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But where does the money for whom that is purchasing those things come from? Eventually, all profit can be traced to human labour input.
by Svip 7y ago
But where does the money for whom that is purchasing those things come from? Eventually, all profit can be traced to human labour input.
- trevyn 7y agoI’ve been enjoying Karl Widerquist’s “Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income: A Theory of Freedom as the Power to Say No”, which notes that access to natural resources is an important input as well. That is, one form of freedom is a freedom to use a proportion of Earth’s natural resources to meet one’s own needs. While many may contract into a system to provide e.g. defense or luxuries, the lack of choice in the “social contract” as regards property rights can nonetheless be interpreted as a regrettable loss of a form of freedom. In other words, while labor is required to sustain human life, different forms of labor should not be considered fungible — I am happy to labor to directly feed and shelter myself, but may be less accommodating to serving others in exchange for a form of these benefits.
- crdoconnor 7y agoAll wealth (and hence profit) is derived either from human labor or nature. Money is simply a unit of account and convenient medium of exchange. It has no intrinsic use.