Abolish patents
So many anarchist principles seems like they would “never work”… because they literally cannot under capitalism, but would work just fine under a different system.
One really good example of that is abolishing patents.
Patents are silly, actually
A patent says a person or company legally owns “an idea” or way of doing things, and no one else can use that idea or approach for many years. If you think about it for a bit, that seems really silly, doesn’t it?
How can anyone own an idea?
If you talk about abolishing patents or the notion of “intellectual property,” someone will often ask…
If people can’t profit from their ideas because anyone can just copy it, why would anyone bother inventing new things?
A better shampoo
I was literally mulling that question over myself in the shower the other day, staring a bottle of special shampoo my wife uses.
I had this aha! moment where I realized people would invent new things to meet needs or wants they have. Letting other people freely take, fork, and build on top of those ideas benefits everyone, including the original inventor.
Let’s say you make a shampoo that helps curly hair not get too frizzy in humid weather. Then someone else figures out that adding honey also prevents cracking and split ends.
Under capitalism, this is bad, because they’re benefiting from your work, but reducing how much you benefit from it by cutting into your sales.
Capitalism stifles innovation
Imagine a world where everyone contributes what they can, and everyone is given what they need to live.
In this situation, someone else improving your shampoo recipe is better for everyone: them, you, and the public at large.
If you’ve ever used open source code, forked it, and contributed back to it, you might inherently understand what I mean here. You might also have experienced how profit, and big corporations taking but not contributing, ruins the whole things.
The profit motive actually stifles innovation because it prevents ideas from spreading freely.
But what about the iPhone!?
In order for the iPhone to exist, people need to work in backbreaking and wildly dangerous conditions mining lithium and cobalt.
Why would anyone do that work if they were guaranteed food, shelter, and clothing no matter what?
They wouldn’t! And if you think that’s a problem, consider how much of a giant fucking asshole that makes you!
Either a technology is so important that the danger and risks are deemed worth it and some people put their lives at risk, or it’s not, so it doesn’t get made.
I’m not saying don’t buy a iPhone. They’re getting made whether you personally buy one or not. We do live under capitalism.
But if the choices are:
- The iPhone exists and some people toil in squalor and die of preventable conditions, or
- All people live long, healthy lives but the iPhone doesn’t exist.
Option two is the only reasonable or moral choice.
Humans are inventors
Tool-making is by no means unique to humans. Many species (primate and otherwise) invent and use tools.
But humans have taken tool-making to an extreme that no other species in the fossil or historical record has. We literally can’t not invent things.
We invent things to address needs. We invent things because we’re bored. We invent things just to see if we can.
Removing the ability to profit won’t stop people from inventing. If anything, it will make it easier for more people to do so.