Wednesday 20 November 2013

It is not a contradiction to beg

To live we must beg which means we must ask others for money… in a capitalist system we do this by offering goods and services in exchange for payment. But we are still begging we cannot force people to be our customer.

We can only live without begging if we are able to produce our own food as a subsistence farmer everyone else must use capitalism to live and as a consequence they are a beggar. But this is not a problem unless we all must become subsistence farmers... if we are to be capitalists and not (subsistence) farmers then we must be beggars and so to beg should lose its negative connotations. It is not a contradiction to beg in a capitalist society in fact this is the means by which most people are earning their living. Capitalism is begging but this is not bad unless non-farming is bad. Unless farming is more virtuous then selling things begging is not a bad act and there should be no shame in begging… even if we do not offer something in exchange.

Sunday 17 November 2013

Labour can be sold only once

A big problem with capitalism for the working class is that to sell your labour is to sell something which can be sold only once. The great fortunes in capitalism are made by those firms which sell many of something. The volume is important. If volume is not important then we are dealing with something which might resemble capitalism but which is not quite capitalism... for example mining raw materials is profitable and doesn't have a high volume of sales (there are no individual units) but it is not quite like capitalism because it relies on being able to sell something which is present in nature. Farming is another example of an industry where great profits can be made but this again is slightly different from true capitalism. True capitalism requires a high volume of sales which is where this is a problem for the working class who can sell only their labour. Labour can be sold only once which means there is no means to sell a high volume of labour… it is only the management who retain the upside who are able to make a great fortune in a capitalist system. To sell your labour is a very bad way to make profits… it is much better to have equity in a profitable firm because then you will be able to benefit from the high volume of trade.