So I have been putting off writing a review for this chapter, purely because, if I'm honest, I didn't really get it. I'm not economically minded, economic and finances normally go way over my head in every day life.
Once I sat down with my tutor and we discussed what we all thought about this chapter, it started to make some logical sense, but even then, I'm still no expert at what capitalistic or non-capitalistic approaches are. I believe not one member of our group was overly keen on this reading.
Once the topic was brought up with our tutor, however, it started to make a bit of sense, maybe because he was explaining it in an easier way than this book seems to do. Coming from someone like me who isn't familiar and tends to avoid any governmental or economic talk, its not the easiest of reads. Constant numbers and facts went straight over my head, but when explained in a simpler and more educational way and when explained with regards to every day life I got the idea.
My understanding of it now is nothing more than, under this capitalist government, businesses and economies grow, therefore pressure grows on the business owner. It then comes down to having a balance of paying staff fairly whilst also allowing profit margins, costs of advertisement, taxes etc. 'Use' value becomes smaller as time goes on and 'exchange' value increases.
My understanding of this is that as time goes on in a capitalist world, the money paid for an items 'use' decreases because there is so many other pay-outs required, whereas in years before, the 'use' value was much larger because things were built to last because of material qualities and no cut corners so save money like today. It is all about money nowadays, and companies will cut corners if they can to save money, meaning products of today compared with the past don't last as long as quality goes down, reducing their use value. This could be replicated in architectural terms, the product with the use value in this sense would be the building. Before buildings would be constructed with the architect and the builders alone, allowing for a higher paid labour force of which were the only people involved with the projects once upon a time, whereas nowadays, there are multiple people involved with the construction. There seems to be managers for every part of the construction build process, more and more people become part of the construction team the ratio of builders reduces, this means pay cheques for the 'team' is divided much differently with less now going to the labourers because of profit margins. Buildings are now becoming more and more hi-tech and more expensive which affects where the money goes; this is happening in out capitalistic world now. Labourers aren't getting their fair share they once received but all these so called managers that are now need on site receive the biggest cut for overseeing the build. Paul Mason suggests this isn't going to improve in the future and that the future of mankind is bleak in this regard. Worryingly, a large proportion of the population, the elite and more developed countries, are in denial, whether this is because this issue hasn't directly affected them yet or whether they have accepted their fate.
Once I sat down with my tutor and we discussed what we all thought about this chapter, it started to make some logical sense, but even then, I'm still no expert at what capitalistic or non-capitalistic approaches are. I believe not one member of our group was overly keen on this reading.
Once the topic was brought up with our tutor, however, it started to make a bit of sense, maybe because he was explaining it in an easier way than this book seems to do. Coming from someone like me who isn't familiar and tends to avoid any governmental or economic talk, its not the easiest of reads. Constant numbers and facts went straight over my head, but when explained in a simpler and more educational way and when explained with regards to every day life I got the idea.
My understanding of it now is nothing more than, under this capitalist government, businesses and economies grow, therefore pressure grows on the business owner. It then comes down to having a balance of paying staff fairly whilst also allowing profit margins, costs of advertisement, taxes etc. 'Use' value becomes smaller as time goes on and 'exchange' value increases.
My understanding of this is that as time goes on in a capitalist world, the money paid for an items 'use' decreases because there is so many other pay-outs required, whereas in years before, the 'use' value was much larger because things were built to last because of material qualities and no cut corners so save money like today. It is all about money nowadays, and companies will cut corners if they can to save money, meaning products of today compared with the past don't last as long as quality goes down, reducing their use value. This could be replicated in architectural terms, the product with the use value in this sense would be the building. Before buildings would be constructed with the architect and the builders alone, allowing for a higher paid labour force of which were the only people involved with the projects once upon a time, whereas nowadays, there are multiple people involved with the construction. There seems to be managers for every part of the construction build process, more and more people become part of the construction team the ratio of builders reduces, this means pay cheques for the 'team' is divided much differently with less now going to the labourers because of profit margins. Buildings are now becoming more and more hi-tech and more expensive which affects where the money goes; this is happening in out capitalistic world now. Labourers aren't getting their fair share they once received but all these so called managers that are now need on site receive the biggest cut for overseeing the build. Paul Mason suggests this isn't going to improve in the future and that the future of mankind is bleak in this regard. Worryingly, a large proportion of the population, the elite and more developed countries, are in denial, whether this is because this issue hasn't directly affected them yet or whether they have accepted their fate.
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