3 ms·

It's always more profitable to rent out means of production than to do any actual work. (capital gains cannot be explained purely as the reward for the work of

It's always more profitable to rent out means of production than to do any actual work. (capital gains cannot be explained purely as the reward for the work of managing said capital, this was was pointed out by Adam Smith). Fairer distribution of ownership means fairer distribution of income.

danieltillett 7y ago
Not in a market with perfect competition. While we will never get to perfect competition, even moderately competitive markets avoid most of the problems of rent seeking and monopoly abuse. We seem to have forgotten the lessons of the 19th C. and the abuses of Standard Oil and the rest of the robber barons.
- antisemiotic 7y ago
  >Not in a market with perfect competition. I'm sorry, but it reminds me of a joke about a physicist tasked to optimize a dairy - "for a perfectly spherical cow in frictionless vacuum..." >While we will never get to perfect competition, even moderately competitive markets avoid most of the problems of rent seeking and monopoly abuse. Well, at the core of capitalism lies a positive feedback loop that allows people with a lot of capital to more freely invest long term than those with less capital, and forces people who barely get by to accept worse deals in order to survive. As I see it, the more people own capital, the more likely an average person is to be on both sides of asshole deals, which is slightly better. Unlike fixing competition by legislation, it doesn't put so much power in the hands of people who get to decide where "honest competition" ends and "underhanded tactics" begin (for example where just being better than competition and protecting your trade secrets ends, and vendor lock-in begins). I'm aware that it's also a "spherical cow" solution and I'm not sure if that would actually fly in real life (coops seem to pop up here and there from time to time, and none has revolutionized the world) and perhaps your solution is more robust in that it targets the market forces that shape companies, instead of trying to build something against them. I guess that if I ever get around to trying my wet dream of staring a tech coop, I'll be sure to post it here.

danieltillett 7y ago

Not in a market with perfect competition. While we will never get to perfect competition, even moderately competitive markets avoid most of the problems of rent seeking and monopoly abuse. We seem to have forgotten the lessons of the 19th C. and the abuses of Standard Oil and the rest of the robber barons.

antisemiotic 7y ago
>Not in a market with perfect competition. I'm sorry, but it reminds me of a joke about a physicist tasked to optimize a dairy - "for a perfectly spherical cow in frictionless vacuum..." >While we will never get to perfect competition, even moderately competitive markets avoid most of the problems of rent seeking and monopoly abuse. Well, at the core of capitalism lies a positive feedback loop that allows people with a lot of capital to more freely invest long term than those with less capital, and forces people who barely get by to accept worse deals in order to survive. As I see it, the more people own capital, the more likely an average person is to be on both sides of asshole deals, which is slightly better. Unlike fixing competition by legislation, it doesn't put so much power in the hands of people who get to decide where "honest competition" ends and "underhanded tactics" begin (for example where just being better than competition and protecting your trade secrets ends, and vendor lock-in begins). I'm aware that it's also a "spherical cow" solution and I'm not sure if that would actually fly in real life (coops seem to pop up here and there from time to time, and none has revolutionized the world) and perhaps your solution is more robust in that it targets the market forces that shape companies, instead of trying to build something against them. I guess that if I ever get around to trying my wet dream of staring a tech coop, I'll be sure to post it here.