trippingthelightfantastic
5975
399
5
https://bsky.app/profile/bladeofthes.bsky.social/post/3mqetnnpihk2k
Jul 11, 2026 2:11 PM
trippingthelightfantastic
5975
399
5
https://bsky.app/profile/bladeofthes.bsky.social/post/3mqetnnpihk2k
420supercoolusername69
“In regards to the price of commodities, the rise of wages operates as simple interest does, the rise of profit operates like compound interest.
Our merchants and masters complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price and lessening the sale of goods. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.”
Adam Smith
UserNamesArentEasy
LordBrandonTheBold
Imagine if a large multinational actually did equitable profit sharing with their employees.
cullingg
In the case of mining, the whole system is based on extracting the value from a countries land. In Australia companies rarely pay much of that value back to the country in any sort of direct way. The closest thing is to have well paid employees that pay taxes. I have yet to meet a person working for a mining company that feels it's their calling and would do it for the love of the work.
Colbar68
Walmart could pay each associate an additional 40k and still keep the Walton family wealthy.
urusername2
In EVERY country!!!
SecretAgentSuperBooger
LibranLuvertis
ooh ooh ooh, wait wait, got one better
they could bring down fuel costs and still make a profit
Nukls
if only they redistributed the wealth to the Workers
because most certainly the Workers will redistribute
their wealth paying to live better than mearly existing.
Wealth would be redistributed throughout the economy
but the cruelty and inhumane treatment, that is their point.
UserNamesArentEasy
Yup, no single human/famly can consume enough to keep the economy going. Plus those families aren't usually eating/shopping at the regular stores and such anyways. So that money never really makes it back into the economy.
CrisprCAS
The wealthy do not create value, they extract it from workers. People say socialism is theft, no that's capitalism.
Sticklebrickk
I have yet to meet anybody who is a millionaire who received SNAP benefits.
Comet260
And way, way too many of those same workers happily fellate the boot. That can't get lost in the discussion. They lick it because...
Comet260
...they think THEY will be wearing it some day. Bootilckers absolutely cannot be trusted.
couldyounot123
Good point, in the licking they demonstrate that they will also oppress and exploit if given the opportunity. Fuck em
Comet260
Class traitors.
pgdave
Both are thefts in the same, and different, ways. In both systems, the value the worker creates is put to use that the worker does not directly choose. In socialist systems, that value is often spent trying to make people's lives better. In capitalist systems, that value is spent trying to create more value. Both systems have benefits, and combining the two (like social democracy does) is generally better than one or the other.
MeestowKitty
The only truly correct system is the one dreamed of during the industrial revolution. All work being automated, so that man can spend his time doing art, reading, and enjoying life to the fullest. A fully automated society, something we're capable of, with the only people "working" being the type who actually find joy in that kind of activity, so that we don't need to become an AI bro tech-dystopia, would be the only truly just society since no one value would be extracted OR redistributed.
JustSomePersonThere
It’s not theft if the people doing the work control the output of said work. Under the better system, workers own the factories, and thus dictate what happens with the product.
pgdave
Unless there's somehow always 100% consensus, there's still people who would have their produced value doing something other than what they wanted.
JustSomePersonThere
You are correct. Are you saying that is the reason we should allow only the owner to have any say?
pgdave
No, I'm saying that in any system there is going to be that sort of "theft". The goal shouldn't be to eliminate the theft, the goal should be to ensure that the theft is used in a way that ultimately ends up helping society. Capitalists will argue that through private pursuit of profit the economy grows faster, which helps everybody (which seems true, to some extent) and socialists will argue that democratic use of profits those profits benefit everyone (which seems true, to some extent).