Capitalist or Labor?

[wihosa]

Are you a capitalist? Or, are you labor?

If you are a capitalist you make all your money from interest and or dividends.

If you produce goods or services for a fee, you are labor.

We have been fooled into thinking that labor only means those who wear a “blue collar”. There is no third category called management. Management is simply a division of labor. Sales is labor, design is labor, engineering is labor, etc. Even the costs of raw materials are only a reflection of the cost of the labor required to produce them.

True there are highly skilled divisions of labor like doctors, or lawyers, but they too are labor, they provide a service for a fee.

What is the point? The point is that all labor can be devalued. This is the aim of the capitalist. That is the only way more profits can be derived from a product without raising the price.

How can labor be devalued? By over abundance, hence the out-sourcing of jobs to countries with large unemployed populations and / or in the case of the US, importing that unemployed population. Think your job as an engineer is safe because of your education? Think again, plans can be sent electronically to India where engineers with the same level of education as you will do the work for a third of what you charge.

When one understands this fact it is easy to see that policies of the last thirty years have led to the decline in the middle class which is now clearly evident.

This is a prime reason that the capitalists are sitting on their huge piles of cash. The more unemployed workers there are the lower the cost of labor will go. There is also the added benefit (to the capitalist) that keeping the unemployment rate high weakens President Obama and the Democrats. If all goes right for the capitalists the Republican party which is wholly owned by the wealthy and the corporations will be back in power in November. Then they will begin hiring people again, at a lower wage of course, and the Republicans can claim it all because of their tax breaks for the rich.

We must have policies that support labor, We must not be fooled anymore by the RepubliCON agenda of tax give-a-ways to the wealthy. It is time to understand what Abraham Lincoln understood when he said "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

It is time to understand and vote your own interests.

 

[Douger]

Why ? If the repugnant***** get their tax breaks it'll give them more cashola to set up shop in Bangladesh and make cheaper flags for their constituents to fly above their trailers.

 

[wihosa]

Hmm, no predictable right wing rant about how I hate America?

Obviously, the right wingers have never understood what a capitalist is.

 

[loosecannon]

small business owners are capitalists.

Some of the poorest, hardest working people in America are capitalists. Like your paper boy, the guy I see bicycling around town with tools strapped on his bike doing lawn care. Like the street people collecting cans along side the highway.

Furthermore capitalism demands that you actually HAVE money with which to invest in the means of production. Not that you BORROW money for that purpose.

When the Federal reserve was founded it virtually guaranteed that almost all true capitalists would be bankers who were gifted with the privilege of creating money from thin air via fractional reserve banking to lend or invest as they choose.

But overall excellent rant. I agree.

 

[wihosa]

I am surprised tht post did not get more reaction.

I can only conclude that there is agreement on this post.

 

[Richard-H]

The division of the workers into Blue collar and White collar has duped the white collar workers into thinking that they had more in common with the owners than the blue collar workers.

I think that this is changing. Blue & White collar workers are getting alng better than ever, and most working class (extended) families are comprised of a mixture of both.

You're either an employee or an owner, that's all there is to it.

 

[shintao]

Hmm, no predictable right wing rant about how I hate America?

Obviously, the right wingers have never understood what a capitalist is.

Hmm, my post along the same lines was moved to the Romper room. Consider your prestige and seniority at USMB to be impeccable.

I find it interesting to see Lincoln faced with the same challenges we face today.

 

[shintao]

small business owners are capitalists.

Some of the poorest, hardest working people in America are capitalists. Like your paper boy, the guy I see bicycling around town with tools strapped on his bike doing lawn care. Like the street people collecting cans along side the highway.

Furthermore capitalism demands that you actually HAVE money with which to invest in the means of production. Not that you BORROW money for that purpose.

When the Federal reserve was founded it virtually guaranteed that almost all true capitalists would be bankers who were gifted with the privilege of creating money from thin air via fractional reserve banking to lend or invest as they choose.

But overall excellent rant. I agree.

Yes, you could lump the investors & stockholders in with capitalists. A teller is probably a labor.

 

[blu]

I was going to respond to the OP until the end when you turned it into a partisan hack rant

 

[Charles_Main]

If you produce goods or services for a fee, you are labor.

One problem. If you are labor, you would not have a nice good paying job to produce those goods and services in. With out some Capitalism to create wealth and pay the bills.

 

[blu]

If you produce goods or services for a fee, you are labor.

One problem. If you are labor, you would not have a nice good paying job to produce those goods and services in. With out some Capitalism to create wealth and pay the bills.

i was about to post this

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Why can't I be both? I own shares (Actually, now they have been transferred to my kids) and I work for a wage. The terms are not mutually exclusive. And in practice mutuality exclusive is very rare. Since most shares these days are owned by pension funds and the like, most capital is owned by labor.

 

[Charles_Main]

Not to mention the fact. That as Labor you can take the money you are paid for Producing, and invest it. thereby earning Interest and Dividends.

So actually in the US most workers are Both labor and Capitalist.

My work is done here.

 

[blu]

Not to mention the fact. That as Labor you can take the money you are paid for Producing, and invest it. thereby earning Interest and Dividends.

So actually in the US most workers are Both labor and Capitalist.

My work is done here.

indeed, unless you are born into money, you start off as a labor. if you die as labor then you either don't care about money or don't have the brains/skills to move on from it. moving from labor to capital is a great achievement for people to reach and requires much hard work.

 

[shintao]

Not to mention the fact. That as Labor you can take the money you are paid for Producing, and invest it. thereby earning Interest and Dividends.

So actually in the US most workers are Both labor and Capitalist.

My work is done here.

I don't see your point. Anybody can invest their profit from labor and reap a benefit or lose it. That would go for the whole planet, so your definition says there is no laborers, only capitalists or a third category, a capitalist labor.

 

[loosecannon]

Why can't I be both? I own shares (Actually, now they have been transferred to my kids) and I work for a wage. The terms are not mutually exclusive. And in practice mutuality exclusive is very rare. Since most shares these days are owned by pension funds and the like, most capital is owned by labor.

Many Americans are both thanks to 401K. And their pensions.

But that won't last. The math prohibits it.

 

[Charles_Main]

Not to mention the fact. That as Labor you can take the money you are paid for Producing, and invest it. thereby earning Interest and Dividends.

So actually in the US most workers are Both labor and Capitalist.

My work is done here.

I don't see your point. Anybody can invest their profit from labor and reap a benefit or lose it. That would go for the whole planet, so your definition says there is no laborers, only capitalists or a third category, a capitalist labor.

Call it what you want. My point was the original Poster seemed to by saying you are either one or the other. I was simply pointing out that most people are actually both.

 

[shintao]

Not to mention the fact. That as Labor you can take the money you are paid for Producing, and invest it. thereby earning Interest and Dividends.

So actually in the US most workers are Both labor and Capitalist.

My work is done here.

I don't see your point. Anybody can invest their profit from labor and reap a benefit or lose it. That would go for the whole planet, so your definition says there is no laborers, only capitalists or a third category, a capitalist labor.

Call it what you want. My point was the original Poster seemed to by saying you are either one or the other. I was simply pointing out that most people are actually both.

I think you are correct. If I buy a case of corn, I have invested in a corporation, and if the price of corn goes up while it sits in my storage I have netted a profit, by having savings made against future buys. (capital gains)

 

[loosecannon]

Not to mention the fact. That as Labor you can take the money you are paid for Producing, and invest it. thereby earning Interest and Dividends.

So actually in the US most workers are Both labor and Capitalist.

My work is done here.

I don't see your point. Anybody can invest their profit from labor and reap a benefit or lose it. That would go for the whole planet, so your definition says there is no laborers, only capitalists or a third category, a capitalist labor.

Call it what you want. My point was the original Poster seemed to by saying you are either one or the other. I was simply pointing out that most people are actually both.

Just between you and me be aware that this is unsustainable. Everybody can't be a capitalist, math prohibits it. Only a small % of the population can earn dividends on investments generated by actual labor.

The trick is that capitalists seek to create a surplus that they alone can sequester. Ordinarily this is done by paying labor less than it is worth while creating circumstances that maximize the potential value of labor.

It is a zero sum game. If there are winners in a zero sum game there must also be as many losers. Everybody can't be a successful capitalist.

The very nature of capitalism is to create a class that exploits and a class that is exploited.

 

[The Rabbi]

I don't see your point. Anybody can invest their profit from labor and reap a benefit or lose it. That would go for the whole planet, so your definition says there is no laborers, only capitalists or a third category, a capitalist labor.

Call it what you want. My point was the original Poster seemed to by saying you are either one or the other. I was simply pointing out that most people are actually both.

I think you are correct. If I buy a case of corn, I have invested in a corporation, and if the price of corn goes up while it sits in my storage I have netted a profit, by having savings made against future buys. (capital gains)

Wow.
WHat corporation have you invested in by buying a commodity??