What are alternatives to capitalist business?

What are alternatives to capitalist business?

Anticapitalist business is not an oxymoron. This shouldn’t be a controversial take but it often is. 

I believe that it’s possible to interrupt capitalist norms while also running a business. I believe that business and capitalism are not inextricably linked. I believe that commerce precedes capitalism and will exist when we’ve moved beyond capitalism. 

Capitalism convinces us that there’s never enough, so then we’re always chasing more. Even if you have enough money right now, capitalism insists we be afraid of losing it in the future. We conflate actual scarcity with fear of future scarcity. Our fear is valid because inside capitalism not having enough money can literally kill you.

And yet, living in fear can’t possibly be the only way. 

Concurrently, capitalism runs on toxic growth. If economic growth stops (or even begins to slow down), we see it as inherently bad inside the capitalist system. We’ve internalized this ideology about everything in our lives. We expect constant growth of our income, our audience size, our personal healing, etc etc. We want more and more and more. We are never satisfied. 

What a tiring way to live. 

Knowing what enough looks and feels like is a potential alternative to capitalism’s scarcity principles. We can set our prices based on how much money we know we need in order to have enough. We can be realistic about how much we can work in a given day or week and set our hours accordingly. We can stop chasing external ideals about revenue and profits and instead aim to simply make enough. 

This could be a viable alternative.

Abundance means enough for all of us. 

Capitalism deals in toxic growth. Abundance says we don’t have to chase toxic growth because abundance is already here. Abundance wants to feed you lunch, rub your shoulders, and show you the sunset. 

Capitalism loves perpetual scarcity. Abundance agrees that material sufficiency is necessary. Everyone everywhere deserves a place to sleep, enough to eat, regardless of their ability to “work” or “produce.” 

Abundance knows that making money is not the same thing as hoarding and says fuck the tricksters who’ve convinced us otherwise. Abundance is obviously anticapitalist. 

Capitalism runs on extraction and teaches us to distrust each other. 

Inside capitalism, we are always aiming to get the most for the least: the boss trying to get the most work from the worker for the least pay, or the buyer trying to get the most product for the cheapest price. Whether we are buying or selling, we do so with an incentive to extract from one another. 

If we’re self-employed, we’re both the boss and the worker, extracting from ourselves in both directions. 

Reciprocity is an antidote. 

It is possible to be in reciprocal relationships with ourselves, our clients, and our fellow business owners. We can prioritize equal exchange. We can allow ourselves to rest. We can love each other and give to each other. We can be loved and receive. 

Reciprocity is a way forward.