When looking at the concentration and consolidation of the joint stock companies, the socialization of commodity production must be noted. As the trusts and monopolies dictate production, they are planning what to build, and how much to charge for the commodities they produce in large factories.
Agriculture uses the state as a planning organization; the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) disburses tens of billions of dollars to large farmers in an attempt to decide what will be grown, how, and by who.
Competition was used to determine by supply and demand the price of a commodity in the earlier stages of capitalism. The companies would produce as much as possible to drive their competitor out of business, and to maximize surplus value. The USDA keeps this under control by paying farmers not to grow, a central planning structure indicating socialization of production, under capitalism.
Production of many of the main commodities, gas and electricity for individual households and businesses, for instance, is owned and controlled by Wisconsin Electric and Gas (WEPCO). There is no competition, the price is determined by the production of gas from the wells, and coal from the mines, and then wherever WEPCO can get away with selling it for a price they set, not by competition with other companies,it is sold by them ot consumers.
Much of the price of gas and oil, according to the monthly bill, is distribution of gas through the lines, which are wholly owned by WEPCO. The electricity lines, the high voltage ones, as well as the smaller lines, are all property of WEPCO. This is a large part of the cost, and we know WEPCO makes a profit through its ownership of these means of production.
WEPCO is no longer using nuclear energy;. There is only one electrical generator left in Point Beach, 25 km from Green Bay,the last of Wisconsin’s nuclear energy experiment. It was built in 1970, and has been running for 55 years now. It was designed to go about 40 years, but the bourgeois fetish with nuclear energy has meant the constant danger to Green Bay of a meltdown to squeeze another ten years out of it.
Obviously Point Beach’s days are numbered. Nuclear energy is too dirty, it leaves a spent reactor and waste product mankind has yet to find a way of safely disposing of for 100,000 years, the length of time before the waste is safe to be handled by humans again.
There are tons of this stuff just sitting in the spent reactors, a monument to bourgeois disdain for ecology, and future generations who live and use Lake Michigan.
WEPCO now uses coal and gas for generation of electricity, and with Donald Trump in power this will probably not change, at least not soon. His idea that climate change is not important should keep coal being used for power generation for some time to come. Even switching to natural gas looks unlikely as Trump supports coal production.
I have previously noted the state of the grocery markets, the presence of a smaller and smaller number of owners of the stores. WalMart, Kroger, and Albertsons control most of Milwaukee”s markets. Piggly Wiggly is Albertsons, Pick and Save is Kroger. These two stores used to have competition, but given they were planning to merge, how much competition are we to believe is occurring? They planned to remove competition through a merger, they are no longer together?
Which ultimately leads to revolutionary activity, such as employee owned stores like Woodmans. The product is sold at its va;lue, determined by how much labour it contains, whether or not it is paid for. .
The alternative of a cooperative for production, proletarian socialization of industry, is the direction society seems to be traversing.
But there is more. Karl Marx said “ the antithesis of capital is living labour”. He meant that the individual doing the labour a capitalist would be doing, instead of the contractor, a capitalist, is revolutionary. Doing it yourself also removes the capitalist from production. Plumbing your own drain, for instance, removes a capitalist company coming with the plumber. This saves money, and the instructions for small repairs of this type are all over YouTube.
Youtube brings us much closer to socialism; there are recipes on it a person can cook themselves, and avoid going to the restaurant, which is owned by a capitalist.
Living labour is a direction society is starting to traverse more and more, reducing the power of large capitalists. Setting up a rooftop solar panel system is currently expensive, although it pays for itself eventually. The panels are becoming cheaper, and it is probably no accident it is China, with “ one country, two systems” that produce 80% of the solar panels.
A more self-sufficient lifestyle, with labour for one’s self and family, combined with the cooperatives, restricts capitalists from total domination.
There was a time in the past all manual labour was considered to be something to be avoided. We see this today as luxury cars, for instance, are equipped with a driverless system. Even if it was safe, (it will always be like riding a motorcycle), the labour of even driving your own car is unpalatable to the bourgeoisie. Imagine cutting your own wood, or cooking for yourself?
Things are starting to change. Many people have had enough of the monopolies controlling their lifestyles, and are ready to start to do more for themselves. Combined with the knowledge that cooperatives work, the trust’s days may be numbered. Living labour and a changing pattern of ownership, made necessary due to the lack of competition, where WEPCO owns the gas and electricity, produces the commodities, and sets prices, is shifting towards solar generation from home, and other forms of renewable energy..
Socialization of production is occurring in land ownership for agriculture, and production of commodities in the factories. The days of small shops and competition have given way to trusts and monopolies in control of society. A central planning mechanism by capitalists, dictating what and how much to produce, has taken root. Ownership is increasingly in the hands of a few families, who own the shares of joint stock companies, and reap the surplus value. Manual labour is still considered demeaning to the bourgeoisie who own the stocks, but the amount of energy required to produce the lifestyle of luxury looks increasingly ridiculous. A $150 meal for the family at the restaurant, etc. shows the foolishness of our bourgeoisie, whose waste of energy looks much like Roman society’s extravagance towards the end of their rule. Luxury production is mostly this, and this bourgeois is in control of the state. Elon Musk, who produces luxury automobiles; Sheldon Addison, casino owner; contributed more than 350 million dollars to Trump to get reelected. It worked too. The disdain for manual labour could not possibly be more felt than now. Imagine Musk cutting his own wood, or making himself dinner. It’s just not going to happen.
The trajectory of capitalism has not changed, we are just in its late stages. Pressure for a simpler life without luxury production is becoming more socially acceptable. The simplest answer is usually the right one, Occam’s Razor, comes into play. It should be possible to cook a better meal than the restaurant, at a fraction of the cost, and energy usage. When we get over washing the dishes and cooking,, manual labour,, our vision of society changes. Material conditions change, and with it our consciousness. A quest to produce it yourself comes to be.
Nicholas Jay Boyes
Milwaukee Wisconsin
American Democratic Republic
1 20 2025
revision 9 20 2025
Ecological Era 