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Why don't more poor people join mutual aid groups instead of using charities? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2258784

I've been looking through some US and EU labor data and I have started to wonder why don't more of the working poor join local mutual aid groups instead of staying at their likely shitty jobs or relying on charities?

This is a study on the labour distribution in the US among the working poor

On table 4 it shows that there are about 5,812,000 people that are classified as working poor ( Its says number in thousands so I multiplied the number given by 1000) and that alot of those jobs are in essential services like making food or providing support to others.

Similar diversity is show in the EU as well

So if most of these people decided to stop working at their current job and instead bring that those skills to a mutual aid network wouldn't they still get most of the resources they need because other specialists would be there to help them and also live a generally more happy life?

Also the reason why I am saying instead of charities is because charities become less effective the more people request from them because they have limited resources to share and also mainly supported by wealthy people that can unilaterally give and take away support.

Whilst mutual aid networks can take the diversity that more people joining the network gives them and use it to offer more services to other people in that community.

This seems like a no brainer so what am I missing?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

So if most of these people decided to stop working at their current job and instead bring that those skills to a mutual aid network wouldn't they still get most of the resources they need because other specialists would be there to help them and also live a generally more happy life?

We don't live in small self sustaining villages though. That shear amount of manpower needs layers of managing (planning, distribution, logistics) to make it even remotely work. (Otherwise it would already "just happen" all by itself. But it doesn't because it's more complex than it looks). Those with the skill and wherewithal to fill those management type functions are not generally working poor in the first place because of the power (and compensation) those skills are able to obtain in the regular jobs market. So.. a chicken and egg type problem.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I think alot of the reason why it doesn't "just happen" is not because it can't but because of A) A lack of people that know it is an alternative and B) The cultural norms that make us think that the world is "all or nothing"

For the first part the only way that can change is through people telling other people about mutual aid and the second part is something that can change. A good example of how that can be done through game theory is shown through this site: The Evolution of Trust

[–] the_itsb 3 points 1 year ago

I have noticed this bottleneck too, and wondered if there might be some way to build a website or app to help facilitate people trading labor, but I have no clue about the feasibility or where to even start. I wear thinking something that enabled people to match skills with needs, to act as a portfolio for samples of their work, to list local endorsements or mutual connections for some level of trust, but that sounds pretty daunting.