Saving capitalism for a dying planet: a theory | 89 comments (89 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Saving capitalism (none / 1)

Let's see. Suppose there is this field. You have a plough and I don't. You can only work the field for half of the day. So you decide to enlist me and to work shifts. That way we get twice as much work done in teh day as you could have on your own. But the plough is still yours. Without your plough I could till a corner of the field with a stick.

So, is the plough productive? And, since 1) I cannot be nearly as productive without borrowing your plough; 2) you don't need my labour to provide for yourself with your plough; shouldn't your ownership of the plough be worth something?

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jun 19th, 2007 at 05:46:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Saving capitalism (none / 0)

The plough is the product of previous labor... so the enhanced productivity of the man with the plough compared with the man without the plough is that of the plough maker.

When you bought the plough you exchanged the labor that went into making the plough with something else. If you're making money by buying ploughs and lending them to others for working fields, you're exploiting in a form of usury the ploughmaker.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Tue Jun 19th, 2007 at 09:43:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Saving capitalism (none / 1)

What if you're the ploughmaker? Do you either 1) sell the ploughs at such a high price that nobody can afford them; 2) lease them to people for a sizeable fraction of their product as yearly rent?

Note that just because you can make a plough doesn't mean you know how to use it - or that you have the land to use it. In other words, to the blacksmith the plough is relatively useless, and the value of the materials and labour that went into it is not commensurate with the productivity gains resulting from its use.

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jun 19th, 2007 at 09:48:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Saving capitalism (none / 0)

What if you're the ploughmaker? Do you either 1) sell the ploughs at such a high price that nobody can afford them; 2) lease them to people for a sizeable fraction of their product as yearly rent?

Under capitalism, if you're a ploughmaker, you do "what the market will bear." Socialism, as Marx pointed out again and again and again, is not some impossible state of affairs where all exchanges are "fair."

"Imagine all the people/ Sharing all the world" -- John Lennon

by Cassiodorus on Tue Jun 19th, 2007 at 12:22:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Saving capitalism (none / 1)

So how is socialism unfair?

Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jun 19th, 2007 at 12:24:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Saving capitalism (none / 0)

Socialism is not about exchange.

"Imagine all the people/ Sharing all the world" -- John Lennon

by Cassiodorus on Tue Jun 19th, 2007 at 01:59:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Saving capitalism for a dying planet: a theory | 89 comments (89 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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