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I don’t know who Graham is talking about—“politicians”?—but this is a very famous claim, or corollary, from Marx: capitalists exploit workers. Why? Because of
by Privacy846 6y ago
I don’t know who Graham is talking about—“politicians”?—but this is a very famous claim, or corollary, from Marx: capitalists exploit workers. Why? Because of the labor theory of value. (1) All value is created from labor. (2) Capitalists employ workers in order to extract surplus value from them (what’s the point of employing them if you don’t get more out of your “investment” than you pay it?). (3) Ergo capitalists exploit workers.
Of course millionaires and billionaires can still _work_ themselves in the sense given above, i.e. in a way that creates value. And one could argue that one can be a self-made (no exploitation of others) millionaire. But it becomes farcical to claim that a person can become a billionaire without exploiting people. Any person on Earth would need much more than one lifetime to create a Billion USD worth of value _through their own labor alone_.
- varjag 6y ago> But it becomes farcical to claim that a person can become a billionaire without exploiting people. It is farcical to a Marxist maybe, with infinite patience for labor theory of value despite century worth of contradictory evidence.
- Privacy846 6y agoHere’s a recent quote from the Marxist rag The Economist: > One reason for the measure’s current strength is that the balance of power seems to have moved in favour of capital, and against labour, in recent decades. The decline of trade unions, and the addition of China to the global market, have weakened workers’ bargaining power; in the past 15 years, corporate profits have been regularly equivalent to more than 10% of American GDP, and at a much higher level than they were between 1960 and 2000. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/12/04/expensive-stocks-do-not-necessarily-mean-a-crash-is-close https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/12/04/expensiv... But I’m still Graham’s Billionaires Build la-la land is still a reality, though.
- varjag 6y agoThis has nothing to do with labor theory of value.
- Privacy846 6y agoIt is, however, relevant to my claim—which you took such offense to—that it is virtually impossible to become a self-made billionaire. The Economist author seems to agree that capitalist class struggle will help the would-be billionaire, not just his ability (pace Graham) to Build.
- varjag 6y agoNo, I called you precisely on labor theory of value. It is nothing short of incredible you manage to read between the lines in a one-liner. It is obvious that you can't really have any social advancement without any supporting social dynamics. Also odds are overwhelmingly against any given individual becoming a billionaire from a commoner background… yet the examples are numerous, and particularly in tech. I'm not commenting about merits of Graham's observations as am not a venture capitalist. But the LTV bit you were on, that's some ancient bullshit. I lived in the tail end of USSR, could observe first hand how well it worked.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]