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Old 04-1-2020, 12:16 AM   #24
ledwix
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Default Re: Speech, Power, and Responsibility

Quote:
Originally Posted by Not devonin View Post
Actually yes, he went around thoroughly exploiting the labour of people who generate him billions of dollars and receive such little compensation that they're also on food stamps, or live in their cars, or aren't allowed to go to the bathroom on shift and have to piss in jars.

You can't earn a billion dollars, let alone a trillion dollars. You can only exploit the labour of other people and take their value for yourself.
Who's to say you can't? What if I said you can't earn a million?

Exploitation implies their labor is being used unfairly, which invokes the question of: relative to what?

If they're being used unfairly for labor, then they should stop being used unfairly for labor and get a relatively better occupation where they do not feel so exploited.

And if such an occupation isn't available, then they can (a) work on their skills until it does become available so that they can change career paths, (b) negotiate with their bosses or otherwise increase their productivity so that a raise or promotion results, (c) leave the company and take a similar job with better pay/benefits at another company, or (d) accept that they are not willing to better themselves, negotiate, or leave and look for a new job, and thus accept that the situation they are in is already as fair as possible.

Since it is possible to perform one of those options at any time, there is really no excuse but to say that a voluntary contract of employment (at will, etc.) is an admission that such an arrangement is the best possible way that a person has chosen to currently utilize their labor in exchange for money.

Who is to decide what is or isn't a fair net worth? It is arbitrary to place a cut-off point, and price controls tend to create shortages. So if you're willing to accept a less productive world in which there are shortages, lack of innovation, and a lower average quality of life for everybody, then I suppose it is a good idea to place limits. But in a world of exponential fractals, it's hard to say that any particular individual shall be barred of their property rights at some arbitrary cut-off, through the use of force and threat of violence directed collectively at those whose monetary worth we are jealous of.

Sometimes, expansionist government policies create the very shortages and food stamp dependencies we are trying to stamp out.

Last edited by ledwix; 04-1-2020 at 12:18 AM..
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