This is the morality of the Slave State, applied in circumstances totally unlike those in which it arose. No wonder the result has been disastrous. Let us take an illustration. Suppose that at a given moment a certain number of people are engaged in the manufacture of pins. They make as many pins as the world needs, working (say) eight hours a day. Someone makes an invention by which the same number of men can make twice as many pins as before. But the world does not need twice as many pins: pins are already so cheap that hardly any more will be bought at a lower price. In a sensible world everybody concerned in the manufacture of pins would take to working four hours instead of eight, and everything else would go on as before. But in the actual world this would be thought demoralizing. The men still work eight hours, there are too many pins, some employers go bankrupt, and half the men previously concerned in making pins are thrown out of work. There is, in the end, just as much leisure as on the other plan, but half the men are totally idle while half are still overworked. In this way it is insured that the unavoidable leisure shall cause misery all round instead of being a universal source of happiness. Can anything more insane be imagined?

  • @socsa@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    Yeah, while I am sympathetic to the point, this thought experiment is easily observable to not be anywhere close to how the world actually functions.

    But yes, Capitalism is functionally a manifestation of various forms of material and labor scarcity. It is trivial to demonstrate that markets break down at both scarcity extremes.

    • @putoelquelolea@lemmy.ml
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      011 months ago

      Yeah, that adds some spice to the discussion! How does the scarcity of pins and labor fit into the scenario? And how does the perspective change as we enter a post-scarcity world?