|
|
|
|
|
|
by wsprague
6089 days ago
|
|
|
"the reason people aren't compensated accordingly [sic] to their production is that it's incredibly hard to judge production." ... perhaps .... ... but perhaps Karl Marx was correct when he said that (basically) the essence of capitalism is in the systematic skimming of "surplus production" by the controllers of capital. In other words, EVERY employee is not paid according to their production. I also think that this commenter has really swallowed the ideology (ie, is clueless): not every boss wants production from their underlings. Perhaps the owners want production, but managers don't necessarily -- changes in production might make them look bad, it might reset the expected quota level for their department, it might upset next years budget, etc. The interests of employees <> interests of owners, and managers are employees. |
|
|
It all comes down to your theory of value. Marx uses a labor theory of value that might say that a chair is worth exactly the wood and the human labor that is invested in producing it. When a chair manufacturer employs people to build chairs, they pay the employees less than their labor is worth, sell the chairs, and pocket the margin.
The market theory of value says that something is worth what someone is willing to buy and sell it for. So if you decide to work at the chair factory for $5/hr, you and the chair company have agreed that your time is worth $5/hr. If the chair company sells a chair for $50, the chair company and the consumer agree the chair is worth $50. (Of course, the chair company might be willing to sell for $20 and the consumer might be willing to pay $70, so there is a "surplus" to both sides. But that simply arises from the distinction between individual value judgments and market value.)
The market perspective is the only one where productive activity makes any sense at all. From a labor theory of value, a chair, a table, a skyscraper, or a startup is only worth the amount of labor that was invested in it. But if this was true, then wouldn't we be just as well off to spare the labor and hang out on the beach instead of working? The market theory of value says that if you invest labor, you might create something more valuable than the labor you put into it, which is the only theory that justifies productive labor in the first place. It also says that if you invest your labor into building something no one wants or is willing to pay for, you simply waste it. The labor theory of value would gel with many people's naive ideas here: I put so much work into this damned thing, isn't it worth something?