Profit -5minutefreewrite
For https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-424-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-profit
Profit. Making money.
Are we talking stealing from the labor of others? That's what profit is.
Or are we talking making money, selling your labor for what it is worth. That's not what "profit" means.
Or is it? Certainly, when I talk about profit, I'm usually talking about capitalist profit, where the value of the company is based on the value of the products created by workers who have already been paid, and the company charges something more than the cost of paying the workers plus overhead. Whatever that amount above the costs is that they rake in is "profit". But since the value of the good is intrinsically linked with the product itself, that means the labor of the worker was worth more than the worker was paid for their labor! So the profit is the theft of wages from the worker.
This is how capitalism works.
If all those stolen profits, instead of being profit, were instead "what the worker owes to the society that created the circumstances in which he succeeds" we'd call them taxes, and they'd be used to improve the circumstances to ones in which all workers can thrive.
You need to treat each transaction, such as the worker exchanging his work "service" for a "wage," ...and the "product" sold to the buyer by the "owner" of the product (the person who contracted for the worker to build the product for him)... as separate.
The worker had no part in any transaction outside of his contract to work on the product for it's owner. If the worker wants part of the other transactions, then the worker will build his "own" product rather than "contract" to work on someone else's.
Any form of collectivist re-categorizing which ignores these separate transactions by "individuals" is a gross overgeneralization and more predatory than the straw men it claims to oppose.
So true @improv. Great use of today's prompt. 👍
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STOPWhile i agree that in some cases there are fat cat bosses creaming off huge profits, in many cases the worker does get a fair and decent wage but it is the state and their ever increasing taxes which is the problem. The worker works voluntarily at his job and can move on at any time but he is forced by the state to pay taxes.
It’s the midweek prompt delivery team here with the mighty Marianne’s word of the day: https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-425-5-minute-freewrite-wednesday-prompt-our-greatest-journey
Thanks for stopping by. Why do you think workers work voluntarily? I posit that the threat of losing one's home constitutes a requirement to work. The u.s. does not guarantee employment, nor provide a basic income. For a very few lucky individuals (mainly those fat cats you mentioned and their offspring) working may be a choice, but for most of us, our livelihoods depend upon our employment.
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If he does not like the terms of his employment, the worker is free to leave and sell his labour elsewhere or he is free to start his own enterprise. If not for the huge taxes imposed by the state, we would likely live very well on what we earn.
And if there are no purchasers for his labor willing to pay him a living wage?
Also, I don't know anyone who doesn't get more value from the taxes they pay than they pay in taxes who is struggling. I'd prefer graduated income taxes to flat sales and property tax, but even with those, this is true.
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This is not a hypothetical. Do you think the millions who are the working poor are merely working for less than a living wage because they haven't exercised their option to find better conditions?
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You are vilifying employers as thieving wages from workers and I am saying that employers provide jobs and must make a profit or the business will fail. If the worker does not like the conditions of his employment he is free to go elsewhere or to build is own business. I see the state as the thief and taxation as the theft.
I am vilifying billion dollar corporations. I'm not sure if you're defending a particular employer or capitalism in general. I don't mean the small business owners who barely make enough to consider their profits a living wage. If you mean, for example, my mom when she owned a bookstore, she paid herself a wage for managing that was not much more than she paid her employees.
But when Amazon makes billions and subjects its workers to unsafe conditions and poverty wages... suggesting they can all just quit if they don't like it is naive at best.
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I believe I covered the likes of Amazon when I said that in some cases there are fat cat bosses creaming off huge profits,
I couldn't tell what you meant, since the vast majority of wealth is controlled by these fat cats, but you seemed to think they were a blip compared to taxes.
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