• irmoz@reddthat.com
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    11 months ago

    Just because you don't agree doesn't make it any less true. How do you refute it? It's a basic mathematical truth. It's literally impossible for a capitalist to pay you the value you brought them, without them going broke.

    • huge_clock@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      It’s not that i don’t agree ona subjective level, it’s that surplus value’s axioms don’t hold true, which makes it bad at explaining economic phenomenon and even worse at making predictions. If a commodity’s value was derived from how much labour went into it, then commodities that had more imbued labour would be inherently more expensive, but this is not the case in reality. Commodities that are easily produced with very little labour per unit (for example a hand-woven basket) can sell for a very low price, whereas a commodity that doesn’t have much labour per unit at all (for example an app downloaded from an online store) can have a high price.

      Similarly surplus value assumes that the difference in price between the exchange value of a commodity and the labour value of its inputs are due to exploitation, but this ignores other factors of production such as land and capital. Surplus value fails to account for the very common phenomenon of capitalists starting some venture, paying employees a salary but running into some issue or another, watching the value of their stock fall to zero and declaring bankruptcy. In such cases how could you claim there was any surplus value at all?

      • irmoz@reddthat.com
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        11 months ago

        So, surplus value doesn't exist, simply because some capitalists can… fail to extract it?

        Listen buddy, a few people being bad at their job doesn't mean the job doesn't exist.

        I don't think you know what surplus value is. It's the portion of the value that you make for the business that doesn't go to you, but to the owner.

        Do you also notice that I said "without going broke" and your example includes going broke?