Under Capitalism you sell your piss to the urinal.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Brecht satirizes capitalism by comparing it to a transaction where you sell waste to a place built to receive waste.
- In plain terms
- Capitalism tricks you into paying to get rid of what you produce.
- What can you take from it?
- Question systems that profit from your waste.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What do you produce that the system profits from?
- Is all labor just selling waste?
Another view
The metaphor is too reductive for complex economies.
More from Bertolt Brecht
Don't rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world stood up and stopped the Bastard, the Bitch that bore him is in heat again.
Permalink to quote #76 If all people want is to see something they understand, they shouldn't go to the theater. They should go to the bathroom.
Permalink to quote #78 There are times when you have to choose between being a human and having good taste.
Permalink to quote #75
Related quotes
An OBE is what you get if you clean the toilets well at King's Cross station.
Michael WinnerMichael Winner quote #1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not money, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of …
George OrwellGeorge Orwell quote #1 Foolish and vain indeed is the workingman who makes the color of his skin the stepping-stone to his imaginary superiority. The trouble is with his head, and if…
Eugene V. DebsEugene V. Debs quote #12