El Niño #02 about survival in (anti-)capitalism
It's interesting how much we as a collective talk about money. Prices, costs, buffers, budgets, rents, SEPA, P&L, EÜR, ZM, UVA, depreciation, inflation, investment, account, discount, balances, soldi, Zasta, basta.
Actually, we just wanted to be equal cyclists: against cars, fascism, discrimination and exploitation. But the realities of building a cooperative came crashing down on us like a lovely Berlin summer rain that quickly fills the Charlottenburg underpasses.
We would like to get by without capitalism, live like on LeGuin's planet of the have-nots, everyone does their bit, everyone has what they need. The story in the book then takes a slightly different direction, but with us nothing happens without money anyway.
Giffey would have had the power to make it a little easier for the not-so-rich majority to not permanently spend more than half of the money they have earned on a roof over their heads and put it into the pockets of landlords who receive housing subsidies.
But no, we want to take our cue from socially failed cities like Paris, where high earners cannot afford a comfortable, large apartment, even as a couple. No thanks to foresight, because anyone who rents out their property has dug a pit for others without being able to fall into it themselves. And the system is actually quite clever: people on average incomes receive housing benefit from the state so that they can pay the rent freely set by the landlord. DW expropriates in the conceptual antipole.
But I digress. The fact is, even in the left collective we talk about money all the time because we are forced to deal with it all the time. Customers love what we do, but not the price it comes at. We do more because we are replacing cars with our own pioneering power, but charging more for the extra performance is just too much. And yet we lack the courage to become even more expensive so that we can pay ourselves comfortably and in line with the risk. When you have built the house of cards yourself, you feel every wind differently.
In the Ruhr area, where I come from, people keep it pragmatic: "Listen, whatever you want to do, it is what it is, don't do anything."
The Berlin bike courier “El Niño 02” is part of the worker-led bicycle collective Crow, which has set itself the goal of replacing cars with bicycles. Through cargo bike transport and bicycle repairs, for a better quality of life for everyone and without bosses.
コメント