Everything has been commodified under Market Society, devaluing all we hold dear. People have become so denatured in their behavior because we don’t “value” anything. Everything is bought and paid for… nothing is inherently sacred or important… we are losing all true, tangible value.
For millennia labor has been intimately linked to reward/survival… but with the onset of free markets, hyper privatization and financialization over the past century, there exists now few constraints as to what is commodified in the pursuit of survival & profit — the planet’s natural resources, our health & medicine, our educational institutions, war armaments, our “ideas” as intellectual property in the form of copyright protections and patents, our most personal intimate “human emotions” have become targets of media outrage, shock, and sensationalism for views and clicks… the free expression of our art & music undergrounds are destined, eventual exploits for the fashion industry & pop culture… our activism has become sanitized as some occupational path for “career activists”… social movements are too easily co-opted or self-sabotaged by financial frameworks and donors… as individuals we’ve been reduced to mere economic units operating and competing like little businesses in our mercenary gig economies… even our very social engagement itself online; our hobbies, and everyday life experiences are opportunities to get “monetized” not to be passed up, as we sell personalities & charisma over true substance. If they could sell the air itself, they would… nothing is sacred.
Because everyone/everything must generate income and profit at all times, inherent value becomes secondary and lost. It’s said that markets best serve the economic process, of tracking value and demand, allocating resources, and enabling progress… in reality markets deeply corrupt value and society:
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://tzmla.com/commodification-of-value/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=commodification-of-value