The job search is one of the many social punishments most of us at some point face under capitalism. During a typical job search, not only must you be willing and able to work in our society, but you must grovel, submit to psychological profiling, have your background scrutinized, spend countless hours going on typically futile chases, and basically ‘work’ full time with no pay.

You will meet with people who will judge you on such arbitrary criteria as how much you remind them of an ex-lover who betrayed them, or whether or not they think you like the same music they do, as well as some arguably more legitimate criteria.

You will waste two hours of your life in a dead-end because one of the four assholes you met with didn’t like one answer you gave to one question and he just couldn’t see past it.

You will spend a significant amount of money on gas, or bus fare, or cabs/ride services even though you are bringing no money into your life.

You will waste a lot of time and energy and face the daily anxiety of an uncertain future.

And if you don’t “stay positive,” you’re allegedly doing it wrong.

Some proponents of capitalism will argue that this is one of the many “accidental” characteristics of capitalism. When demand for jobs is high, the supply side can be picky in choosing. They argue that the key is to double down on the capitalist system and let the “free market provide.”

The free market does not provide. At least not in the optimal sense of what provisions are necessary for a truly just society.

A person’s access to food, shelter, medicine, and other basic necessities should not suffer before the arbitrary whims of the job search. These basic needs must be met for all citizens.

Capitalism, however, needs its little systems of punishments to exist. It needs to brutalize many for the benefit of a few. It can not exist unless it is exploiting, degrading, subjugating, and enslaving-by-proxy.