last statement helps anchor this post to the Libertarianism group]
In any event, I anticipate I will have much less free time, in the near future, to visit these forums. When I do, my first priority will be to reply to any personal messages. I hope to come back and tell more of the experience of running one's own business.
This being a partial good-bye, I would like to thank the many people who responded to my posts over the years, with a particular emphasis to a few who, despite deep disagreements, have maintained a civil conversation and, in the process, taught me much about the issues we discussed and helped me improve my understanding of my own point of view.
Free men are not equal and equal men are not free.
Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.
Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.
- By QatzelOk
- By Pants-of-dog
- By Fasces