We start our discussion of this form from the following point of view. All articles of property have two possible uses. Both of these uses belong to the article as such, but they do not belong to it in the same manner, or to the same extent. The one us is proper and peculiar to the article concerned; the other is not. We may take a shoe as an example. It can be used both for wearing and for exchange. Both of these uses are uses of the shoe as such. Even the man who exchanges a shoe, in return for money or food, with a person who needs the article, is using the shoe as a shoe; but since the shoe has not been made for the purpose of being exchanged, the use which he is making of it is not its proper and peculiar use. The same is true of all other articles of property.
- Aristotle
We live in an age where the above quote is dead wrong. You see, in a consumer economy, shoes are not made to be worn, they’re made to make money. Cars are not made to be driven, they’re made to make money. The same with phones, houses, etc.
They’re not made to be used.
Those things are just incidental to the purpose of making money.
Hence why they’re junk and fall apart, so that a new one can be sold again.
All so that “Stock Go Up!”
That “Retirement Go Up.”
That “Home Price Go Up.”
Wages go down, jobs over seas, immigrants come in, so that everything the Boomers want, goes up.
Put some new tires on the RV. Roll out of town, and never say hi to the grandkids.
Don’t worry about how they’re doing, don’t worry about the neighborhood, Juan will mow the lawn while you’re gone.
You might wonder and watch for the signs you’ve taken too much money from those that can’t afford to lose it though, stranger.
They don’t care who you are, or what the law is, stranger.
They’re just rolling the dice, trying to get their one chance to get out of this dusty old town, stranger.
And when the chips are down, stranger
And the draw is slow, stranger
Even when you win, stranger
There may be a crowd behind them that doesn’t care what the law says, stranger
Or what justice is, stranger
Or who is really at fault, stranger
So watch out, boomer
Or you’ll find out what the real use value of a shoe is
When it drops.
That art, as we have said, has two forms: one which is connected with retail trade, and another which is connected with the management of the household. Of these two forms, the latter is necessary and laudable; the former is a method of exchange which is justly censured, because the gain in which is results is not naturally made, but is made at the expense of other men. The trade of the petty usurer is hated most, and with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process [i.e. of exchange] which currency was meant to serve.
- Aristotle Politics Book 1 Chapter 10