Everything comes at a price, even keeping memories. Sonny angels, thrift clothes, keychains, stickers, digital cameras–whatever things you like to collect and keep—have flashing price tags at their core. But, do you know what’s worse? It is when collecting stuff exposes the rotten issue of capitalism in our country.
(Graphic by Yuko Shimomura/The Communicator)
According to Karl Marx, society is composed of two classes: the capitalists and the proletariat. Being in the working class, acquiring things we want comes last. To afford some luxuries in life, we have to endure a multitude of struggles to achieve them.
Take the everyday struggle of commuting to school or work to save fare, for example. We endure long lines in the train systems as it is the fastest mode of public transportation, having an average of 45 to 80 kilometers per hour operating speed. Transportation on the ground is also available but not enough to cater to the thousands of commuters every day.
The car-centric roads add more to the problem, resulting in traffic jams. In Commonwealth Avenue, one of the national highways in the country, only one lane is dedicated to public utility vehicles while six are allocated to private ones.
When commuting takes hours, we tend to adjust our schedules. Sleep and rest are the most sacrificed aspects. Sometimes, we leave it out of the equation for overtime work pay or side hustles, as the minimum wage per day lies only at P610, making us skip or avail meals in limited servings as prices continuously rise for basic commodities.
While the working class struggles, the capitalists exploit these hardships for their benefit. It is evident when they hoard items to control prices in their favor. For example, the thrift store finds that what we can usually buy for P20 in market stalls becomes ten times its price on social media. That started when ukay became a trend.
The same applies to Sonny angels, typically found in bookstores. They are even sold through bidding processes. When the things we want to keep are overpriced does it mean having such requires much privilege and only for the privileged?
Before, anik anik refers to bizarre items we collect out of practicality or personal reasons. But, these days it is associated with collecting aesthetically pleasing items bought in stores. This means that collecting things or being an anik anik girlie doesn’t have to be costly. We must resist being chained by these social constraints, or consumerism, in keeping memories alive. A simple get-together with friends at the school grounds, capturing places you’ve been with, or giving yourself random things to be reminded of, can be a form of keeping memories.
However, whether you favor the former or newer definition of the anik anik culture, we must continually pursue the fight to end the reign of the overly capitalized society. Putting the idea of privilege and high price value on the mundane things that everyone and anyone must have is an example of inhumanity.
Making the commute experience convenient to people with more public transportation and less car-centric roads. Giving enough work compensation and benefits matching the minimum wage to the prices of basic commodities, ensuring that every Filipino has the luxury of eating three meals a day. These are some steps to give the proletariats a more balanced footing in a capitalized society.
Capitalism dictates that keeping memories must be costly. But, we must remember that memories depend on how we, ourselves, make them. And, that is a way of struggling against capitalism.
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