Alienation

I read somewhere this past week that ‘everyone would want to live in a mansion in the Hamptons.’ But I’m not buying it. I sit and wonder how many more years I have to hang onto my kids’ childhood home to keep them happy. Because I personally would prefer to downsize and have less to care for. A mansion? Can you imagine not only the maintenance expense but the time-burn everyday of caring for a beast of a building with a showcase yard? No- not everyone wants to live in a mega-home.

It kind of reminds me of the thought that workers want a meaningful connection to their work. I don’t see that. I think most workers are very content to get their piece of the work done (in a competitent and self-satisfying way no-doubt) but once it receives the stamp of approval, the commondity needs to mosey itself onto the next person. The deal was to receive a rate of pay completeing one section of a process.

Can you imagine if every transaction you participated in could be in some way tied back to you; that there was never closure, forever the potential of reworking what was meant, what the deal included, whether there sufficient oversight and care. I can’t. And I don’t think anyone wants these lingering warranties.

I’m not exactly sure what Marx meant about inalienable. But it certainly seems to work best if everyone investigates the commodities in question, but once traded, workers indeed alienate from their products.