Coercive commodities and the political economy of involuntary consumption: The case of the gambling industries

Coercive commodities are those goods and services that promote ‘akratic’ consumption – that consumption recognised by consumers themselves to be contrary to their own best interests, all things considered. The production of coercive commodities has become an increasingly significant economic project of fractions of the capitalist class. As a form of secondary exploitation, coercive commodities facilitate the extraction of surplus profits from the savings and assets of the working classes, thus impeding the accumulation of a workers’ hoard that may act as a potential blockage to value realisation in consumption. We use the example of commercial gambling to illustrate the political economy of coercive commodity production. The gambling production system is driven by a core dynamic between spatially fixed capital, the pressures of competition, and the technological generation of akrasia. The geographical expression of this dynamic is determined by the contingencies of the ‘harm maximisation’ policies of the state and the political efforts of individual capitalists to gain and reproduce monopoly power. Gambling production is effective as a form of secondary exploitation because, in addition to the profits accrued by exploiting labour, it extracts surplus profits by diverging sale price from value, by harnessing monopoly power, and by increasing the volume of consumption through akrasia. It is this extractive power, amplified by the consumer credit system, that forms the basis of the systemic utility of coercive commodities in late capitalist economies.

The Method Research of Auto-Generating Engineering Geology Histogram Based on MapGIS

This thesis study on algorithms of auto-generating engineering geology histogram, For example: the hierarchy model of drilling histogram, rendering algorithm of lithologic columnar and the rendering algorithm column separator. MapGIS was secondary exploitation platformand , and Borland C++ Builder 6.0 was programming language. Through called MapGIS’ secondary exploitation components directly and used algorithms mentioned in this paper, engineering geology histograms was auto-generated. Being validated by practical engineering geology data, the software system not only runs steadily and generates plot rapidly, but also the result is exact, generating histograms is slinky and concordant.

Social Classes in the Process of Capitalist Landnahme: On the Relevance of Secondary Exploitation

So far, growing social insecurity and inequality have not led to a revival of class-conscious labour movements in the centres of capitalism. This article builds upon Rosa Luxemburg’s concept of Landnahme to attempt to explain this phenomenon. In contemporary Germany, as in other developed countries, a transition from a society pacified by Fordist methods to a more strongly polarized class society is taking place– though characterized by a peculiar 'stabilization of the unstable'. An 'interior' Landnahme set in motion by financial capitalism has also severely aggravated secondary exploitation and the precarization of labour. Trade unions and the segment of the working class represented by unions often react by closing their ranks in exclusive solidarity. Faced with the prospect of downward social mobility, they develop defensive strategies to preserve their remaining social property – even at the expense of precarized groups. Such a disciplinary régime can only be broken if precarized groups and their forms of working and living are integrated into new structures of inclusive solidarity. Jusqu’ici, l’insécurité et l’inégalité croissante n’ont pas abouti à une renaissance des mouvements ouvriers dotés d’une conscience de classe au cœur du capitalisme. Cet article cherche à expliquer ce phénomène à partir du concept de Landnahme de Rosa Luxemburg. Dans l’Allemagne d’aujourd’hui, comme dans d’autres pays développés, une transition d’une société apaisée par des méthodes Fordistes à une société fortement polarisée est en train de se réaliser – bien que caractérisée par une étrange ‘stabilisation de l’instable’. Un Landnahme ‘intérieur’ mu par le capitalisme financier a également gravement renforcé l’exploitation secondaire et la précarisation de la classe ouvrière. Les syndicats et les fragments de la classe ouvrière que les syndicats représentent réagissent souvent en fermant leurs rangs dans une solidarité exclusive. Craignant la mobilité sociale descendante, ils développent des stratégies défensives afin de préserver la propriété sociale qui leur reste – même au dépens des groupes précarisés. Un tel régime disciplinaire peut seulement être brisé si les groupes précarisés et leurs formes de travail et modes de vie sont intégrés dans des nouvelles structures de solidarité inclusive.