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what if?
(files.catbox.moe)
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this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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This simply wouldn't happen because an anarchist society wouldn't recognize intellectual property and so it would be trivial to just... make more of this kind of clothing. And no, there is no currency, and barter would be pointless as access to goods is common anyways.
This whole point to me signals a deeper (but common) misunderstanding as to what the point of it all is, though; there would be no incentive or reason for someone to act this way in any kind of postcapitalist society, because the assumptions you are making that even make this situation possible are false.
Labour is not a repulsive act that people have to be paid to do; for virtually any "job", even the most repulsive, there are some people who are truly passionate about it. But in a society where doing said work is demanded under threat of starvation, any appeal it may have had is soured by the reality of this situation and it shifts from a fulfilling and desirable action to a repulsive one.
As an extra point that not all anarchists will agree with, increases in productivity thanks to automation and technological progress (often spearheaded not by corporate projects under NDA but by the open-source community and individual hackers, only to be commercialized by corporations) mean that the real quantity of work that needs to be performed to uphold humanity at a good standard of living is drastically less than the amount currently being performed. Capitalism is inefficient, both in that it doesn't allocate resources where they're productive (accumulation of capital) and because of work duplication and artificial barriers (tech and engineering firms keeping code/designs private or patented, industry keeping trade secrets, etc.)
tl;dr that scenario is impossible.
Anarchists don't believe in a state. That does not only mean that we don't believe in the government. It also means we do not see use in the centralisation of power and responsibility. This is a good example of that.
In an anarchist society, there would be no sewage workers and other job-havers. We would live in communities, where everyone takes up partial responsibility for the maintenance of the community. You might not want to commit eight hours a day to do sewage work, but what about four hours a week of dirty work? Elinor Ostrom did a lot of research into common pool resources that has shown under certain circumstances everyone does buy in.
We already allocate some work towards parts of our job we do not like (hell, pretty sure loads of people people spend more time in traffic than it would require). It's not that big of a stretch to believe we would do so in maintaining community infrastructure. Especially if it is a shared responsibility. Even people who work "dirty jobs" full time tend to have high job satisfaction as long as they have good work conditions and a strong sense of community and collaboration.
Failing that, social systems can regulate labour through camaraderie and expectation of reciprocity. If someone does not pull their weight in a relationship, you talk about it and set boundaries. In an anarchist society, you would do the same. You want to be part of the community? You better be doing your bit to help or you aren't welcome.