Feel like this could be a good activity. I knew a lot of basic stuff but I am not kidding I literally forgot. I read the entry level stuff too but I don’t remember anything. I don’t have energy or time these days.
So I have some basic questions.
How does profit happen? Is it mainly from stealing from workers?
Why are landlords bad? Because they charge for a basic human right? Humans charge for food and water and heat too. Does that makes us all bad?
Why do prices always seem to rise? I asked about inflation earlier but didn’t get much.
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Profit is stealing from workers as well as not paying for anything a capitalist calls “externalities” like pollution, workers health, education, etc. Sometimes we call profit surplus value, as something is sold for a higher price than it’s worth based on the inputs.
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Landlords and rentiers in general are bad because they demand a huge amount of money in exchange for no work. They think that just because they “own” something they can take a large portion of someone’s hard earned income for the temporary privilege of using that space or item. The concept of private property ownership in itself is rooted in theft.
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Charging for food and water in itself is ok as the people producing and transporting them did do valuable work and need to get paid to live and maintain their equipment. What isn’t ok is price gouging and preventing access to food and water based on the ability to pay. What isn’t ok is making profit off anything, in particular basic human needs. Those who can’t afford the price of food either need to be given food or the price is too high.
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Inflation is essentially greed. Over time the rate of profit decreases, but the purpose of capital and a capitalist is to increase the rate of profit. That’s why prices rise while wages don’t, and that’s also why other worker benefits are chipped away by capitalists until organized labour force them to give back a few of those things.
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