It is not needed, nor fitting here [in discussing the Civil War] that a general argument should be made in favor of popular institutions; but there is one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effect to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy them, and drive them to it without their consent. Having proceeded thus far, it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. And further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is fixed in that condition for life.
Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are groundless.
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.
- Abraham Lincoln
It’s a good thing Lincoln didn’t live today. With talk like that he would have been labeled a communist or enemy of the elite, and there probably would have been some conspiracy plot to kill him… oh wait.
It’s a good thing Jesus didn’t live today. With talk like that he would have been labeled a communist or enemy of the elite, and there probably would have been some conspiracy plot to kill him… oh wait.
Yeah, if someone like Lincoln got elected, conservatives would start a civil war…
If your only job is to own things, you are a parasite, not a creator.
I’m doin the drywall down at the new McDonald’s
Two chicks at the same time
Chicks dig dudes with money
Well not all chicks…
Cool quote from Lincoln, never read it before. Imma see if I can get AI to paraphrase it for easier digestion…
Here, let me give it a shot:
Work has existed far longer than profit. Profit is reliant on, and could not exist, without work. Work is far more important than profit, and should always be prioritized.
Not really prioritized but more valuable from what I understand.
And it’s not exactly “work” so much as it is “Labor” in the sense of “the people who do the work.”
Office Space is a hoot
And yet, without capital the company wouldn’t exist.
The useful parts of it would. People made and distributed things as well as providing services before capitalism and would continue to do so after the abolition of it.
what do you mean? do you think in an economy without capital that people would never undertake to do things?
What problem does capital solve? only that without capital people undertaking to do new things would starve in the initial phases. So what if, should a community be convinced that something is a good idea, the people involved in the attempt were just provided for?
Capital generated by… labor
Barn-raisings happen.
