[quote=CA renter]
Remember, without human labor, there would be no capital (even land requires labor to make it productive/valuable). LABOR, not capital, created almost all the wealth that exists today, and labor should share in the ownership of that capital.[/quote]
CAR, you make much a similar statement whenever a thread like this comes up. That’s not really what CE was talking about. Nor I, nor other on the other side of the capital argument.
Most importantly, Labor has shared. The primarily problem is old school Labor is continuing to be a smaller and smaller component.
Today, four people and a combine harvester do the work of over 100 people.
The question is really simple, what are the other 96 going to do?
More importantly, how do lift everyone’s quality of life while addressing it?
Policy changes to increase the cost of capital compared to labor in effect makes less, not more. It’s kind of similar to artisanal foods. If you go into a supermarket, whole chicken is regularly $0.79/lb. A whole 5lb chicken is $4 and change. Go to Whole Foods and a organic chicken is $2.99/lb.
Walk down the meat counter, eventually you get to area with a small chicken label ‘pastured’. Birds raised on pasture supplemented with food. $5.99/lb.
Or grab a local CSA, get a real ‘free range’ chicken, it’ll be about a 4 lb bird and be $28-$35 depending on the CSA. A heritage turkey for a special occasion is a $140.
Why are they so expensive? The farmers need to make a living and they can’t raise many. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to buy many.
Everybody making artisanal products may not work as a solution, they simply make less. Buying American is good, things like dinnerware is easy, automobiles much more complex. Or the new Mac, assembled in the USA, not sure where all the parts are made.
Do we need complex labels on everything to declare what percentage of the COGS for the parts are made here and what percentage of the assembly is done here?
Finally, I don’t expect to a rewarded for the work my father did. Labor needs to quit talking about what they did in the past and talk about what they will do in the future.
