this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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If you mean as in "not a universal value outside of capitalism": Probably "financial independence", which does matter under capitalism due to how shitty being a dependent in a hyper individualist society can be, but in a close-knit communal society, for example, wouldn't make sense for everybody to be individually striving for financial independence (if they trade in money in the first place, which they wouldn't have need for a lot of times).
I think the reason it's such a painful thing to be a dependent under capitalism is because the system is designed such that most decision-making power derives from having money or capital. So if you're wealthy, most options are available to you at any time and the marketed open-ended possibility of capitalism is at least somewhat real for you. If you're working class and financially independent, few options are actually real but you do have some choices and can carve out a sense of individual identity and autonomy from it (which capitalism supports you in doing, over you organizing with other workers in a collective). But if you're dependent, your options largely fall to the good graces of those you're dependent on, which may be very limiting not even out of malice but because those you're dependent on don't have a great range of options themselves; though in some cases, there is malice too, which only makes it harder.