I really like this. What especially sold me was the mention of Covid as a risk to workers. As someone who is now facing long term disability because of it, I don’t see people talking about it enough. Thank you
I'm so sorry to hear that, Cody. I wish you well on your recovery. It's something we should absolutely acknowledge. I get most 21st-century work isn't as dangerous as it was centuries ago. But there are still significant risks, such as COVID, that need to be raised.
And, in fact, when putting their capital at risk, shouldn’t we ask, “where did that capital come from in the first place?”
Usually the answer is either
1. inheritance, informal loans from family and friends, selling assets, OR,
2. Explicitly extractive agreements with other capitalists (commercial banks, venture capitalists, franchisors, etc), OR,
3. Capital extracted from another capitalist venture.
ALL 3 of these sources are the profits extracted off of people’s LABOUR.
If you trace the source of any capitalists input capital that is supposedly at ‘risk’, you will ALWAYS end up at profits stolen from people’s labour (and the step before that, the original sin of enclosure of the commons).
Well said. I believe Marx called capital dead labor = the product of other people's labor. So when a capitalist says, "Well, I provide the factory!" it's unpersuasive because it was built by other people's labor.
Partially unrelated, but do you have an article debunking common criticisms of socialism? If not, would you be able to make one? I wanna learn about socialism more in-depth.
I really like this. What especially sold me was the mention of Covid as a risk to workers. As someone who is now facing long term disability because of it, I don’t see people talking about it enough. Thank you
I'm so sorry to hear that, Cody. I wish you well on your recovery. It's something we should absolutely acknowledge. I get most 21st-century work isn't as dangerous as it was centuries ago. But there are still significant risks, such as COVID, that need to be raised.
An illusion, even a delusion. The reference to Arthur and his knights was an allusion.
Legend! Thanks for catching that.
And, in fact, when putting their capital at risk, shouldn’t we ask, “where did that capital come from in the first place?”
Usually the answer is either
1. inheritance, informal loans from family and friends, selling assets, OR,
2. Explicitly extractive agreements with other capitalists (commercial banks, venture capitalists, franchisors, etc), OR,
3. Capital extracted from another capitalist venture.
ALL 3 of these sources are the profits extracted off of people’s LABOUR.
If you trace the source of any capitalists input capital that is supposedly at ‘risk’, you will ALWAYS end up at profits stolen from people’s labour (and the step before that, the original sin of enclosure of the commons).
Well said. I believe Marx called capital dead labor = the product of other people's labor. So when a capitalist says, "Well, I provide the factory!" it's unpersuasive because it was built by other people's labor.
Partially unrelated, but do you have an article debunking common criticisms of socialism? If not, would you be able to make one? I wanna learn about socialism more in-depth.
I do! Here's some.
Small businesses: https://www.joewrote.com/p/socialism-and-small-businesses?utm_source=publication-search
Markets: https://www.joewrote.com/p/youll-still-be-able-to-buy-things?utm_source=publication-search & https://www.joewrote.com/p/socialism-vs-capitalism-vs-markets?utm_source=publication-search
Theory: https://www.joewrote.com/p/socialism-is-post-capitalist-not?utm_source=publication-search
They are dated, so I'll look to update them shortly. Do you have any specific criticisms you'd like to see debunked? I'm always open for suggestions.
The 'Socialism always led to hellhole countries' and 'Socialism doesn't incentivize people to work' are the first ones that come to mind
You might find some good stuff on this if you dig a little into this substack / YouTube:
https://open.substack.com/pub/geopoliticaleconomy?r=jx19w&utm_medium=ios